From Blackboard to Moodle --- Experiment and Blog

From Blackboard to Moodle --- Experiment and Blog

by Steve Hyndman -
Number of replies: 6

Hello Moodlers,

I teach graduate classes at a univeristy that uses Blackboard. Due to some frustrations I've had with this system over the past 5 years, I decided to use moodle to teach my three web-assisted classes (around 75 students) this term. I've started a blog to document my experience during the term.

If anyone is interested in reading about my experience as the term progresses, the blog address is: http://www.kentuckyclassroom.com/moodle_blog/index.php?cat=1

Also, please feel free to comment on anything I have posted...I'm still learning the features and capabilities of Moodle. Two weeks into the term and things are going fairly well.

Steve

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In reply to Steve Hyndman

Re: From Blackboard to Moodle --- Experiment and Blog

by Claudia Scholz -
I'm also new to Moodle and have recently started a blog where I write about using Moodle and H2O in my sociology classes.
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In reply to Claudia Scholz

Re: From Blackboard to Moodle --- Experiment and Blog

by Frances Bell -
Claudia,
I had a look at your blog and it is interesting.You seem to be using Moodle and H2O for different classes.  Would you be able to link them together?  DO the students need separate ids which can be a bit of a pain for them?  The reason I didn't post this on your blog was because I was reluctant to set up yet another id and password.
I read your other posting about rotisserie and H2O and it looks very interesting from a pedagogical point of view.  Perhaps I didn't look hard enough but though I found the code and the terms of use, I didn't see anything about how it might be integrated with other software.  Do you know this?
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In reply to Frances Bell

Re: From Blackboard to Moodle --- Experiment and Blog

by Claudia Scholz -
Frances,

Blogger is supposed to let anyone post comments, without logging in.  I think you simply have to click on "post anonymously" on the comment page.  Sorry about that, I'm new to this blogging business and am realizing that there are certain limitations to Blogger.com (no categories, etc.)

In answer to your questions:

I am using H2O for my Social Theory class and Moodle for my Intro Sociology class, so I haven't tried linking them in any way.  Since the students choose their own usernames and passwords on both H2O and Moodle, they could probably set themselves up with the same ID.

H2O is open source, so it could be integrated into another application, including Moodle.  You can also approximate the functioning of the rotisserie with Moodle's workshop module.  Either the discussion or the workshop modules could probably be modifed to include rotisserie functionality if Moodle's developers were so inclined.  I don't have the programing skills to do something like this.

So far, I've found H2O to be very limited for classroom use, mostly because one can't back-up and reuse courses.  In the future, I think I would simply use Moodle's discussion module for this sort of thing.  I am finding the experiment worthwhile though.  The students' ratings of the first round did identify and highlight the most informative/interesting posts.  I'm hoping this models good writing/reasoning for the others.

I know H2O's developers are working on a new version, but don't know what the release schedule is or what sorts of new features might be implemented.
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In reply to Claudia Scholz

Re: From Blackboard to Moodle --- Experiment and Blog

by Steve Hyndman -

Nice blog Claudia...I've linked to you from my blog to help remember to check it regularly (and to help me remember the link since my memory isn't all that great smile).

Steve

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In reply to Claudia Scholz

Re: From Blackboard to Moodle --- Experiment and Blog

by Claudia Scholz -
I've moved my blog to my own domain where I've also implemented moodle.  Fantastico's CPanel makes all this so straightforward even a newbie like me can do it!  wink  I'm learning more and more and have even set up a wikindx database for storing bibliographies and research notes.

I blame Moodle.org for all this big grin, since these forums is where I learned about WordPress, Wikindx, web-hosting...  Hooray for Moodle!
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In reply to Claudia Scholz

Re: From Blackboard to Moodle --- Experiment and Blog

by Steve Hyndman -

Claudia,

I updated the link on my blog to point to SociaCampus.

Moving to Wordpress was a great choice...it's an excellent blog system that is being actively developed. Version 1.5 has some great new features and once it's stable (I'm giving it a couple more months), then it will be well worth the upgrade.

Steve

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