{"id":877,"date":"2021-05-26T09:55:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T08:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/clt\/?p=877"},"modified":"2021-05-26T09:55:33","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T08:55:33","slug":"successful-moodle-development-in-a-difficult-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/clt\/2021\/05\/26\/successful-moodle-development-in-a-difficult-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Successful Moodle development in a difficult year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Background context<\/h2>\n

Professor Peter Wilson co-teaches EE20099 Electrical Systems and Power Electronics with two colleagues, Dr Xiaoze Pei and Dr Kang Ma, on a Year 2 undergraduate, mixed-discipline degree programme in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He wanted to make changes to the unit Moodle course area for semester 2 of 2020\/21 after reflecting on the student experience from semester 1 (and also the previous academic year experience of teaching this unit which occurred early in the pandemic \u2013 March 2020). The course is taken by a group of mixed cohorts from Robotics, Electrical Engineering and Integrated Mechanical & Electrical Engineering (IMEE), where students have diverse digital skills and experience.<\/p>\n

The resulting developments have proved successful with students (150+ in the cohort) and has provided the teaching team with an effective model that has been shared with departmental colleagues.<\/p>\n

Purpose<\/h2>\n

On reflection of semester 1 in 2020\/21 (and semester 2 in 2019\/2020), in the midst of the global pandemic which resulted in teaching and learning going online, it became clear to Peter that even though this Moodle course was designed in a sensible way, it was not providing sufficient structure and clarity for students. Based on presenting \u2018subject topics\u2019, students needed to navigate to the appropriate place to find activities and information for each week. Common feedback from students in semester 1 2020\/21 was that many Moodle courses were not being clear in when topics should be reviewed, or defining what tasks needed to be done and how long they should take. Some Moodle courses that did have a weekly structure also tended to overload students with so many activities and tasks that they became slightly overwhelming in nature. With the required addition of meeting links (for LOILs), In Person Time (IPT) activities and resources for online lab work, it was necessary to rethink the delivery approach.<\/p>\n

The initial primary goal was to make the Moodle course as clear as possible for students landing on that course page, simple to navigate through the material and ultimately successfully complete the unit. However, what also emerged was the benefit to students from the use of additional Moodle functionality, specifically the Moodle quiz feature for formative and summative assessments, and linking the use of appropriate \u201clight touch\u201d design software to support the learning and quiz content.<\/p>\n

Approach<\/h2>\n

In collaboration with his colleagues Peter discussed the benefits of having a consistent approach to the course design. Peter also worked with PGT teams who had previously developed a course template for Moodle with TEL team Learning Technologists and used this idea to consider the needs of the undergraduate groups. He then undertook the following changes.<\/p>\n

1. Moodle Course development<\/h3>\n

The first change was to shift from organising content by subject topics into weekly activities. All the tasks a student was required to do were set out under a series of headings: Overview, Lectures, LOIL Sessions, IPT Sessions, Activities, Additional Resources. The clear rationale for this was to help the students organize their time, and also to be able to track their progress, with each activity able to be \u201cticked off\u201d once they were completed. Under each heading in the weekly section there would be:<\/p>\n