Exploring the use of the Chat activity module in Moodle to support and facilitate group work

Mary HoodlessWodonga TAFE

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• The chat activity module allows participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion in a Moodle course

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What is the Chat Module?

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• To develop an instructional design for group work

Context

• BAMS students – mostly managers balancing competing priorities

Objective & Context

Where is the Chat activity?

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• Smilies Any smiley faces (emoticons) that you can type elsewhere in Moodle can also be typed in here and they will be displayed correctly.

• Links Internet addresses will be turned into links automatically. • Beeps You can send a sound to other people by hitting the "beep" link

next to their name. • A useful shortcut to beep all the people in the chat at once is to type

"beep all".• HTML If you know some HTML code, you can use it in your text to do

things like insert images, play sounds or create different coloured and sized text.

Features

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• Discuss ideas: eg • Participants • Time• Purpose• Attendees

Chat 1 Introductions

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• Ideas

Chat 2 Expectations/roles & responsibilities

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• Ideas

Chat 3 Clarify group charter/rules and set topics

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• Standing agenda;

Chat 4 - 7 Topics 1 -4

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• Goals• Progress• Review• Issues• Moderator

Chat 5 Reflection - What needs to change?

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• What worked well and how do we know?• What can be improved?

Chat 8 Evaluation

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• What will we do next time

Summary