Learn Moodle MOOC

As the year comes close to it’s end it seems like a good time to think of some development goals for 2018. Learn Moodle 3.4 Basics MOOC is a free, four week course that you can sign up for here.

For those who work in education there are many reasons why you might want to consider signing up for the next Learn Moodle MOOC starting 8 January 2018.

Here is a quick list, if you tick a box or two then think about signing up:

• never seen an LMS or never seen Moodle
• not used Moodle in ages and want a refresher of latest features and current practice
• want to experience being a student to better understand their needs
• interested course design and experience an approach used for big groups
• get some inspiration for your teaching practice by seeing some activities in action
• network with some other Moodle users, hear and share stories, make some friends – you can also join the conversation on twitter using #learnmoodle and engage with other participants in the forum
• give yourself license to reflect on your own practice by comparing with what you see and experience during the MOOC
• get some help on some challenges you are facing through doing the activities and learning more about Moodle and through conversations with other participants
• get free professional development
• you want a badge! you can use this MOOC as a way to collect a badge, useful particularly if you have started talking about badges at your learning institute but not figured out what it is all about yet and are ready to explore

Note that you can start introducing yourself and familiarising yourself with the course on 1 January 2018, so don’t feel like you have to wait until the 8th to get started.

That link again – https://learn.moodle.net/

Share the love and inspire other teachers by spreading the word to educators you know.

 

Learn Moodle MOOC starting

Today I am excited to be starting week one of the learn.moodle.net MOOC. As an experienced Moodler, I still get a lot out of attending a beginner Moodle MOOC. Here are some of my thoughts on what I think experienced Moodlers will get out of the next four weeks:

• Examples of different ways Moodle courses can be set up and different ways to setup activities.
• The opportunity to see how you can run a course with a lot of participants. Not many of us run MOOCs but as they have become more common it is good to participate in them to keep current of this trends pros and cons.
• A reminder of the kinds of questions beginners think of (outside of your own work context).
• An opportunity to help beginners with their questions and give back to the Moodle community.
• The experience of using things you might not have enabled in your own Moodle environment, like badges. This will help you think about how they might be used in your own context.

Having started the first week activities, I am already seeing hundreds of participants rolling up their sleeves and digging in. The course uses completion tracking to help you manage your tasks and progress as a learner in the course. There are clear tasks to complete and an indication of what kind of assessment will be carried out in the course. There are also badges used as one form of motivation.

Anyway, enough of reading my notes; if you want to join go to learn.moodle.net to sign up and get started today.

Learn Moodle MOOC

Did anyone notice how quick 9 August 2015 snuck up on us? If you haven’t already set yourself up on the Learn Moodle MOOC now is the time to do so as the introductions have been flowing in from all around the world. What a great opportunity to network, share your experiences and learn from others.

#MOSOMELT cMOOC

This week I joined MOSOMELT. I meant to join last week (or was it the week before?) but this week a prompt from a colleague reminded me to actually leap in and signup.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about a cMOOC designed by some lovelies at AUT as a professional development strategy that takes on a distributed communities of practice approach. Over 24 weeks MOSOMELT will take us on a journey of Mobile Learning Technologies (with some friendly global experts) designed to develop both our personal eportfolios and pedagogical practice. There is an option for validation by external CMALT accreditation too.

Why? I think this can provide a valid and effective way to offer and receive professional development. Enrolling in a cMOOC with some work colleagues means we have strengthened the likelihood of successful completion as we can motivate each other to stay engaged (a common problem with online only courses). There is also a great community of practice involved, with many members I know and respect for their contributions, so I can imagine this can be a robust course with some excellent opportunities to develop my portfolio, and my practice.

See you there!

OLDS-MOOC

The”Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum” MOOC starts today (10 January 2013) and runs until 13 March 2013. It is funded by JISC and offered by Open Learning Design Studio. It is expected that each week will need 3-10 hours.

Week 1: Initiate

Learning outcomes

• Explore a variety of definitions of learning design
• Initiate own learning/curriculum design project
• Define learning design, as a field of research and a practice
• Identify some of the grand challenges of using a learning design approach to the design of learning in the 21st Century
• Identify specific topics of interest for further exploration

Day one

So it started with a five minute video and then a 45 minute discussion. Then you have to introduce yourself, before setting your personal learning objectives for the week. A quick post to your learning journal and the first days activities are done.

Reflection

The five minute video was only 3 minutes and was pretty light weight, just told you what you had to do in week one. All pretty good so far.

Next I registered with Cloudworks as instructed in one of the getting started links. The registration process was seamless, and then you are presented with a busy page which I guessed I should click on the OLDS MOOC launch event. I found a “follow” button and a “mark as attended” button. There was a video link of a feed welcoming people to the course. The feed was low quality and the volume was extremely low. It was very hard to stay engaged when you couldn’t hear clearly.

Whilst watching the video I setup my first cloud to act as a learning journal (oh, such multitasking, how do I stay on task?) and have added it to the Cloudscape for the OLDS MOOC.

One of the things being discussed in the video is “Disrupting ourselves: the problem of learning in higher education / Randall Bass“. Engaged again as the presenter talks about the importance of the role of a university in leading students to become concerned citizens.

One of the resources provided washttp://curriculumreform.org/curriculum-reform-manifesto/ for those interested in looking at what was being discussed.

What is the purpose of education? I is a question of design. The presenter sees: craft as making good stuff; and design as making stuff better. Design is about change and about innovation.

Learning design is then looked at more indepth. There was some discussion of Instructional Design as a linear approach. Refer ADDIE model for example.
Educational Design Research is a methodology for the study of function. In Educational Design Research  you have a theory of how people learn and you explore that theory in real life conditions.
Learning by Design has some affinity to inquiry learning.
Teachers as Designers suggests developing a design attitude allows teachers to integrate theory better into their practice and be more reflective practitioners.

The presenter recommends reading the “Teaching as a Design Science” book by Dan Laurillard (2012).

The presenter takes us through the OLDS MOOC weekly topic progression to show us a bit of a roadmap for the MOOC. This part of the video was quite useful to get a feel for where we are heading.

I paused the video repeatedly during the morning. It was 52 minutes long, but I actually took about three hours to watch it as I was multitasking, trying to do the other tasks for the MOOC and deal with a few interruptions in the office. The hardest part was the volume issue, which had me almost give up. The XKCD comic at about 38 minutes of video helped (as XKCD always does).

The last few minutes were dedicated to questions, but with timezones and the crazy busy internet, I didn’t actually know when this was live streamed! I guess that is the case for a lot of participants to be honest. So even watching it on what is officially the first day, I missed the live stream by several days, sigh.

So, lots to learn over the MOOC, and lots to do.