Kahn, Benjamin

Spielmaker, Amy

English

Western Oregon University: Digital Commons@WOU

Western Oregon University Digital Commons@WOU Academic Excellence Showcase Proceedings Student Scholarship 2018-06-01 Moodle User Guides Benjamin Kahn Western Oregon University, bkahn16@mail.wou.edu Amy Spielmaker Western Oregon University, aspielmaker17@mail.wou.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/aes  Part of the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Recommended Citation Kahn, Benjamin and Spielmaker, Amy, "Moodle User Guides" (2018). Academic Excellence Showcase Proceedings. 117. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/aes/117 This Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Digital Commons@WOU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Academic Excellence Showcase Proceedings by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@WOU. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@wou.edu, kundas@mail.wou.edu, bakersc@mail.wou.edu. Moodle User GuidesAmy SpielmakerBen KahnWOU Academic Excellence Showcase 2018Project OriginsDr. Zobel’s CSE-617 Open Source Tools courseOpen-ended large OS projectWork to be done with/about OS tools30-40 hours of work timeSo...I think about Moodle a lot.What Could I Contribute?Photo via Public DomainGood Free PhotosMeeting a needDocumentation from Moodle HQ is thorough, but:● Technical & dense● General (does not account for unique site settings)● Covers many versions of Moodle● Mixed-audience (sys admins to teachers)Meeting a needDocumentation at home institution has some problems● Enterprise ITSM system; locked in $$$● Hard to find or share articles; behind a login● Difficult to maintain (bad editing tools)● Potential accessibility issuesMeeting a needDocumentation is  great for “just in time” support, but...There is a need to provide professional development around the use of digital technology in teaching - the “why” in addition to the “how”Training vs. Professional Development“I view training as the how — a user manual on devices, software, apps or websites. Click here to do “x,” share a doc by doing “y,” etc. Training is necessary because teachers must know what the tools are, what they’re capable of doing and how to operate them”.“On the other hand, professional development is all about the why. It’s focused on building the teacher’s capacity to shift away from traditional didactic teaching strategies to methods that fully engage students in the learning process. It concentrates on the importance of sound pedagogical practices and how to leverage technology to provide learning opportunities that don’t otherwise exist.”“Teachers want training because it makes them feel more comfortable with how to use the technology. But they desperately need professional development in order to understand why to use it. Understandably, it’s difficult to think about altering your teaching if you’re not comfortable operating the tech.”Eric Patnoudeshttps://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2015/03/what-should-come-first-training-or-professional-developmentWhat ifWe created a resource that is:● Aimed at a specific audience (instructors)● Simplified as much as possible for non-technical users● Could be repackaged and reused to match any version of Moodle● Supplemented and connected technical training (the “how”) with pedagogical professional development (“the why”)What ifWe collaborated:● Accomplished a bigger project than could be undertaken individually● Leveraged a wider variety of complementary skillsets and Open Source technologiesDelivery & Design● Open to a broad audience● Content management features● Good support and user documentationWhy a Website (and why a WordPress website)“Moodle help faster than you can drink a cup of coffee.”http://moodleuserguides.org/guides/use-an-offline-grading-worksheet/Design ChoicesSplitting out “extra” informationDividing the steps into partsAdding contrastOS tools usedFinal Project Content● Over 40 guides articles● 12 streaming video tutorials● 5 blog posts that provide pedagogical context for specific features and functions in Moodle● 1 listicle● All of the content is licensed under a Creative Commons license. Schools (or whoever) are free to use the guides however they want as long they attribute us.What was learned?Next stepsThank you!

Moodle User Guides

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Moodle User Guides

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