Moodle resources

What is Moodle?

Moodle is a software package called a Learning Management System (LMS), while Microsoft Word is a word processor. Just as there are rival word processors to Word, so there are other LMS on the market. But like Word, Moodle is becoming the dominant player in its field. One reason for Moodle's dominance is that the Moodle software is free, whereas its competition is relatively expensive.

Like Word, Moodle can be described as 'powerful' -- which means you need a powerful brain to operate it! There are a large number of sites on the web explaining how to do all sorts of clever things in Moodle, equivalent to the shelf-load of books about Microsoft Word. But in the same way that it does not take long to learn how to do simple things in Word -- like typing and printing a letter -- so it is easy to learn a few basic processes in Moodle.

What Moodle can do

Moodle lets you upload resources for students to access over an intranet or internet. These resources might be a notice (the test is on Friday 24), electronic copies of handouts given in class, PowerPoints used in class, interactive activities such as those on the CDs for our books, or links to useful animations, movies and websites. More advanced Moodle users write their own interactive tasks, create Lessons, set up Forums or Chat rooms and have students write Wikis.

Moodle provides teachers with a wealth of feedback about student activity on the site. You can see which students downloaded the files or did the activities. Both the teacher, and the individual student, can see the scores for every computer task done. More advanced users may include survey questions about each topic, modifying their courses in response to student feedback.

Moodle can easily solve a number of perennial problems for the classroom teacher.

• The missed or lost handout
  There's just about always one or two students missing when handouts are given out – and three or four others who lose the sheet before it gets stuck into their book. If teachers upload electronic copies of their handouts onto Moodle, then students can download and print those missed or lost handouts themselves — and because Moodle keeps track of all student activity on the site, the teacher can see whether the student has downloaded the file or not.

• Setting work for students who have planned absences
  When students come to you asking for 3 weeks work to be set for them while they travel overseas, or go on some sports trip, you can simply direct them to the Moodle site. This is most effective if you are uploading handouts, and also uploading PowerPoints and other teaching resources (animations, web links etc).

• Knowing who has done the homework and how they got on — without spending all your time marking!
  Moodle keeps track of every student's activity on the site, and records all their scores on SCORM-capable tasks such as the Hot Potatoes activities on our CDs. Thus, if you set electronic tasks off Moodle for homework, you will know exactly which students attempted them and how they got on. Students can also keep track of their own progress, and because they know that you know, they're more likely to do the work.

• Providing extension material or homework tasks for a few students, when most are not interested
  Perhaps the majority of students in your class refuse to do homework. You won't want to waste precious class time in going over work only a few students have done, but you don't want to deny learning opportunites to those who are willing to work outside class time. With Moodle, those willing to do homework can access the electronic files and get instant feedback — while knowing that you will know of their work. You can also upload extension material or extra exercises for those students, and engage in online dialogue with them.

Getting Moodle

Moodle is a free download. If you know how to unzip a file and how to navigate the file structure of your own computer, then you can install Moodle on it and explore some of its features. (I've placed instructions for how to do this on this site: www.moodle-nz.wetpaint.com.)

Having Moodle on your personal computer can help you to understand how to work it, but the whole point of Moodle is that the files created are placed on the web for your students to access from home (or at the very least, over a school intranet). Unfortunately, even though Moodle is accessed through the web and using a web browser, you can't just shove the Moodle files on your school website, because the Moodle software also has to be installed on the server containing those files. Installing Moodle on a secure school server is something many IT specialists in schools are unwilling to tackle — especially when you have no direct evidence that Moodle is something your staff and students would actually use. Fortunately, it is possible for you to set up your own Moodle server, independent of the IT department and with no security issues for the school.

Go to FreeParking.co.nz and purchase your own Domain name (eg myownmoodle.net.nz). Cost $44 per year for the site, and $36 per year for FreeParking to manage it for you. Then go to Fired.Up.co.nz and purchase 5Gb of web space on their on-line server for $10 per month. Finally, follow the instructions I've placed on moodle-nz.wetpaint.com to install Moodle on the Fired.Up server. It will help you to understand the installation process if you've already installed Moodle on your personal computer. The process isn't very complicated, but probably too intimidating for someone not fairly comfortable with computers. If that isn't you, ask the person you go to for computing advice. They should be able to work through the steps in 30 minutes or so.

Pain-free Moodle

If you want to experiment with Moodle without going through the hassle of buying a domain name and your own on-line server, I will sell you a small amount of space on my Fired.Up account, and install Moodle on it for you. If necessary I can even set up a Course for you and enroll your students. If you have purchased our Workbooks, or a $3 per student site license for the electronic activities from our CDs from Pearsons, I can also supply you with a zipped Course already loaded with those activities. You can then 'salt' the Course with as few, or as many of your own resources as you like (up to about 100 MB), knowing that there are sufficient resources there already to encourage your students to visit the site regularly. If your school sets up its own server at a later date, it is a simple matter to back up each Course, with all its resources and user data, and restore it to the new server.

Contact Anne for information about Pain-free Moodle.

Resources for users of Moodle

Computer revision tasks

The computer revision tasks off our CDs can be uploaded directly into Moodle, however your students may be confused by the navigation bars at the top and bottom of each task, particularly if you only upload a selection of tasks rather than the full set. Contact Anne for a navigation-bar-free set of computer revision tasks for any of our books for a one-off payment of $20 per set.

Most of the revision tasks were created using the Hot Potatoes software package, which has Moodle reporting built in. Upload them using the Add an activity... Hot Potatoes Quiz command. The activities that use Flash (such as Wordsearch, Memory, Flip cards, the ones in which a diagram is labelled and the Hangman tasks) were not created using Hot Potatoes. They should be uploaded using the Add a resource...Link to a file or web site command. These activities do not report to Moodle at this stage.

Moodle Courses

We have created Moodle Courses for Science 9 Workbook and Science 10 Workbook, containing all the resources from the CDs. Schools can purchase the Zip file for a Course ($60 from Anne), then Restore this Course to their own Moodle site and modify it to suit their needs. One version of each Course contains objectives, electronic tasks and references to the activities in the printed Workbook, while the other version contains the objectives, electronic tasks and Workbook theory and practical activities as pdf files. The former courses are suitable for schools who have purchased the Workbooks and want to get more out of them by linking them to a Moodle Course, or for schools who want students to have access to the electronic tasks but have not purchased the Workbook. (Those schools will need to purchase a site license from Pearsons for use of the electronic tasks.) Schools purchasing the latter courses will have chosen not to purchase the printed Workbooks but will have purchased a site license from Pearsons for all the Workbook electronic files.

A sample course, showing three topics from Science 9 Workbook is available below. Log in as Guest.
Science 9 sample course

Contact Anne if you are interested in a Moodle Course for NCEA Level 1 Science.