the move to kelly wainwright lewis & clark college april 15, 2009
TRANSCRIPT
The Move to Kelly Wainwright
Lewis & Clark CollegeApril 15, 2009
Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon
Small, Liberal Arts
Students2000 Undergrad600 Grad650 Law
FacultyApproximately 375 Full- and Part-time
Introduction
The Moodle ChoiceThe legacy of WebCT
How about WebDisk?
Along came Jim!
Well, maybe Moodle would be the best tool for this project.
OK, it we are supporting it for this, why not support it for the campus as a whole?
The Moodle ChoicePros
Open SourceCostFaculty Evangelist
in place
ConsOpen Source
No company on the hook if something goes wrong
Development?
Moodle RolloutDecisions to be Made
Front Page OrganizationCourse Naming Structure
Long Name IA 211: International Organization (Spring 2009, Smith)
Short NameIA211/SP09
Backup and Archiving StrategyMaintenance ScheduleModule Support Plan
LDAP Integration
Moodle RolloutHow to migrate courses from WebCT
Script migrates courses from WebCT to Moodle 1.6 or later Developed by Dan Stowell of Queen Mary University of
London Approximately 20-24 courses migrated
Training and Support Demonstrations
WebCT to Moodle comparisonsGeneral Demonstrations
Faculty Technology Institute Moodle Jumpstart Moodle Clinics Documentation
Where Do We Stand Now?We currently have approximately 250 courses
running on Moodle
Unique uses of MoodleVoting for CAS Faculty Standing committeesCoordination of Music scholoarship materialsFrench and Spanish placement exams
Moodle Mondays and Moodle User Groups for Training
Moodle Track for Faculty Technology Institute again planned.
Student’s View of Moodle81 Responses
Which items have you used or accessed in Moodle?
Course Materials (Syl-labi and Readings)
48%
Discussion Forums13%
Assignments, Quizzes and Surveys
21%
Other (Blogs,
Wikis, Cal-endars and Databses)
18%
Do you believe that using Moodle enhances your classes?
Never15%
Sometimes30%
Occasionally33%
Frequently22%
Would you like to see more Faculty incorporating Moodle into classes?
Yes58%
No42%
CommentsI love Moodle. It makes it very simple to access
assignments and grades, as well as check the syllabus or see due dates, all of which is wonderful to have at your fingertips in case you don't have your syllabus on hand but can get to a computer. I wish all my classes posted readings and other information through Moodle.
I appreciate the ease of getting articles and classroom material off of an online source so that I can download, print or simply view my readings for the week.
I don't like Moodle. Discussing readings on-line seem to stifle conversation in the classroom. We sit and stare at our note without anything to say. I'm mystified at the attraction it holds for professors, because many lc students hate it.
Putting things online is one thing, but Moodle is sort of a step too far. The non-negotiable deadlines are a pain (I mean, e-mail has a timestamp, but at least you can send an e-mail 2 minutes after the assignment is "due" and still have it reach the prof. Moodle doesn't have something like that. If you miss the upload deadline, you're screwed. The obligatory blog posts are a hassle,and professors don't know how to cohesively work them into the lesson plan.
The move away from direct person to person interaction (such as is found in classrooms themselves) which Moodle and similar websites encourage would perhaps be appropriate for agoraphobics and lone employees at fire watch outposts, but not for students at a purportedly intimate liberal arts college.
It's a love/hate.
“While the students were clearly enthusiastic users of technology, only just over half wanted information technology (IT) used in their courses. By far they saw convenience as the single most important benefit of IT in their university experience, but most also agreed that IT in courses improved their learning.”
Gail Salaway, Richard N. Katz and Judith Borreson Caruso with Robert B Kvavik and Mark R. Nelson, The ECAR Study of Undergratuate Students and Information Technology, 2006
Faculty’s View of Moodle38 Responses
For what purposes have you used Moodle this semester?
Course Materials (Syllabi and Read-
ings)53%
Discus-sion
Forums8%
Assignments, Quizzes and Surveys
24%
Other (Blogs, Wikis,
Calendars and Datab-
ses)
15%
What obstacles have you encountered
in using Moodle?
Limita
tions
of m
y Moo
dle
skill
s
Devel
opm
ent t
ime
Maint
enan
ce ti
me
Limita
tions
of M
oodl
e
Limita
tions
of I
T’s Moo
dle
Supp
ort
Limita
tions
of S
tude
nts’ M
oodl
e sk
ills
Tech
nica
l pro
blem
s
Other
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
In what Moodle training opportunities have you participated?
None Faculty Technology Institute Moodle
Track
Moodle Jumpstart Moodle Monday workshops
Moodle Drop-in Clinics
Moodle User’s Group
0
5
10
15
20
25
On average, how much time do you spend in Moodle each week?
Less than 30 minutes
30-60 minutes 1-2 hours 2-3 hours 3-4 hours 4-5 hours more than five hours
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Do you believe that using Moodle enhances your classes?
Never8%
Sometimes37%
Occasionally21%
Frequently34%
Faculty CommentsMoodle is essential for distributing syllabi and course
materials conveniently and at low cost for our graduate courses.
I'm basically quite happy with it for pedagogical purposes.
One apparent limitation, however, is that one's teaching materials are not as readily available to the professional community. In comparison to standard web-pages, they are more difficult for one's professional peers to find and access. This is not optimal. Having a web-presence (with impressive pedagogical materials) is one way of making a mark in one's discipline.
I like it; I'm sure I'm not getting the most out of it, just hard to figure out how to get more training with limited time.
Students are still relatively inexperienced with Moodle interactivity. Once they embrace its use as "typical" (not eccentric) in coursework, I believe THEY will start to encourage faculty to integrate Moodle into most coursework.
I also found it useful for uploading student presentations - both as powerpoint docs and digital photos of full whiteboards! Students claimed they liked having this.
Next StepsMoodle Advisory CommitteeCharge:
The Moodle Advisory Committee shall provide advice and guidance to Information Technology in regards to the implementation and development of the Lewis & Clark Moodle installation. This will include the following responsibilities: Setting policy and procedures for the campus in regards to Moodle Evaluating and approving desired modules for Moodle installation the
following semester. Assisting in setting Moodle User Group meeting agendas. Assisting with decisions regarding the Moodle configuration. These
decisions may be in regards to either the “look and feel” of Moodle or global settings.
Assisting in understanding and setting the service expectations of Moodle clients.
The Moodle Advisory Committee will meet at least once a month, and more often as necessary.
Membership:
Chair: Director of Client Services.
General Membership:Two faculty using Moodle from each school using MoodleOne student representative, One staff member from a administrative department using MoodleMoodle System Administrator
Terms for faculty and students on the MAC will be no less than one year. Members will be replaced by individuals recommended by the remaining committee members.
Explore Moodle structure
Automatic Course Creation
Explore hosted vs non-hosted options
Better training on pedagogical application
Repeat of the Moodle student and faculty surveys
Coming in Moodle 2.0File Handling Improvements
Better access to files through a repostitory scheme, some allowances towards a Portfolio.
Improvements to the Organization of CoursesImprovement to the Navigation in coursesAddition of Conditional activitiesStudent Progress Tracking
Changes to activity modulesImprovements to the wiki, quiz and feedback
modules
Improvements to other parts of MoodleGradebook developmentBetter HTML editorBlog 2.0, with commentingMoodle VoiceTurnitin Integration
And Much More! docs.moodle.org/en/Roadmap
