eLearning4schools.net

At my school we are introducing Moodle as our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in March.

Now we had already played around with another alternative but it had not really been championed and it was quite hard and not very intuitive to use of and it cost a fair bit every year. Now we are approaching the third month and apart from Moodle being free it has really received some great feedback from teachers who once they push themselves to have a go they can’t believe how easy it is to use!

Now in order to sell this to our staff we had to think what are the benefits and the following list is what me came up with. So if you are in the process of implementing a VLE (Moodle or not) hopefully this list may help:

BENEFITS

No excuses for missed lessons – illness/visits/fixtures.

The VLE allows the teacher to place their lesson on-line. This means that any student who has enrolled on the course can get access to the course either at school or at home *.

What does placing your lesson online mean? Any digital material such as schemes of work and lesson plans can be set out so the student can see the details of what was delivered, worksheets and PowerPoint files onto the server there will no longer be any excuse for the student who misses a lesson, for whatever reason.

Central storage of digital resources.

Every department accumulates huge amount of resources ranging from photocopy sheets to videos to sound bytes to OHP slides. These occupy shelves in an around the classroom and keeping them ordered and accessible takes time and discipline.

As more and more classroom resources become available on the web then the need to collect all the digital resources into one place becomes ever important. It does not help if each teacher has their own notes and web links on their own hard drive. Also the chance to add resources such as a good web site to the data bank whilst at home is now possible with a VLE.

Add continuity within a department.

The head of a year group or department can now produce material that is available to all staff and pupils under their charge. A self marking test to end a unit of work gives the continuity that is otherwise hard to coordinate.

Make better use of “private study” periods

As students reduce the range of subjects they take they are given more “free time” to study by themselves. For some this is an opportunity to make real progress within their subject. But for many this is time poorly spent. If the teacher can supply assignments and lessons for out of lesson use then the student will be more focussed on the tasks they can do, especially as a “log” is recorded of everything each student does.

Deliver a course that can’t be timetabled.

Many students are denied the courses they want to take as certain combinations can’t be timetabled. Lets us say that a course has 8 periods per week allocated to it. Due to clashes the student can only make 4 of them. Does the school then rule that combination out or do they look at ways of offering the course with some of the lessons run online.

Deliver a course that can be shared across different schools.

With the lack of specialist teachers in certain subjects it is important that unqualified teachers don’t get the responsibility of delivering courses beyond them. An enthusiastic knowledgeable teacher is worth a great deal. A CMS offers the choice of getting students on different sites to join together in a live environment and to receive quality instruction and support.

Extra tools for teaching

The world is changing fast and students are exposed to information on all sides and formats. The lessons that teacher’s deliver need to respond to this changing world and they need to be equipped with a set of modern tools to enhance the quality and variety of their lessons. Tools such as Forums and Chat Rooms to get every student to contribute to the discussion. Tools such as online assignments, workshops, tests, forums, wiki’s, blogs and journals o name just a few.

Gifted and Talented

Extending the able student who has mastered the subject the first time round needs to be carefully thought through. Being able to get them to do extended tasks that you can publish to your online course will ensure that these students don’t underachieve and keep stimulated and driven by motivation.

Communication with students

Many teachers only meet their students within the classroom environment. Extra lessons or the chance to meet in a social environment are rare. Many students don’t respond well to direct confrontation with the teachers. Also finding the time to discuss issues and to give help with assignments is often impossible in a crowded timetable. An online learning environment that provides specific chat rooms and forums adds an extra level for communication. For some of the students this is a real bonus and it can have a marked effect on their learning.

Also

* Allows for different ways of teaching and learning

* Reduction in unnecessary photocopying

* Make a syllabus/scheme of work available to pupils and parents.

* Increasing pupil motivation

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.