The 3 correct steps to designing moodle courses

The 3 correct steps to designing Moodle courses

"Moodle is wonderful" - True!
"Moodle is easy" - False. 

Moodle is a lot like the 4WDs used as family car. Both have features that are never used and are far too complex for the average user to be bothered with. Both the family SUV and Moodle pretty easy to drive when you get the hang of it, but if you want to really take charge, then you will have to understand what the machine is, and importantly, what it is not. 

Often teachers dive in head first and start posting their handouts grouped in a weekly basis just like they would have done in the classroom. This is fine, but it creates for a "paper-under-glass" type outcome. At the end of the day, they are still electronic handouts. Most importantly, if your class was already pretty boring to start off with, it's infinitely more boring on-line because there is no direct human interaction on-line. 



If you really want to get the most out of Moodle, you should probably follow these steps: 

STEP 1: Articulate your  philosophy on teaching 
Most teachers have not really thought about this in great detail.  Indeed, the vast majority of lecturers would rather do anything else but think about the philosophy of teaching. Are you constructivist? (I'm not really 100% sold on constructivism!) Are you "teaching the kids for a job" or for some ideal of a "liberal educated citizen"? (As an accountant  I teach primarily for the profession, and education second). Do you believe there is "more than one answer" in this world, or should we get to the "accurate" "truth"?

STEP 2: Articulate what you are trying to do. 
If you hear yourself saying "I just want to give them handouts" you are already talking about what YOU do as the teacher, and not what THEY should be doing with those handouts.  

A better way of phrasing this might be "I want the students to discuss the implications of this case." So now you are clear they must first HAVE the case, then what they will do with it, and hopefully, what they will get out of it. "WHY" you want them to discuss it (rather than just accept your answers you give them in the lecture) is something you have already stated in step 1. 

STEP 3: Try and implement in Moodle.
Now you are armed with the clear intent that help you find the right tool for the right job. Suddenly all of those options make sense. 

"But I just wanted to mess about
with my transmission some"
Ok: well, know what you are doing first.

But the problem is...
Most educators will simply start at step 3. Only when they are digging through the dizzying array of options in Moodle are they suddenly forced to ask themselves "just what the hell am I doing here?!". 

After a while, they encounter student problems. Student's either don't get it, or they are struggle to find something you posted earlier. You are then forced to say WHY you did something as you did. By this stage, too many of us scratch our heads and state "well I don't know" or "I hadn't thought of that". 

This isn't a fool-proof guide to never having problems with Moodle - you WILL have problems, but it is a start. Indeed, having "just a few issues" with your Moodle course means you are trying new things, and "new things" is a very good for teachers to be practising in their practice. 

-Tetracarbon out