OLTD 504 Critical Challenge Question
To respond to the critical challenge question, I am submitting two parts of to my eportfolio submission. The first part is a Prezi that explains my journey through the course. Prior to this class, I had not used or been exposed to any Learning Management System (LMS). The Prezi shows pieces of evidence and reflections from my initial understand and impressions of working with a LMS, to the end of the course, where I had the opportunity to build material inside of Moodle. The second part of the eportfolio has the traditional reflections and evidence of course work that was completed for this class. In summary, the two parts provide clear evidence of the learning that was accomplished and my personal reflections of using an LMS.
Part 1: Prezi
oltd_504_eportfolio_prezi.pdf | |
File Size: | 8264 kb |
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Part 2 Eportfolio Reflections
a. 504- Outcome and Evidence
OLTD Learning Outcome:
Evidence to support learning outcome:
LMS Jigsaw- screen cast of making glossaries in Moodle
Reflection to Support Evidence:
For the LMS Jigsaw for OLTD 504, we were placed into groups based on our interests and our experiences. I was placed in a group with six other members of the cohort. As a group, we then were asked to divide the tasks inside of Moodle so that each member was an expert of one aspect of the LMS. As a group, we decided which task(s) we would be presenting to the group by submitting our interests via a survey and then again in a Google document. Once we had the work divided, we then shifted to determining the method of presenting the material. We unanimously decided that we would create screencasts and then post them to our own Google+ Community. The community would act as a share point for all our presentations, a discussion forum for any technical issues and finally, as a help line as we moved into creating our own LMS build. For the screencast, I used a program called Screen-o-matic. It’s a free web site that allows you to create 15 minute screencasts that then can be saved in a variety of different formats. Once my screecasts on creating a glossary and managing the calendar in Moodle were created, I simply uploaded them to our Moodle Google+ Community.
I learnt a variety of different things from this process. Firstly, this was my project was my initial exposure to using Moodle. I have used some webpage programs, but I have never used a LMS before. I found Moodle to be overwhelming in the number of choices that needs to be made to create lessons or activities. The interface with the user was not intuitive to me and I was unsure at times how to get the most out of this LMS. After some investigation and time with Moodle I did discover that it is very powerful with many options that would allow an instructor to create, deploy and manage an online course. The second part of this task had me creating a screencast. This is something that I had never done before. After previewing several different options from my cohort members, I chose Screencast-o-matic to use for making my project. Once I had researched the material and practice the material a couple of times, I create a successful screencast that would serve as a tool for my group.
This project was important in my development as an online facilitator for two reasons. It was my first exposure to using and LMS and although, Moodle can be daunting for the first time user, it does contain all the essential components for online learning. For this project, I was responsible for creating screencasts for making a glossary and maintaining the calendar, I was exposed to all the other elements of Moodle from watching my group members’ videos. Moodle is impressive with all the components that can be found inside of it from grade book, lessons and quizzing opportunities. It would take time to become proficient at this LMS but its benefits are clearly visible. The other important skill learnt from this project was creating screencasts. I am always searching the internet for usable screencasts that can be used to enhance my courses and now I have the knowledge and the confidence to create my own. I feel that this skill is something I can implement into my teaching practices immediately and will start to benefit my students. This project is the type that I enjoy creating: practical and hands on.
OLTD Learning Outcome:
- Demonstrate basic competency with design and implementation within a variety of online learning environments and tools
- Share engagement strategies and tips
- Engage in mentoring and coaching with educational partners
- Undertake engagement with environments through online facilitation for effective learning
- Moderation and mediation
- engage in building learning communities and communities of practice
Evidence to support learning outcome:
LMS Jigsaw- screen cast of making glossaries in Moodle
Reflection to Support Evidence:
For the LMS Jigsaw for OLTD 504, we were placed into groups based on our interests and our experiences. I was placed in a group with six other members of the cohort. As a group, we then were asked to divide the tasks inside of Moodle so that each member was an expert of one aspect of the LMS. As a group, we decided which task(s) we would be presenting to the group by submitting our interests via a survey and then again in a Google document. Once we had the work divided, we then shifted to determining the method of presenting the material. We unanimously decided that we would create screencasts and then post them to our own Google+ Community. The community would act as a share point for all our presentations, a discussion forum for any technical issues and finally, as a help line as we moved into creating our own LMS build. For the screencast, I used a program called Screen-o-matic. It’s a free web site that allows you to create 15 minute screencasts that then can be saved in a variety of different formats. Once my screecasts on creating a glossary and managing the calendar in Moodle were created, I simply uploaded them to our Moodle Google+ Community.
I learnt a variety of different things from this process. Firstly, this was my project was my initial exposure to using Moodle. I have used some webpage programs, but I have never used a LMS before. I found Moodle to be overwhelming in the number of choices that needs to be made to create lessons or activities. The interface with the user was not intuitive to me and I was unsure at times how to get the most out of this LMS. After some investigation and time with Moodle I did discover that it is very powerful with many options that would allow an instructor to create, deploy and manage an online course. The second part of this task had me creating a screencast. This is something that I had never done before. After previewing several different options from my cohort members, I chose Screencast-o-matic to use for making my project. Once I had researched the material and practice the material a couple of times, I create a successful screencast that would serve as a tool for my group.
This project was important in my development as an online facilitator for two reasons. It was my first exposure to using and LMS and although, Moodle can be daunting for the first time user, it does contain all the essential components for online learning. For this project, I was responsible for creating screencasts for making a glossary and maintaining the calendar, I was exposed to all the other elements of Moodle from watching my group members’ videos. Moodle is impressive with all the components that can be found inside of it from grade book, lessons and quizzing opportunities. It would take time to become proficient at this LMS but its benefits are clearly visible. The other important skill learnt from this project was creating screencasts. I am always searching the internet for usable screencasts that can be used to enhance my courses and now I have the knowledge and the confidence to create my own. I feel that this skill is something I can implement into my teaching practices immediately and will start to benefit my students. This project is the type that I enjoy creating: practical and hands on.
b. 504- Outcome and Evidence
OLTD Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate basic competency with design and implementation within a variety of online learning environments and tools
- Share engagement strategies and tips
- Plan learning opportunities most suitable to the strengths and challenges of a variety of environments
- Develop and design intentional learning activities suitable for the appropriate environment and the learner
- Develop practical and technical skills in all phases of concept, development, design, implementation, etc.
Evidence to support learning outcome:
Non LMS Build
Reflection to Support Evidence:
This project started with me researching assessment web tools that could then be added into an ongoing Wiki of etools. These sites were then to be used to build a course outside of a LMS. I did research on an eportfolio tool called DoYouBuzz and a grade book site called JumpRope. I created a brief summary of what these tools could be used for and the pros and cons of each. Once the information was compiled, I then added it to the OLTD 504 non LMS Wiki page. After my contribution, I then created a chart using Microsoft Word to chart all the different web tools that I could use in a non LMS build. Incorporating information from the Wiki, my own personal experiences from teaching in the classroom and tools that I had learnt about and used in the previous OLTD classes, I created a chart that broke down the necessary tools into four different categories: community, content, assessment and collaboration. Once I had selected the web tools that could perform similar tasks as that of an LMS like Moodle, I then created quick summary as to how I could use the etool and why I chose it. The list of web tools quickly grew so as to cover the aspects or communication, collaboration, assessment and content could be achieved.
I learnt several new skills from this task. While creating the non LMS Wiki, I was surprised to see the numerous different choices that were available to create the same goal. It was interesting the read the peer reviews and then to click on the link to try the different sites. As I tried to make my contributions, I found that many of the top sites had already been taken from the previous cohorts so I had to dig a little deeper and try different approaches to my searches. Once the Wiki entries were made, the next learning opportunity came from compiling the different tools into one long list. This taught me that many tools were needed and that there was a lot of overlap for some of the categories. Of all the tools, I found those on the Google site to be the most useful. These tools could be used both by the instructor and the students at creating content, collaboration and submitting work. The number of etools needed to run and maintain an online course is large and each one requires a set of skills to learn and then implement into a class.
This assignment is important to my development as an online facilitator because it causes me to reflect on the choice between investing time in learning a single LMS or to delve into many tools to cover the same options. At the onset of this project, I was content to go through the numerous tools that were needed to replicate those found inside of Moodle; however, as I look at the list, I find that it might be more complicated and time consuming to use etools. It’s amazing the choices and vastness of options on the internet of the different categories of web applications from collaboration to assessment. It takes time and practice to become familiar with all of them and linking from the dashboard on a website might make your course’s homepage complicated and distracting. Another issue with always linking outside of the main website is that over time, links can become broken or the amount of advertising in many of these free sites can increase and options might decrease in time. A feature that I did like inside of Moodle was that tasks like the calendar and the assignments inside of the grade book were linked to each other while lessons were created. I can see this feature reducing the number of steps required to upkeep an online course. Once weighing the pros and cons of the two choices, I think in the long run, if I were to teach all of my classes online, I would invest the time in learning the ins and outs of a single LMS and then selectively chose a few etools when needed.
oltd_504_non_lms_build_project.pdf | |
File Size: | 248 kb |
File Type: |