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To be? (A Moodle course) or not to be? (A Moodle course) That is…

…a design question discussed at the March 5th FLN meeting which continually comes up from teachers in Moodle training.

“What format should my Moodle course be?”

The answer is it depends, what teaching need do you want to use your Moodle course for?

For flexibility Moodle courses should not be locked into any particular format so the SWSI ITEL sat down and examined the pros and cons of the formats we advocate to teachers namely:

• One Moodle Course = Individual UOC
• Moodle Course = Whole TAFE Course i.e.. contains all UOC’s in one place (Cert 1, 2, 3, 4 AQF etc)
• One Moodle Course = Focused Content (i.e Class)
  
• Moodle Course = Network Hub, an Emergent (Dominant?) trend.

At the moment we sit in two camps working within the limitations of Moodle 1.9.7 and the promises of new Moodle 2.0 functionality to fix all those bug-bears, the pro and cons .ppt covers these variables and some design solutions.

View: Moodle Course Format Pro and Cons .ppt (This is a Collaborative Powerpoint, contributions welcome).

Long story short SWSI has different approaches to strike a balance between flexibility and maintenance of learning design and quality control in Moodle 1.9.7 administration, I’ve added these to the FLN wiki for feedback, input is welcome.

View: Moodle 1.9.7 master course administration and learning design cycle wiki page.

Master Learners, Learning Centered Design and Master Courses

Will Richardson posts on the teacher as a master learner, inspired by some observations from George Siemen’s post ‘Teaching in Social and Technological Networks’.
This snippet gives an idea of what Will means by the teacher as a ‘Master Learner’:

“George goes on to suggest a totally different way of thinking about “teaching” one where instead of controlling a classroom, a teacher now influences or shapes a network.” And he discusses seven different roles that teachers will play, all of which are worth the read…we don’t teach subjects, we teach kids. And I’ll add to that: we teach kids to learn. We can’t teach kids to learn unless we are learners ourselves, and our understanding of learning has to encompass the rich, passion-based interactions that take place in these social learning spaces online. Sure, I expect my daughter’s science teacher to have some content expertise around science, no doubt. But more, I expect him to be able to show her how to learn more about science on her own, without him, to give her the mindset and the skills to create new science, not just know old science.“

The following are codified behaviours George advocates a teacher can adopt in the context of networked learning environments:

1. Amplifying
2. Curating
3. Wayfinding and socially-driven sensemaking
4. Aggregating
5. Filtering
6. Modelling
7. Persistent presence

Read George’s teaching paper and Will’s ‘Master Learner’ post for an explanation of what they mean.

I’m going to try and model their ideas in Moodle 2.0, it makes sense to me, and as a teacher I’m asking myself how do l become a master learner? The answer for me is to model a learning design for myself based on my learning need.

At the moment I have a NEED TO LEARN how to grow food so I’ve therefore found an opportunity to participate in some hands on workshops organised by Sydney Carriageworks, Kitchen Garden Project, there I will learn about.

• Composting
• Planter boxes
• No dig gardens
• Seed saving
• Planting
• Harvesting

By participating in the Kitchen Garden project I am expected to share the application of my newfound skills and knowledge with a wider network (i.e. using Moodle 2.0, wikibooks, youtube, flickr networks etc.) I’ll use the opportunity to try and model the George Siemen’s approach, with a learning design  based on the practical Kitchen Garden tasks.

From this I will document and share my resources and networks, found, adapted, linked, embedded or created by me in Moodle 2.0. The learning design, resources and networks together will make up a narrative of coherence‘  or ‘master course’.

(Note: It’s good to model this approach outside the context of an education organisation in that for me the point is to demonstrate a move towards self directed learning in a LOCAL AND INDEPENDENT/ REAL LIFE CONTEXT (with RPL opportunities for VocEd sector).

This diagram from http://wikieducator.org/File:KtOER-Cycle-Find.png  sums up a good workflow for developing a master course:

“A master course is a complete Moodle course consisting of well designed learner centered activities and resources. A master course is typically developed by a team of teachers (with experience in learning design) and made available in a community repository.

A master course can be cloned from the repository and locally adapted to improve upon the learning design. There are regular reviews of local changes and where appropriate new learning design elements are incorporated into the master course as part of continuous improvement process.” Steven Parker 2010

 Plannning & documenting the learning design approach is an important part of this master learner process and I’ll utilise some fine, easy to understand templates developed by Vicki Marchant as part of her research into learner centred design. In these templates Vicki focuses on thinking and documenting 5 elements in relation to course design.

• Task Design (Learning Activity, Sequence)
• Tutoring (Feedback, Discussion)
• Teamwork (Collaboration)
• Topics & Tools (Content/Resources/Tech)
• Reflection (Review, explanation)

As part of my SWSI work training teachers in innovation and technology enhanced learning I advocate teachers document and share their learning designs as part of the course they deliver to students. Students can then explore and understand as to why? they are asked to do the learning tasks/ activities.  Students may also see the value in developing their own learning design approach as part of their trade/business/ studies?

As said the platform I’m going with for my ‘growing food’ master course is Moodle 2.0 for its new network friendly features AND direction towards the community hub/ repository functionality. Also refer: http://tinyurl.com/repositoryexample .

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Community_hub

As somebody who works day to day with learning platforms, learning design and networked technology I already have the prerequisite skills and knowledge to understand where George Siemens’ is coming from, when teachers new to networking technologies clone my Moodle course they will have exposure to a variety of the networks which they can explore and connect to if they wish.

• Design a master course for myself on growing food (based on Kitchen Garden tasks) and publish to Moodle + Wikibooks.
• Explain my learning design.
• Share my master course.
• Open up lines of communication for feedback from others.
• Let others clone a master copy of my course to build upon & adapt for their own learning needs.
• Participate/ give feedback…learn more about growing food.

It’s a draft for me but feedback is welcome.
 Related: Watch this recent presentation from Leigh Blackall for practical examples of the principles discussed -  http://webconf.det.nsw.edu.au/p13103637/

“Leigh Blackall developed open education at Otago Polytechnic New Zealand over a period stretching 2007/2009. The Polytechnic signed progressive IP and copyright policies, and encouraged staff to use popular internet and social media to aid teaching and learning. Leigh is completing research measuring returns on this investment, and will describe the process and initial findings.”

Yammer closed micro-blogging vs open micro-blogging (i.e. Twitter)

I have just had a play with http://yammer.com, marketed as the twitter for corporate organisations. What this means is anybody who has the @det.nsw.edu.au email (i.e. Everyone at TAFE) can easily log in and be a part of a DET microblogging network, no wrestling with set up .

What I liked about Yammer :

• Enables easy access to a http://yammer.com using existing DET email
• Provides networked communication between many as apposed to 1 to 1 communication (i.e Office Communicator)
• Not blocked (Touch wood) via DET network
• Enable file attachments
• Enables threaded discussions around posts which can be hidden or expanded.
• Enables creation of groups (i.e I created a DET group for the MUG Moodle User Group).
• Yammer provides a desktop client for real time updates on DET network posts and targeted publishing to Yammer groups (built with Adobe Air), it’s really user friendly.
• Yammer provides an Outlook integration app for updates and publishing  to network (Not as user friendly as Desktop app).

What I dislike about Yammer:

• It’s a ‘Free’ CLOSED Environment, if you don’t have a @det.nsw.edu.au email you can’t join the network.
• To manage the DET account more granually i.e to add guest accounts for users without DET email, change administration settings etc. it costs….$3 dollars per person per month! (They have to make their money I guess).
• Posting directly to groups does not seem to be possible without downloading the Yammer Desktop Client.

Conclusion “Have your cake and eat it” - Publish to open and closed networks

Yammer as a closed Environment is both good and bad. Yammer is good for DET employees who want to talk shop on DET stuff in a closed environment and bad for those who recognise the benefits of being visible in open networks such as http://twitter.com but like everything it’s your individual choice what you want to do. Fortunately there are many tools which make publishing to your favorite open, closed space (Including Yammer) a sinch.

I like http://www.shareaholic.com/ with the plugin you can post to the network of your choice (Open or closed) via your browser of choice (IE or Firefox), you choose.

Have your cake and eat it

The benefits of a TAFE NSW openwiki and creative commons licencing

Link - Benefits of an open mediawiki and open content licencing for TAFE NSW  , presented at the last FLN meeting.

Covers some of the http://openwiki.illawarra.tafensw.edu.au design solutions that came out of discussions with teachers and elearning technologists on the benefits of an open mediawiki, namely:

• Cecile Bower’s proof of concept for resource creation - “Briki project“
• How to utlise Wikipedia Books tool for quickly pulling together rich underpinning content with  creative commons licence in a nice PDF book format.
• Exporting and importing wikimedia content and recontextualising in openwiki to TAFE speak.
• Teacher Training in the use of Mediawiki to enable participation and contribution to TAFE openwiki and hopefully other open wikimedia projects.
• Integrating federated search across open content repositories and enabling creative commons licencing for records in Equella resource repository, available on the open internet.
• Supporting a culture of  cross institute collaboration in both open and closed mediawiki spaces.
• Use of wikimedia templates and interwiki linking for cross referencing openwiki pages as a sister project of open wikimedia content.
• Cross Institute aggregation of  ‘How To ‘ use eLearning  technolgy info.
• Linking the openwiki to http://wiki.tafensw.edu.au

I think there needs to be more discussion on cross Institute work flows in the mediawiki, it’s early days with implementing outcomes and objectives but I think the proof of concept has good potential with support from other flexible learning teams. Ideas and suggestions are welcome in particular other open mediawiki projects and links to training resources, screencasts for utilising the mediawiki platform.

Transitioning between IP to free up content

Video: Transitioning between IP to free up content

The video demonstrates how to embed content from the Learning Reference Repository (LRR) into the resource mediawiki. The LRR requires a DET username and password and the resources contained within are under a variety of IP conditions. CLI is working on LRR functionality whereby authenticated users will be automatically able to view the LRR resources stored on the CLI server within resource mediawiki pages. There is ALOT of really good existing stuff with new resources streaming in everyday. The authentication to view frees up the LRR content to be used within the resource mediawiki within the IP constraints. It would be really good if Institutes could work together to get the best stuff embedded and categorised within the resource mediawiki pages esp toolboxes. David Gilchrist has recommended re-categorising content under Industry Qualifications which I think is a good idea.

Calling all open mediawiki champions! A tabula rasa site has been set up at http://openwiki.illawarra.det.win with a view to developing an open resource Mediawiki proof of concept model.  Put your visions into a blog post. The design aim is to come up with a solution whereby an open Mediawiki sister site can be accomodated with an DET authenticated resource Mediawiki.  Make it work!!!!!

Rethinking the LMS administration with the Moodle Sharing Cart and Community Hub

Video: Rethinking the LMS administration with the Moodle Sharing Cart and Community Hub

I really like the direction that Moodle is developing with the new Sharing Cart block and emergent Moodle Community Hub functionality.

Consider a teacher reviewing a variety of existing Moodle courses from their colleagues and browsing the content to find the good stuff.

The Sharing Cart block enables them to copy the most useful Resources and Activities to their Sharing Cart block and drop into their own Moodle course with a couple of clicks, so easy to use.

The only thing missing is the Sharing Cart doesn’t enable the copying of a complete topic in one hit; this would be really useful in significantly freeing up Moodle administrators in supporting teachers in backing up and restoring course content (Hopefully this will become available in the future development of this great new feature).

And there’s more…with the Sharing Cart, Moodle can be connected with a Moodle Community Hub. A Moodle Community Hub is a more sophisticated repository system which enables multiple Moodle installs to network and share content, the Hub has some nice bells and whistles like user rating, most popular downloads, points systems for user who upload Moodle artefacts and more… a Community Hub example has been set up at http://ept3.sgu.ac.jp

With the Sharing Cart Block and Community Hub I really like that individual resources and activities are freed up to be used between teachers no longer locked up and inflexible within a Moodle course and reliant on backup and restore. After reviewing the new features I’ve had a complete rethink on Moodle Administration with the view to creating a new administration system with Master courses for qualification stored in a Community Hub these can continually maintained and updated by a community of teachers with the best bits and pieces from their own courses using the Sharing Cart Block hmmm that would mean less grunt work for the Administrator…these new Moodle features are great!

The benefits of a closed Mediawiki for Collaboration

Mediawiki is designed for open viewing of content but it is possible to turn on a username and password requirement before users can view content. Check out Illawarra Institute resource mediawiki with DET authentication at http://wiki.illawarra.tafensw.edu.au , it works quite nicely.

All Resource Mediawiki content is now behind a DET username and password. Moodle will also be integrated with the DET Single Sign On (SSO), i.e. students and staff will log into one system to access both Moodle and Mediawiki. To top the VLE off I’d also like to see a file repository that seamlessly integrates through SSO with Moodle and Mediawiki now that would be nice!

Mediawiki has worked well for teachers and staff in developing their resources (after a bit of training in the basics). Click here for an example course (Diploma of Children’s Services) developed with Jennifer Hopkins and based on this model.

The open Mediawiki has had good traffic for marketing courses from outside TAFE (6000 + views of front page) and some positive feedback on the content model but I don’t think the cross Institute collaboration aims have been realised as envisioned.

In a way the openness of the Mediawiki resources has been a big barrier to uptake and collaboration between Institutes. Culturally the people who have put in the hard yards and contributed to the Illawarra Institute Mediawiki Resources want their great work visible to TAFE students and teachers just not on the open internet and that’s understandable, from experience this is the common viewpoint especially with management who are concerned about commercial interests.

Initially the idea for making the resources available on the open internet was based on removing barriers which seemed quite radical a few years back. Power-law distribution and openess asserts that 80 percent of productivity and collaboration within an organisation will be done by 20 percent of employees, the open Illawarra Institute Mediawiki was meant to make existing resources highly visible in one location and remove access barriers for the 20 percent of productive teachers from other Institutes to collaborate. (At least that was the plan :-)).

I’ve been asked several times why is a Resource Mediawiki needed when Wikispaces is available, so much more user friendly and feature rich? Mediawiki’s strength is that it’s designed for openness and mass collaboration between many users. Wikispaces is working well but is generally used for smaller classes and groups, many Wikispaces are private with locked up content so there are issues with visibility and limited opportunities for members only collaboration.

Working in an open internet environment is my personal preference and I’ll continue to do so for the benefits of networking but my conclusion is a closed TAFE NSW Mediawiki bridging solution is needed that affords opportunity for mass collaboration between those “20 percent” Teachers who do not want to be publishing to the open internet. A resource Mediawiki in one location is well worth investing in; resources can be used across multiple delivery platforms for example linking to Sakai as well as Moodle resolving the issues of catering for multiple delivery platforms.

Success will come down to strategic support and coordination from Management for projects where the commercial interests between Institutes are best served through collaboration, for example sponsoring the existing Flexible Learning Toolboxes and new LRR ‘How to’ use technology learning objects to be linked and categorised in the Mediawiki.

As discussed at the last Moodle User Group meeting there has also been some trial work in consultation with TELS on setting up a Moodle Community Hub for collaborating and sharing courseware in anticipation of new Moodle 2.0 functionality. I recommend Checking out David Gilchrist and Diane Van Berlo’s New England ‘Moodle for Beginners resources’.

The Illawarra Institute is just starting some “trial balloon” case study projects with CLI, North Coast and New England on cross Institute collaboration work. The plan is to create some exemplars in utilising the resource Mediawiki and Community Moodle Hub:

• Alexander Miller of North Coast Institute has contributed the QuickE Moodle resources to add to the ‘Moodle for Teachers’ Mediwiki Category
• Rory OBrien is contributing the CLI Social Learning and some of TAA Diploma eLearning Units and LRR ‘How To’ technology guides to the Moodle Hub and Mediawiki.
• David Gilchrist and Diane Van Berlo have contributed a new LAW Learning Activity Wizard course.
• I’m looking at the integration of Flexible Learning Toolboxes into Moodle and Mediawiki other resources may be included over the coming weeks.

A conversation on Alfresco Repository, Mahara, Mediawiki

Recording

Vicki and myself caught up with David Gilchrist, Dianne Van Berlo and Don Tainsh of New England Institute in Adobe Connect this morning to have a look at Alfresco -  The Open Source Repository to which Dianne’s feedback on it’s features were along the lines:

Gosh this makes me excited for a Monday morning!

Yes Alfresco is well worth a look and integrates with Moodle 2.0 out of the box. I easily installed the application on my computer to show during the meeting, check out the recording you’ll have to fast forward to 17 min to see the demo though.  Some things shown and discussed where: 

• Alfresco’s easy to use clean interface
• Smart Spaces with Alfresco Share
• Auditable Content,  Simple Check-In/Out and Version Control
• Easy Workflow Management
• Categories including tagging
• Permalinks to files
• File format conversion to Flash  format (.swf) of uploaded media files to solve bandwidth limitations
• Easy File management (like Windows explorer) to upload files
• Tight integration with Moodle, Sharepoint and Microsoft Office.
• Ability to manage public private digital rights and licensing for different types of content.      
• Federated search capabilities, ability to search simply across multiple
• Alfresco repositories and external wikis (Including Mediawiki), blogs and news feeds

Based on initial feedback I think it would be interesting to get teachers to trial the product as part of the Virtual Learning Environment project.

Illawarra Institute - 2009 Capability Development Focus, Tell Everyone

2009 has begun with a flurry of activity…

Virtual Learning Environment is up and operational. We have courses up for 2009 in Moodle and Mediawiki as well as  lots of wikis. Check out our Clicks Newsletter Article …

The wordpress Blog is also popular, with the following Blogs initiated:

. Institute Student Envoy Project

. Institute Library Newsletter

. Faculty Blogs

. Flexible Learning @ Illawarra Program website, using wordpress

The integration of Moodle and LRR project is progressing and the business requirements have now been finalised after discussions with CLI.

We are also adapting NCIs Moodle course framework template and using the minted course module to ensure consistency and provision in each unit framework of resources for student induction, etc .

Our big focus for 2009 will be Capability Development and our activities include:

. Facilitate eLearning Programs Term 1 and 2 (collaborating with Hunter Institute in Term 1)

. Technology Camps for the breaks - successful January camp saw 33 staff attend

. Teach with Technology resources in mediawiki (How To…), with pedagogy focus in Learnspace wiki

. Integration of ‘Walk the Talk’ resources (SPC Project) into Moodle to support capability development in eLearning skillsets - eLearning Resources, Facilitation, Technologies, Innovation…

. Capability development for implementation of VLE (Moodle, Mediawiki, LRR)

. Leadership, VETrepreneur Project, Faculty Delivery Teams Projects

Strategic Projects:

Flexible Learning @ Illawarra Program (FLI@P Project)- Institute-wide Course Delivery Teams to support flexible learning - four pilot courses in 2009. Teams developing resources using VLE in various ways, eg content in mediawiki with Moodle unit frameworks and meta-course or meta-group for personalisation.

Infrastructure Projects - wireless standards and trials to align with DER and accessibility for personal wireless devices in collaboration with SWSI. Mobile wireless LANs for workplace delivery. (Commonwealth infrastructure funding submission)

Wound Online - update of online resources (collaboration with NCI and NSI)

Innovation Projects - AFLF submission process underway; Submission Writing Workshop