22 Moodle with Shiela Reaves, Jenny Chung, and Josh Harder — 10.16.2015

In the Active Teaching Lab on October 16, 2015, Shiela Reaves & Jenny Chung of Life Sciences Communication, along with Josh Harder of DoIT Academic Technology, shared what they learned in two years of teaching an online summer course using Moodle. They discuss their planning process using Fink’s (2003) Castle Top Model design strategies and how they integrated visually-based platforms and apps such as Google Slides.

Key Takeaways

• As with any and all models of curriculum design, change them to fit your way of thinking. They’re just guides. Sheila and Jenny changed the Castle Top model to include a third tier: 1) what Sheila does; 2) what Jenny does; 3) what the students do. John uses a three column table and shares it with his students: 1) class learning objectives; 2) what we’re doing in class; 3) what to do to prepare for the next class.
• Google Slides on autoplay makes a cheap-and-easy “rotating banner” to showcase student projects in Moodle (and D2L) without scrolling. It can also be used to communicate any other “course commercials” in a D2L News Item.
• Students posted photos for the weekly themes (a good community builder)
• This was a highly visual course and the materials inspired me to consider adding much more visual content to my teaching, even though I don’t teach a communications course.

If you’re interested in learning more to get up and running with Moodle, watch the videos below and try stepping through the Moodle worksheet we created for the session!

The Active Teaching Lab, a Faculty Engagement program, provides a safe space for structured explorations of cool teaching tools and techniques that your colleagues are using to engage students and teach more effectively. During the academic year, labs are held weekly and will be listed on the Active Teaching Lab page.

Shiela, Jenny and Josh’s Moodle Story