Learning and Teaching in Practice/

Introduction to Moodle

OP Moodle uses the Moodle software platform. Moodle is an open source Learning Management System (LMS) that provides a suite of tools and features for creating and delivering online courses and resources. Get started by reading through the Guide to getting started with OP Moodle. Then explore the guides on the Moodle Staff Support page.

According to Martin Dougiamas (the founder of Moodle), Moodle is based on a social constructionist pedagogy. Please read Dougiamas' Moodle page on Pedagogy to find out more about Dougiamas' five 'pillars' of social constructionism, sometimes called "Martin's five laws".

Activity

Dougiamas' Moodle page on Pedagogy also explains how Moodle tries to support a social constructionist view. Using "Martin's five laws" as headings, explain how your Moodle sites (currently or in the very near future) reflect the "five laws".

Interactive affordances of Moodle

Researchers often talk about the affordances of technology, in other words a particular quality of the technology or the ability of the user to perform an action. Putnam refers to the affordances of technology in general as being “the ways in which technology offers or supports certain things”, and attributes four affordances of technology:

• providing access to information
• representing knowledge and thinking
• automating, simplifying and transforming tasks
• communication and collaboration with peers and experts.

Are these affordances evident in your Moodle courses?

Introduction to WikiEducator

According to Wikipedia "WikiEducator is an international online community project for the collaborative development of learning materials, which educators are free to reuse, adapt and share without restriction".

WikiEducator describes itself as "a global community resource" that is supported by the Open Education Resource Foundation, an independent non-profit based at Otago Polytechnic for the development of free educational content. The Commonwealth of Learning provides financial support to the OER Foundation.

You may also want ot watch a very short video clip that explains what WikiEducator is.

You will learn more about WikiEducator in relation to open education resources and practices in a later Unit in the Foundation Skills course.

Question

Can you identify at least two advantages and two disadvantages of using WikiEducator as a platform to host a new course?