Thursday, February 2, 2012 Spring Cleaning Comes Early This Year Posted by Brad at 8:00 AM


In case you haven't noticed, Moodlerooms has been doing some pre-Spring cleaning. Web guru, Mallory Varvaris, has been hard at work redesigning many of our pages, and we thought that our resources page, in particular, deserved some extra attention.

We're always striving to provide customers and the greater e-Learning community with the best possible product/service information in multiple formats. With the resource page redesign, we've brought all of that info into one central location.

Click here, to head over to the new page. Also, here's a snapshot of what you can find:
  • Tutorials: Free video and text tutorials explaining Moodle, Power and joule features for use by course designers, participants and facilitators
  • Manuals: For customers who need a more in-depth guide on the features, functions, and joule builds
  • e-Libarary: Full of material about Moodlerooms' products and services
  • Webinars: A list of our upcoming and on-demand webinars
  • Case Studies: First hand from our K-12, HE, corporate, government and non-profit customers on their experience moving to Moodlerooms
  • FAQs: A list of answers to our most frequently asked questions around Moodle, Moodlerooms, products, services, migration and code review


All the best,

Brad


Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Best Practices: Creating Successful Online Courses for Newbies Posted by Brad at 9:00 AM


Best Practices: Creating Successful Online Courses for Newbies
By Jeff Geronimo, Instructional Designer and Trainer

For many seasoned educators, teaching can be a breeze. Teaching online, on the other hand, is an entirely different gust of wind which presents its own unique set of challenges. For many folks, just the thought of venturing out into cyberspace to plant a home for a new virtual classroom is shocking – nay, scary! Taking the plunge to move your teaching online might seem daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be. In today’s blog, I’ll point out ten best practices for creating online courses for the first time!

1. Use a chart to keep yourself organized.
Things are constantly moving and changing in an online course, and it’s important to keep track of them. Using a chart or an outline to plot out the scope and sequence of your course will make it easier for you to see what’s missing and what else you might need to add. I like to set up a new document in Google Docs for each course I design so that I always have the peace of mind knowing that my design documents are accessible anywhere I have an internet connection.

2. Organize your course materials in one place.
It’s easy to start adding files to your course just as it’s also easy to start losing track of where they’re coming from. Take advantage of using joule’s file repository system to upload and store all of your course files so that it’s easy to link to your course content as you’re building your course. Always be sure to use the backup feature to save a copy of your hard work; backing up will even make your life easier later when you’re rolling over your courses to future semesters.

3. Design and use rubrics to make grading easier.
Rather than wasting valuable time, you can create rubrics in joule for all of your graded activities to keep the grading process as transparent and consistent as possible. An effective rubric should be detailed enough to cover all of the nuances and expectations of any activity, but also simple enough so that there’s little to no difficulty deciding between different areas of the grading range. Using rubrics to grade is an ultimate time saver that can be effective and efficient especially with large groups of students.

4. Integrate a healthy mix of asynchronous and synchronous elements in your course.
Most online courses are considered asynchronous (not live) since each user can be logging in and out at any given time during the day. Thus, the most popular medium of facilitating discussions are forums. Try including a discussion forum during each week or unit of your course if appropriate. While Moodle/joule automatically includes a helpful “News forum” for your course announcements, it might also be helpful to add a “Help” forum for students needing to ask questions. When you want to add more synchronous (live) elements to your course such as a chat room, virtual office hours, or a live class session complete with whiteboards and screen sharing, consider purchasing a joule Synchronous license to add another exciting level of engagement to your course.

5. Help your students monitor their learning progress.
Take advantage of completion tracking settings in joule to help students track their course progress. Because you might want to ensure that students complete certain activities before others, you can even set up restrictions for when activities and resources can be accessed based on grade and completion conditions. To top it all off, you can add the course completion status block to your course, which quickly helps a student stay on track and allows you to view their progress. You can even use the exciting Personalized Learning Designer (PLD) to assist in remediating or accelerating a students’ learning experience in the course.

6. Make your course mobile-friendly. The latest version of joule (Moodlerooms' enterprise Moodle platform) includes a mobile theme custom-designed for smartphone browser screens.
When enabled, your current course site remains unchanged, but will appear with a complete different mobile-friendly layout when accessed on a mobile device. You can interact with your courses on your device (with certain limitations, of course) anytime and anywhere.

7. Add resources and activities to support and enhance the instruction. Many educators mistakenly believe that online courses must be congested with an army of resources and activities in order for the course to “look pretty.” Unless you truly believe that your students will benefit from watching parts 1-20 of random YouTube videos and perusing through pages and pages of obscure articles, leave them out! Instead, design the flow of each unit or lesson of your course; then, add an appropriate number of resources and activities to support the learning. While your course will end up with a lot of elements in the long run, the key is to chunk your content in manageable pieces that won’t overwhelm students.

8. Use social networking to extend learning beyond the classroom.
The value of social presence is powerful and often overlooked, so consider connecting your courses to social networking platforms to keep everyone connected outside the formal learning environment. joule includes a social networking add-on called joule Social that can be integrated into any course, giving students and educators the opportunity to connect in an informal atmosphere. Users can create groups, post status updates, write blogs, and so much more. Simply add the joule Social block to your course, and one click will take users directly into an intuitive and highly interactive social environment.

9. Convert your resources to accessible formats.
In an effort to make your courses more accessible, consider converting all of your course documents (syllabi, handouts, PowerPoint notes, etc.) to easily accessible file formats like PDF. Not only will this make it easier for students to open and view your documents, it will also ensure that your documents display exactly as you expected. When creating course materials in Microsoft Word, I always find it helpful to have the original copy alongside the PDF copy; this means I can make changes at any time to the original and update the PDF version.

10. Consider adopting an e-book textbook for your course.
Most folks don’t think about it, but the textbook(s) of choice for any given course is always important to consider especially for an online course. It’s always a good idea to see if an e-book version of your chosen textbook is available to save your students money and to make learning more mobile with less to carry around. Chances are good that nearly all e-book versions are more inexpensive than their hardcopy counterparts, and can be read on most mobile and tablet devices. CourseSmart (www.coursesmart.com) is one of the largest providers of e-book versions of textbooks that can be purchased and/or rented for less than the print versions; they even have free readers for select mobile devices. If you want to create and/or publish your own e-book for your course, you can explore Apple’s new free iBook Author app that allows you to do just that.

That’s all we have for today. I hope you find these tips and best practices to be helpful when designing and delivering your online courses!

- Jeff
Monday, January 30, 2012 The Moodle Recap: January 30, 2012 Posted by Brad at 10:00 AM
Good morning!

We have a lot to celebrate this week here at the office. Recently, Moodlerooms was recognized by Baltimore Magazine as one of the "Best Places to Work" for 2012. You can check out the full write-up here (we're pictured at the top and the fourth company listed).

We also recognized the success that Keystone College has experienced after transitioning to our joule e-Learning platform. Here's a snippet from Kurt Sussman, Keystone College's director of educational technology:

"Our faculty was the main reason behind evaluating new learning management systems. There was growing dissatisfaction with our previous platform, and upgrading to the enterprise version that would provide the functionality demanded by our increasing e-Learning development was cost prohibitive. We also found it very hard to get support for technical issues that we would encounter.”

Click here to check out the full story.

In addition, our friend and blogger-in-chief over at moodlenews.com, Joe Thibault is in the running for the 2011 People's choice awards over at opensource.com/education . Joe's been a huge ally in promoting the value of Moodle and open source technologies in education. Vote for him HERE!

Last but not least, we've compiled a weekly recap of the latest Moodle and e-Learning headlines. Check it out below, and if you think we missed anything, let us know by emailing feedback at moodlerooms dot com.

All the best,

- Brad

From the Web:

From www.moodlenews.com:
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 Coming Soon to TCEA 2012... Posted by Brad at 9:00 AM
TCEA

In a little over a week, we'll be heading down to Austin, TX for TCEA 2012, taking place Monday, February 6 - Friday the 10th.

TCEA (The Texas Computer Education Association) is the largest state organization devoted to the use of technology in education. TCEA 2012 is the organization's 32nd annual convention and exposition is one of the largest educational technology conventions in the nation and the largest in Texas.

Attendees can access a full week of professional development sessions, hands-on and peer-to-peer learning opportunities, explore new trends through interactive learning environments, and view in-depth presentations from educational technology experts.

LinkMoodlerooms' Trainer, Marcelo Mendes (@celo_mendes) will be delivering a series of workshops as part of the conference's Moodle Academy on Monday, February 6th. Visit here for more info on the TCEA 2012 academies.

Best Practices in Course Facilitation
Hands-on Presentation
Intermediate Skill Level
Located in Room #3
Monday, February 6 // 9:45 am to 10:45 am

This session will focus on:
  • The basics of course facilitation in Moodle
  • Creating varying types of calendar events
  • Communicating with participants via the Participants and Messaging blocks.
  • Participation in commonly used activities
  • Grading commonly used course activities, such as quizzes and assignments.
  • Report management
  • Best practices in facilitating online or hybrid courses

More than Moodle with Personalized Learning Designer
Hands-on Presentation
Advanced Skill Level
Located in Room #3
Monday, February 6 // 11 am to Noon

This session will focus on:
  • Moodlerooms' joule 2 Personalized Learning Designer
  • Automating elements of courses using configurable rules and tools that save time by monitoring students' interactions with courses and content
  • Automatically providing new remediation activities to students
  • Automating email to parent(s) to highlight student success or next steps to improve their student performance
  • Exploring popular use case scenarios for personalizing the learning experience

Strategies for Effective Utilization of Online Forums
Presentation
Beginner Skill Level
Located in room #2
Monday, February 6 // 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm

This session will focus on:
  • Helping teachers and facilitators of discussion to forums to encourage and support students to "own" forum-based learning
  • Strategies for increasing instructor-to-student and peer-to-peer interaction
  • Strategies for creating effective dialogue in online forums by setting expectations and developing student awareness

Last but not least, our very own Judson Aungst and Tom Hermann will be on-site in booth #2627 to answer any of your joule-related questions. If you're attending the conference, stop on by the booth or feel free to get in touch with Judson or Tom during the conference:

Judson Aungst, Director of K-12 Sales
Phone: 443-534-2404
Email: judson at moodlerooms dot com
Twitter: @Moodlerooms

Tom Herrmann, Inside Sales Associate
Email: therrmann at moodlerooms dot com
Twitter: @Moodlerooms

See you at TCEA 2012!

- Brad
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Get on the TRAIN Train! Introducing Moodlerooms' New TRAIN Package Posted by Brad at 9:00 AM

By Tara Thompson, Instructional Designer and Trainer

Moodlerooms knows that the needs of institutions can evolve over time. With every new release of joule, we try to deliver the new features you want and need to enhance your learning programs. But new features are only a small piece of the puzzle. What about additional services and training?

That's why Moodlerooms recently introduced TRAIN, an affordable, annually recurring, comprehensive training package. TRAIN offers suggestions for a variety of activities and services to support the academic community in its Moodle implementation, with a focus on the pedagogical implications of those choices.

TRAIN offers customers access to updated training material at the same time as new software releases, creating a fast track for new feature implementation. Because TRAIN content is deployed on the customer site, where it is facilitated by the customer (not Learning Solutions), institutions can re-brand and edit the TRAIN content, tailoring the learning experience specifically for their institutional needs.

For about a quarter of the cost of an in-house instructional technologist, this travel themed package, (updated twice yearly with new features, tools and materials), bundles some of Learning Solutions' most attended online courses, workshop materials, implementation plans, instructor training protocol, self-paced tutorials, and more.

TRAIN benefits customers by:
  • Solving the issue of training large numbers of staff
  • Supplying master trainers and site administrators with top of the line training materials
  • Saving money by providing unlimited course and webinar seats
  • Addressing the issue of staff transition/attrition with an ongoing training package
  • Anticipating exact training costs well in advance.

TRAIN: The Details
The package kicks-off with a webinar hosted by Learning Solutions, and focuses on how to optimize the use of TRAIN materials. For ideal implementation, we recommend master trainers use their package flex seats to take courses with Moodlerooms, outside of the auspices of TRAIN, in order to gain competency and observe best practices in course facilitation, such as frequency of grading, quality and quantity of announcements, and substantive but manageable feedback.

After this learning opportunity, the master team can then pair these experiences with the content provided in TRAIN to roll-out their joule training plan to the rest of the organization.

In addition to training material, TRAIN customers also receive an enrollment key good for unlimited seats in the TRAIN Community--a site used by Moodlerooms to posts announcements on developments and updates to the TRAIN package. We encourage customers to use the activities on the site to share their experience with other members of the TRAIN community, and we welcome feedback about desired additions to future versions of the package.

Visit our website to learn more about TRAIN or other engaging learning opportunities delivered by Moodlerooms’ Learning Solutions team.

All aboard!

- Tara
Monday, January 23, 2012 The Moodle Recap: January 23, 2012 Posted by Brad at 1:00 PM

Good afternoon!

Check out the latest Moodle and e-Learning headlines with our weekly recap below. As always, if you think we missed anything, let us know by emailing feedback@moodlerooms.com.

Thanks for reading,

- Brad

From the Web:

From www.moodlenews.com:
Friday, January 20, 2012 Onward to FETC 2012 Posted by Brad at 9:00 AM


Next week, we'll be heading down to Orlando, FL for FETC 2012. Taking place Monday, January 23 - Thursday the 26th, FETC offers the opportunity for K-12 education professionals collaborate with peers and get info on the latest technologies.

Our very own Judson Aungst and Matt Montemurno will be on-site in booth #253 to answer any of your joule-related questions. If you're attending the conference, stop on by the booth or register for Dell's FETC reception on Tuesday night (visit here to register, or for more info).

Last but not least, Judson will be delivering a presentation from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET on Thursday, January 26. The presentation, CS7649 - The Case for Personalized e-Learning in K-12 Education, will give a first-hand look at how educators can successfully harness open-source e-Learning to personalize the learning experience and facilitate student success.

Feel free to get in touch with Judson or Matt during the conference:

Judson Aungst
phone: 443-534-2404
email: judson at moodlerooms dot com

Matt Montemurno:
twitter: @mmontemurno
email: matt at moodlerooms dot com

See you at FETC!

- Brad
Monday, January 16, 2012 The Moodle Recap: January 16, 2012 Posted by Brad at 10:00 AM

Good Morning!

Check out the latest Moodle and e-Learning headlines with our weekly recap below. As always, if you think we missed anything, let us know by emailing feedback@moodlerooms.com.

Thanks for reading,

- Brad

From the Web:


From www.moodlenews.com:
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 Best Practices: Using the Drag-and-Drop Matching Question Type in a Quiz Activity Posted by Brad at 1:00 PM


Using the Drag-and-Drop Matching Question Type in a Quiz Activity
By Rebecca DeSantis, Instructional Designer,

With the latest release of joule 2, instructors can now add the Drag-and-Drop Matching question type into a Quiz activity. This question type allows users to drag answer to a question. It is great for sorting information, especially information that is visual in nature, phased, or process-oriented.

For example, let’s say that the content you are teaching has four levels of information. You would like to evaluate each student’s knowledge by having him or her match each level to its title. To do this, you display all steps on the left-hand side of the screen. The right-hand side of the screen would include the name of each level.



This question type is similar to Matching, in that the user must match answers to questions; however, with this question type users can drag the answer to the question rather than using a drop-down menu to select it.

The Drag-and-Drop Matching question type features:
  • Hints: You can display a hint after an incorrect attempt, but only when the question behavior is set to “Interactive with multiple tries” or “Adaptive mode”.
  • Images: You can add images using the HTML editor into both questions and answers.

Watch the video below to learn how to create Drag-and-Drop Matching quiz question.

To learn more about creating quizzes and quiz questions, take our course building courses, available at the Moodlerooms Training Center.

- Rebecca

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 The Moodle Recap: January 10, 2012 Posted by Brad at 8:00 AM