online learning in an open source environment

We put the earn in Learning!™

Online Learning in an Open Source Environment

D. Verne Morland

Managing PartnerROI Learning Services

4 March 2004

We put the earn in Learning!™

Objectives

1. Explain the Open Source SW movement

2. Summarize the Moodle design and features

3. Discuss social constructivist learning theory

4. Examine how Moodle works for: Students Instructors Administrators

5. Facilitate an open dialogue on commercial and open system learning environments

We put the earn in Learning!™

Who Am I?

Managing partner, ROI Learning Services

Corporate university designer for NCR

Business analyst and marketing director

Software designer and systems engineer

BSEE (Princeton) and MSEd. (U Dayton)

Verne Morland

We put the earn in Learning!™

What is ROI Learning Services?

Training outsource company

Network of skilled practitioners: Business and training needs analysis Instructional design Technical design and support Online and blended course development Classroom and virtual course delivery Learning and business impact assessment

Your potential partner! (www.roi-learning.com)

We put the earn in Learning!™

Getting to Know You

Taken an online course?

Independent, self-paced, self-study? Collaborative, facilitated,

synchronized?

Did you learn anything?

Did you enjoy the experience?

Have you:

We put the earn in Learning!™

Getting to Know You

Designed an online course?

Facilitated an online course?

Customized an online learning environment?

Built an online learning environment?

Have you:

We put the earn in Learning!™

What Is Open Source Software?

Free! Locally extensible Globally supported Platform independent

Details at http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

We put the earn in Learning!™

Advantages of Open Source

Open Source … means that because the source is available for all to see, developers are building on the work of others, rather than constantly re-inventing the wheel, and being recognized for their effort. Bugs are found and fixed more rapidly than in proprietary software, and a spirit of honest and open collaboration prevails.

- Visualising a Better Way by J. Ul-Haque and R. Whittaker

We put the earn in Learning!™

Disadvantages of Open Source

No single, responsible supplier

No committed development schedule

We put the earn in Learning!™

Leading Open Source Products

LINUX - Operating System

Apache - Web server

Perl, PHP - Scripting languages

MySQL - Database system

We put the earn in Learning!™

Moodle Is…

Modular,

Object-

Oriented,

Dynamic

Learning

Environment

We put the earn in Learning!™

Moodle Is…

A course management system for developing and delivering Internet-based courses

Based on social constructionist learning theory Available in 33 languages A free alternative to commercial software such as WebCT

or Blackboard Written in PHP Runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, and Netware 6 Used by a growing number of universities, schools, and

corporations. (Currently 927 sites in 70 countries are registered on Moodle.org/sites.)

We put the earn in Learning!™

Moodle Offers…

Forums, Chats, Resources, Journals, Quizzes and tests, Surveys, Workshops, and Assignments.

Learning materials

We put the earn in Learning!™

Social Constructivism

Social constructivists view learning as a social process. It does not take place only internally, nor is it a passive development of behaviors that are shaped by external forces. Meaningful learning occurs when individuals are engaged in social activities.

- Social Constructivism By Beaumie Kim (2001)

We put the earn in Learning!™

Moodle Is Versatile

Moodle can be… A complete online learning environment A focal point for online collaboration A repository of self-study courses and

materials

Moodle can contain… Collaborative, synchronous courses Independent, self-paced courses

We put the earn in Learning!™

Plain Vanilla Moodle

We put the earn in Learning!™

Corporate Moodle

We put the earn in Learning!™

Training Company Moodle

We put the earn in Learning!™

The Student’s View of Moodle

1. Short video tour

2. Discussion using slides

3. Live, online demonstration

We put the earn in Learning!™

Logging In to the OLC

Your Username

Your Password

We put the earn in Learning!™

Center Home Page

Discussion forums for new communities of practice (CoP)

Link to first HH online course

Welcome message

We put the earn in Learning!™

Course Home Page

Instructions for taking the course and using the forums

Participant profiles

Recent activity

We put the earn in Learning!™

Course Topics

Student journal

Instructional articles

Topic description

Unit quiz

We put the earn in Learning!™

Navigating Through the Course

Intro

Unit 1

Unit 2

Quiz

Learning Objectives

Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3

• Each unit begins with “What You Will Learn”

• Navigation flows from lesson to lesson

• Each unit ends with a Quiz

We put the earn in Learning!™

Student Journals

Journal instructions

Your personal entries

Quick navigation

We put the earn in Learning!™

Case Study

Answer choices

Engagement question

Quick navigation

We put the earn in Learning!™

Retail CoP Forum

Forum charter

Click to start a new discussion

Quick navigation

We put the earn in Learning!™

Forum Posting

Message

Subject

Quick navigation

We put the earn in Learning!™

User Demo

Harte-Hanks Online Learning Center

We put the earn in Learning!™

The Instructor’s View of Moodle

1. Discussion using slides

2. Live, online demonstration

We put the earn in Learning!™

Course Content Control Adding new components

Admin areas

Editing and positioning

We put the earn in Learning!™

Instructor Demo

Harte-Hanks Online Learning Center

We put the earn in Learning!™

The Administrator’s View of Moodle

1. Discussion using slides

2. Live, online demonstration

We put the earn in Learning!™

Admin Controls

Course control

Who has access

How things look and work

We put the earn in Learning!™

Grade Book

GradesStudent

Assessments

We put the earn in Learning!™

Site Logs

Date and time Student Moodle object

We put the earn in Learning!™

Special Reports

Photographs

Student

Student progress

We put the earn in Learning!™

Administrator Demo

Harte-Hanks Online Learning Center

We put the earn in Learning!™

Key Take-Aways Open Source is FREE

Open Source is extensible

Moodle will be to online learning what LINUX is to operating systems

Moodle is flexible (based on social constructivism but fully amenable to independent learning)

Moodle is easy to use for students, instructors, and administrators

Contact ROI Learning if you need help…

We put the earn in Learning!™

Thank You

Discussion / Questions?