Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Michael Nelson -
Number of replies: 12
Hi all!

I'm writing for two reasons, the first which is most relevant to this topic:

1) What moodle-strategies are people using to nurture a social learning environment in the classroom?

I'm not sure how clear that is, so i'll provide an example from my own classroom environment. I have been using the Moodle's Topic view. Generally my topics are as follows:
  • Each topic usually begins (as expected) with a relevant attention-grabbing activity/discussion of some sort designed to get people interested and focussed on the topic (This can be a simple HTML resource with links to interesting web-info).
  • This is almost always followed by an HTML Resource containing the proposed learning outcomes for the topic (can be modified on the go if participants have other ideas for the topic).
  • I usually follow this with a single-post forum containing some background questions related to the topic. Participants are required to reply to this post with their answers as well as links to where they found their information (sometimes this research is done in pairs). Hopefully this encourages participants' research skills. We then come together as a group and briefly outline the results of our research (I have the moodle forum projected at the front of the room).
  • There is almost always a number of HTML Resources (or uploaded files) containing hands-on exercises for participants to learn the basics of the new skills in a number of different forms. This usually works towards apply the skills to our own projects.
  • Sometimes the topic ends with a journal entry. Othertimes, it ends with a Workshop (if the learning can not be easily assessed in the major project). Very rarely I've included a choice (poll) but this is only because I often have difficulty creating decent questions to poll on.
  • We always go over the Learning Outcomes again at the end to evaluate how we are going.
Apart from the HTML Resource, I've found the Forum and Workshop activities to be extremely useful for nurturing a social learning environment, followed (quite a way behind) by the Journal and Choice activities. Bear in mind that i've only been using Moodle for 4 months, and I'm only just begining to learn about social constructivism...

Perhaps you can provide examples from your own experience demonstrating how you best use Moodle to nurture a social learning environment...

(decided to put second question in a separate post)

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In reply to Michael Nelson

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Michael Nelson -
Have I posted in the wrong forum? Or is no-one willing to discuss their own general strategies for using moodle effectively in a classroom sad

(BTW: Thanks David for the article, i've replied to your post in the other thread)

-Michael
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In reply to Michael Nelson

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Andy Diament -

Here is the fundamental barrier in a classroom - face to face talk. So you need activities that make them commit to a forum etc. instead of chatting.

Some recent activities that worked fairly well in a classroom:

  • Music technology: post an image (a spectagram, scrolling image showing the frequency distribution in music sample) in the start of a discussion with some open questions; asks students to comment (actually working in pairs on 1 workstation). Comment and question other postings.
  • Computing: normalise a database (3 step process of making a database more efficient): work in pairs to do each step, post solution on forum, comment on other's answers, make relevant changes and move onto next step. Actually very reluctant to perform the peer assessment. [Would probably have done this one as a wiki task, but wiki only got installed a few days ago.Next time a set a group/research project, it will definitely use the wiki feature.]
  • General: work in pairs to write very detailed glossary definitions. In fact, get thye students to contribute glossary contributions on a weekly basis- at the end of the course, they have a relevant dictionary for revision. Encourage comments, corrections and ratings. Seed each glossary with a few examples.
  • If a student asks a question orally, ask him/her to post it instead.
  • Journals: seed the journal with open questions, particularly related to progress or project management. I'm now getting some students being more honest through this medium about problems with the course than face to face. Use it for target setting.

Is this the kind of specific thing that you mean? Looking back on it, the social comes from working in pairs, the activities are constructivist and constructionist.

Cheers, Andy D

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In reply to Andy Diament

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Michael Nelson -
Gday Andy,

Yep that's exactly the kind of specific thing that I was after! I had begun the semester (when I first started using Moodle), with Journal entries at the end of each topic, and tried to use the glossary too, but had not found them so useful!

For the Journals, I think i'd based the open question around the subject matter, and this was my problem. When reading peoples entries I always thought: "hey, this should be a forum so everyone else can see what we've each written". I will try relating the journal questions to learner progress instead.

As for the Glossary entries, I think I made it seem just like a task that students had to do... maybe I should try encouraging the comments, corrections and ratings. I think that working on the Glossary as an activity would be an excellent revision task now anyway, so I might try that!

I am quite surprised that you see face2face talk as a fundamental barrier in the classroom... at first I thought you were joking, but then you said later that if a student asks a question orally, to get them to post it instead. I find that face 2 face talk is invaluable before, during and after activities. I try to ensure that the bulk of the information that learners develop is recorded within moodle (forums, journals, workshops etc), but not at the expense of face 2 face talking as a group. Can you clarify exactly what you mean? For example, in what situations do you find f2f talking beneficial, and in what situations would you point learners back to moodle?

Thanks for all your ideas Andy!
-Michael
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In reply to Michael Nelson

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Enrique Castro -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
Hi,
    I think I understand Andy's comment on f2f barrier. Perhaps UK is more alike "continental" Europe than to Australia.

I teach Biochemistry to first year university students. The main problem is getting them engaged. If you let a question on the air, in the classroom, you get all faces down, seeking for something on the floor. It's not Biochemistry, other topics suffer the same behavioral response from the learners.

It's a combination of shame and shyness. If they ask something, that's a prove they don't know it. And if they answer, they fear been evaluated on it.
So, students are quite reluctant to talk with the teacher in a teaching enviroment (they do talk about cinema or sports), just the opposite of what would be good for their learning. There is today, yet, a feeling of "class-fight" between teachers and students.

The distance of the net let their fears relax in someway, and they do become more participative on-line than in the actual classroom, the f2f barrier is over.

- Enrique Castro -
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In reply to Michael Nelson

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Andy Diament -

No joke - they like talking, some find it very difficult to get into the habit of reading material carefully and responding, especially to peer comments (I found this hardest in 14-15 age group, but I haven't any of those this year). They like a structured linear approach and getting them to try moodle features, go back to discussions, etc. took a lot of work - I don't think I fully succeeded with that group but bear it in mind this academic year.

Similarly I have small goups (<10) and it is hard to achieve the critical mass needed for really vibrant foums.

If you have the class together, than all f2f talk is useful where relevant. Where they ask for help, I can encourage them to post; if they ask a specific question which may be useful to others, that's a good one to post.

I think I've discussed this issue before, possibly in this forum but can't find it straight away. I think it was Hans de Zwert who suggested being very strict, not accepting oral questions in IT sessions; such questions had to be posted so that the class had a chance to answer and support each other.

Andy D

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In reply to Michael Nelson

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Andy Diament -
Just worth drawing your attention to the print button on the glossary to save paper (but you may need to ensure that all entries are displayed
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In reply to Andy Diament

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Michael Nelson -
Thanks Andy,

I'll be trying some of your ideas that you mentioned earlier this week! (3 group tasks for normalising a database)
-Michael
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In reply to Michael Nelson

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Tom Murdock -
Hi Michael,

I've been trying to find some activities that involve students researching information for the larger group.  Individual forums can be organized so that students are going out into the world and gathering weblinks, etc., around specific topics...  I find this is a simple assignment that truly supports group learning.  Don't forget the power of Moodle's custom scales.  You can elicit feedback from peers on these posts by using the scales and making them visible or invisible, according to your purpose.

But my favorite tool that you haven't mentioned is the glossary.  In our lit courses, I ask students to post concepts that they are discovering in their texts.  Someone might write about "forgiveness" in Hamlet.  The students are required to provide a quotation from the text that sets the concept in context, and then 2-3 sentences of literary analysis.  It takes absolutely no time for a class to create a healthy glossary of really significant ideas from the text.  These, too, can be rated by peers in terms of accuracy, helpfulness, etc..  The beauty of the hyperlinked glossary is that the concepts become part of all of the other course activities--so good ideas are not left behind.

best,
Tom
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Andy Diament -
Agreed - I had a class produce a complete glossary on a week's worth of work in less than 1/2 hour. There were very few definitions far out! Andy D
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Michael Nelson -
Hi Tom!

Yeah, I love using the Single discussion forum as an intro to each topic to get learners researching info for the larger group... found this sort of thing invaluable. But again, maybe I've been jumping back to a classroom discussion of our findings too quickly? (I've just had a play with the custom scales.... very helpful!! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.. i'll give the ratings a go today!)

And as I replied to Andy, I'll give the glossaries a bit more effort too!

So it sounds that people find the following tasks helpful for encouraging social constructivism in the classroom:
  • Investigation activities (Single simple discussion forum where learners can work in pairs to reply with the results of their investigation, including links). Ratings are useful here.
  • Journal activities for feedback on individual learner progress and feedback on the course itself. Also useful for setting goals or learning contracts.
  •  Glossary activities, again with comments and ratings being very useful.
  • Workshops activities for with peer assessment (find this one invaluable myself), for encouraging formal feedback between peers as well as learning from each others work.
Would anyone add any others? (Perhaps using choices, lessons, quizes?)

Thanks again for your feedback, Andy and Tom!
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In reply to Michael Nelson

Re: Moodle strategies to nurture social learning environment

by Vincent Short -

Just to share this

Our recent wonderful experience :

We are in France

an engineering school that recruits students that have already done a first cycle [1] Age around 20, to take our engineering degree that has options in IT or Health and Safety

So when they start here they already have 2 years of higher ed.

in science : pure i.e. maths, chemistry or applied i.e. maths for business

or technology : networks, water treatment.

Which means they have hugely different learning experiences and skills

They will all study in the U.K and / or Spain or Germany and do internships in both languages

So we have a group of sixty or so new students who dont know each other and dont know us

In the first two weeks they have standard classes in the morning and in the afternoon they have Project Start

Which had the following themes

  1. Project START 2004 : A list of activities
  2. Developing Reading Skills (DRS)
  3. Office Applications
  4. Web skills
  5. Write that CV now !
  6. Presenting Information
  7. So far so good
  8. Subject area resources

In a plenary session we presented the objectives :

You should be able to do this : list of skills.

Some of you, because of your background, are very good in xyz some of you in abc

See attached file for what we gave the students

So basically then all we did was light the blue touch paper and stand well back

The students were amazed as we were our good selves. Now, I am the duty optimist around here but even I was overwhelmed with the response.

Everything you could hope and expect from a social-constructionist approach.

Details : I didnt use the wiki

I let them open threads in the forums

And let them know I read everything wink

(sorry i can put a screen shot i have added to the attachment)  which took time but an investment not a cost

did I say we did all this in English ,

cheers

Vin


[1] French system : three cycles 1st 2 years 2nd 3 years 3rd 3 years So an engineer has five years higher ed. and a Ph.D. 8

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