wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by ryan sanders -
Number of replies: 29

i have been on a search on google and through moodle.net but i am not finding, actual courses, that i can just click in and view. (with or without) student data.  

i am actually finding over all lack of courses for K-12.  i would of thought i would be finding more "open source" per say courses. or teachers sharing information with each other. but i am not finding much if anything. 

i am not even finding a site "that i was expecting to find within moodle websites" were teachers have grouped up together. and help create a common course together. and inserting there own activities / resources for a collaborative doing.   

i was hoping to see more actual course sharing (within reason) of copyrighted third party material. 

================

i would like to move forward, but without a base line of what is there, and already being done in real world. 

i see a lot of how to create this or that, but not actually sharing the content. 

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by Paula Clough -

Ryan,

Were you looking for courses that teach English as  second language?  In Moodle.net, there are several courses about various types of English instruction, It looks as if only one has a working demo site. If you have a Moodle site, you can download the backup files and restore them on your own site so that you can take a look at them.  When we were just beginning with Moodle, this is how I showed teachers the kinds of things they could do with Moodle.  The courses on there are usually Creative Commons License, so you can make them your own, with certain restrictions... usually give credit and don't sell a course with any of that content in it .

www.FreeMoodle.org is a place where teachers can put their courses if they want to share with anyone who wants to make them available to anyone who wants to take them for free.  There are some English courses there.  They could give you ideas for your own courses. 

I have been looking into open source curriculum recently, but haven't yet found anything that is already in Moodle courses.  I will let you know if I find something more like what you want.  Perhaps someone else will know more and post here as well.

Hope that helps.

cool

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by Derek Chirnside -

Most of the best courses I have seen need some sort of plugins or customisation.

Issues like navigation (the scroll of death), deploying videos (very limited in core Moodle), Drag and drop images, other themes or formats etc often require extra bits to make them look nice.  Hence they will not end up in the Orange School or the demo courses site.

-Derek

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Ryan,

Yes, as Paula has asked, what kind of English courses are you looking for? English literature, English language, English as foreign or second language, English linguistics?

Have you checked out any of the Open Educational Resources (OER) databases? e.g. https://www.oercommons.org/ and http://lreforschools.eun.org/ and http://opencourselibrary.org/

I suspect that what you may mostly find aren't complete curricula (courses). Many teachers and curriculum developers look for resources that they can use to assemble bespoke curricula that are tailored to the specific organisation, institution, or even cohort of learners. The idea is to start with a syllabus (list of topics, concepts, skills, and abilities) as a "skeleton" and then look for individual learning activities and resources to "flesh out" the course.

Quality can vary enormously and you may find that OER activities don't meet your syllabus requirements as closely as you'd like and so it's important to make sure that the CC licences allow you to adapt them. It's not uncommon to find great ideas that have been poorly and/or inappropriately executed. One example is to have too many prescriptive, step by step instructions so that learners end up simply following procedures mindlessly.

I hope this helps.

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by Don Hinkelman -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Have your tried the Hub of the Moodle Association of Japan?  http://hub.moodlejapan.org

It has over forty courses related to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL).  I realize that is not the K-12 ESL type class you are looking for, but you might find some good ideas.  All courses are Moodle 2.7 compatible and free (OER).

The great thing about this hub site compared to Moodle.net, is that all kinds of third party plugins are already installed for you to view the questions and activities (PoodLL, drag-and-drop question types, video assessment, sharing cart and others). It is not hard to install these plugins into your own Moodle, and for language learning, you absolutely need these kind of media-rich audio and video recording tools, as Derek points out.

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by ryan sanders -

a quick reply. before i go back and look at all the links you all have provided. *big grin* thank you!

=========================

just want to get a feel for overall courses teachers are producing / using.  so i can see the overall work flow and content.  ya i can dream all i want, but needing some good old fashioned stuff tossed together. bespoke is perfect. not perfectly trimmed out with all the extras. just down to earth this what is being used in actual courses. and not some made up, i think this is how you should teach it stuff.  a good old mess = perfect. fact of life / reality. 

i am focusing grammar overall does not really matter what language, but i only know english. so the limits are i need to be able read it in english. 

videos and audio = bad for me. or less pronouncing / stating a sentence or word to clarify or give a test question.  actual giving a lecture through video / audio = to much time i do not have.  

all i am going to be doing is "skim reading" and i need a enough courses i can go through. so i can pickup stuff. that may not be in others. along with seeing like content doings.

i am more focused on content and order of going from one thing to the other. 

i would prefer "full course" from day 1 of school to end of that school year.  and be able to go right into the next school year next grade up

i do not want to actually create a course to go out and teach and/or be taught. this is more for self learning for myself.  so i am not *mouth half open with dooooooohhhhhh sound coming out of it, without a clue in the world*

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Ryan - the Moodle School Demo site, aka Mount Orange (no customisations) but all courses with guest access - although you need to log in to try out the activities and see the full features not visible to guests.

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by john Simpson -

I do believe you are talking about FULL COURSES IN ENGLISH in other words resources for the whole curriculum from start to finish. TESOL teachers and I presume state school teachers should know exactly what you mean, and employed teachers from language centres and state would already have all these resources definately face to face at school or language centres, and I would presume the same applies for moodle teachers.

High demand English courses face to face or online would be those based on reaching a qaulification, such as GCSE, A levels, Cambridge KET,PET, FCE, CAE, CPE, IELTS and TOEFL. And depending on the geographical area of the student could be following the British or the American curriculum. In Europe it's most likely the British curriculum.

As an ESOL teacher I would get my course books etc from Pearson Longman, Have a look here and you will find course books from beginner level up to proficiency level. http://www.pearsonelt.com/products

And yes, there does appear to be a lack of course books or full courses suitable for use as a teacher on Moodle, even a course book in PDF or word format is difficult to find.

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Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by john Simpson -

Precisely Alan, writing a full course in each level is time consuming. but I have a feeling that this is what Ryan is talking about, and what have many have asked for on the languages forum to no avail.

Yes, it's time consuming and difficult for one individual to write a full course, ready for someone else to host it as a teacher on moodle. But that's what is in student demand, and they would be prepared to pay for it. Same as moodle administration, I'm sure they would be happy to pay for moodle course writers in various subjects, and not just English. 

Here's an example; In preparation for a Cambridge test FCE for schools.

Cambridge English: First for Schools handbook

It's all good business for the moodle admin, the course writer, and the teacher.

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In reply to john Simpson

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
John

You seem to be an English language specialist. Is it Cambridge English, or Oxford English as we used to say in early post-colonial days, what we are speaking in this forum?
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Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by dawn alderson -

I hear you Alan....loud and clearly! tongueout

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Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi Alan

I would imagine that there are great many variations of the English language in the world. But my question earlier was limited to discussions in this forum "Teaching with Moodle", or more accurately, the variation of English used here, and whether it has any connection to the Cambridge English course brought by John Simpson.
wink
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by ryan sanders -

*rubs chin* like many threads, they can get a life of there. all good *thumbs up*

my want for full course viewing for through K-12 is still wanted. but from searching it would seem un-realistic. good exercise regardless and raised some bigger issues that needs focus'ed on.

Natalie comment in Educational gaming for Moodle. on www.dev4x.com  "peer pressure" and looking at site has me some.  

Natalie comment in  Educational gaming for Moodle. on http://www.learningfutures.eu/2014/03/what-have-i-learned-from-moodle-and-mahara/ this if's, and's, but's, is what i was hoping to gain, by viewing courses.  and being able to to say hey. this is what moodle is primarily being used for. and this is were some of the bigger issues that need to be dealt with. 

the ability to have content of K-12 and different core classes, at my own disposal. would speed things up considerably for myself. being able to click through, and begin to create "skill tree" and start inserting things and building up.  to point were games could start pulling information from the skill tree. and teachers adjusting them as needed as wanted. but it is a lack of overall knowledge on my part. of just seeing K-12 english / grammar courses.  i can goto a game play it for a few hours and have things memorized, like many kids. but finding that information for teaching / schools / learning is well *big frown* depressing. 

standards = goal setting.  they do not really give how to reach the goal. they just give what is needed to complete the goal.  and i was hoping to see some actual K-12 courses. to fill in that missing gap. 

===================

change in direction of this thread.

i am to a point were i need to make hard decisions of were i want to use and place my energy / time.  i want to get to actual coding. but now i also know content of (courses, activities/resources) is also an issue. other issues assessment, skill tree, games, some better game logic for moodle even ecommerce.  and in these areas moodle needs improving on in my eyes, and something i might be able to offer into. 

many of you have offered to help and asked for help. it has not went un-noticed.  up to this point i still do not know how to respond. because every day or so. it seems a completely different subject matter needs to be looked into on my own part. due to my own severe lack of knowledge. 

i am willing to help. but i am to point for the need to start getting into grunt work.  

will update https://docs.moodle.org/28/en/Game_Logic_in_Moodle over the next couple days, and then see were it stands about actually getting down to good old coding.

*asks someone to hold his drink* here i go, all or nothing. into the unknown!

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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by john Simpson -

Neither. Just a simple ESOL teacher currently teaching Russians English. I rather like it, and I am proud that I have had pure beginners and have transformed them to chatting fluently in English, and doing very well in their state schools. And not a single word in Russian has ever been used.

I recently had a student I taught from 4 years old and he has now passed a Cambridge KET test with distinctiion. He was only 11 years old, and I am now hoping for the same results with his Cambridge PET test (B1 level).

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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by john Simpson -

Visvanath, I'm not aware of Oxford specialising in ESOL (English as a second language) international tests and qualifications such as Cambridge does. Cambridge also publishes a lot of ESOL course books based on these qualifications.

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by john Simpson -

You say you want to focus on just grammar and possibly just skim through some text?

Let's look at this from an ESOL student's perpective. A Russian teenager for example doing his/her final English exams at school, in the hope they achieve a qualification entry to one of their universities in Moscow. They need to pass YEGA (Russian State exam) or Cambridge FCE for schools.( For entrance into a UK university as an international student they will need Cambridge advanced CAE, CPE, or IELTS academic minimum 7.5 level.

This entails:

A speaking test. They must understand the partners they are speaking to, and they must pronounce conversation in English to be fully understood. Hence Audio visual is essential in a course.

A Reading test, They must have the ability to read and comprehend various text, in various topics, anything from British history, news and magazine articles, you name it. In a course it helps a foreign student to have audio when reading text ( although audio will not be available in the reading examination)

A listening test They will liston to some dialogue from a cd of which they need to demonstrate that they understand what's been said by answering a number of questions. Hence the need for audio

A writing Test They will be given a topic to write about, which will be 160 words.

And of course a test in the use of English, of which will also test their knowledge of grammar.

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Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by dawn alderson -

Ryan, hi

Dawn here,

when you say:

i am focusing grammar overall does not really matter what language, but i only know english. so the limits are i need to be able read it in english. 

This sounds like a very good focus Ryan, the written form is quite a good starting place to be able to read English.

Am going to think a bit more about this thread.  I think it links with this:

https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=270499

But I am struggling a bit as to how....one thing I can think of is that issues remain after 5 months....ergo from the original post in Sept 2014.....what are those issues?  mmmmmm.....as I say....still working it out....maybe my detective work will bring together some fruitful points (I am an investigator-remember....moodle_agent007)

Back laters.... smile

D

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In reply to dawn alderson

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by dawn alderson -

Hi,

Bringing it all together then:

It was Ryan who stated that he would like to be able to just click and view courses on a hub/shared moodle courses/content on a platform, so for example moodle.net, and of course we know there are others too: Mount Orange as well as the lovely Learn. Moodle MOOC. 

Ryan specified K-12 and that his difficulty was not being able to find much, if anything, where teachers have collaborated in the construction of such courses. Paula also referred to www.FreeMoodle.org as a place where teachers can put their courses if they want to share with anyone who wants to make them available to anyone who wants to take them for free. (a hub)

Ryan suggested or hinted at change, in that he would like to see movement forward and avoid a baseline in terms of what is already there.  In other words, it would be nice to have access to similar courses that exist in the real world. In sum, it appears Ryan is saying that he found a lot about how to create this or that, but not much about sharing content. 

Paula asked Ryan to clarify whether it was specifically courses that teach English as second language?  And pointed out that there are several courses across Moodle.net about instruction, but there is just one with a working demo site. Paula laid out the instructions how to download and back up files for own site. Paula stated there might be some English courses there that could help with ideas for Ryan's own courses.  Paula mentioned open source curriculum, but there appeared to be nothing found in Moodle courses. 

Derek stated, most of the best courses need some sort of plugins or customisation. He went on to raise some issues, which prevent these type of courses to exist in the Orange school/demo sites because of the extra bits/code/work required

Matt raised the point, in that a number of courses about English can exist such as English literature, English language, English as foreign or second language, English linguistics and so on.  He referred to Open Educational Resources (OER) databases? e.g.https://www.oercommons.org/and http://lreforschools.eun.org/andhttp://opencourselibrary.org/  as examples of a shared hub for teachers, but identified pros and cons too, which in turn, suggests a gap out there.

Don included a link for the Moodle Japanese hub: http://hub.moodlejapan.org in reference to courses related to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL).  He stated the advantage of this hub site compared to Moodle.net, is that all kinds of third party plugins are already installed for you to view the questions and activities (PoodLL, drag-and-drop question types, video assessment, sharing cart and others).

Ryan returned...

He stated that his overall need would be to view courses to have an idea of the overall work flow and content. He outlined in his post, a need to see fit- for- purpose courses....so not necessarily all the bells and whistles, but rather a course that resembles that of what is going on in practice, and the more subjective/bespoke... the better...not made up-didactic stuff.  Capturing the chaos...the reality of how courses look and are put together....linear/non-linear...imperfect/sleek and all that.

It was Mary who suggested to Ryan that while there are no customisations in the Moodle School Demo site, aka Mount Orangeall courses  have  guest access and that you need to log in to try out the activities and see the full features not visible to guests.

John clarified things and set the bar: in that he thought it appeared the thread was about FULL COURSES IN ENGLISH,in other words resources and curriculum links are necessary for all teachers including moodle teachers.  John appeared to be stating a need for curriculum mapping where the moodle resources/activities: tools and the way in which a fit-for- purpose can be achieved involving: teacher/learner........moodle tools........curricula expectations across/embedded within- moodle courses. 

John referred to course books and identified a gap in that there appears to be a lack of course books or full courses suitable for use as a teacher on Moodle, even a course book in PDF or word format is difficult to find.

Alan referred to the resource http://stories4learning.com/moodle/course/view.php?id=10

It was on the 22 Sept 2014 in the community forum, Mary Cooch posted about improvements with Mount orange school site:  https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=270499 

Mary C stated:

If you look on ourDemo page, you'll see that, in addition to our empty sandbox site and our QA testing site, we have ourMount Orange School which is a demonstration site populated with users and content, giving you a feel for how a real school site operates. TheMount Orange school demofront pagehas recently undergone a makeover MDLSITE-3245to make it more attractive and easy to use, and we'd love your feedback on how you find it, either on this thread or on the tracker issue. (It uses the  More theme with someCSS, as the demonstration sites are there to show what you can do with standard features) 

The contents are still work in progress - see MDLSITE-336- and if you have suggestions as to other useful features/activitieswe can highlight, they would be appreciated too 

Dawn offered to give feedback about the following items:

1. To consider how it looks in terms of the adjustments tomake it more attractive and easy to use

2.  Tolook at the More theme that has someCSS,

3. And comment on the demonstration sites that aim to show what can be done with standard features

And

consider these three things from the viewpoint of

astudent,ateacher, amanager, aparent oruse another account -

Mary E stated, only the frontpage had the face lift.  And that what was amazing about all of this, is that any administrator with an eye for colour and change can transform a plain school Moodle site into something similar to what Mary Cooch has achived in the Demo Mount Orange site.

Sofia stated, the Mount Orange School new site looks good and is easy to navigate and the world of water course was good. Sofia asked about any networking events for teachers using and creating courses in moodle. 

Derek agreed with Sofia, and asked about the theme: is it based on a standard theme or is something added in? Derek stated that he did not know of networking events because they are difficult to organise for a range of reasons.  

Richard suggested the regular MOOTs including the upcoming iMoot2015 as a place for such activity.

Mary C replied to Derek and stated, the School demo site is a standard site using a customised "More" theme - seeStandard themesfor how to replicate it.

Summary: Poss Five- Point plan

1. The development of moodle hub (s) for sharing courses-as outlined in the thread

2. A new approach, linkages with what is going on out there

3. Hybridity: we know institutions work in a way and we know communities work in a way....taking the best from both worlds creates a hybrid that can be found in moodle courses...e.g. curriculum mapping from the former...and subjectivity/bespoke-application in the latter, through the use of moodle hubs for sharing courses

4. It appears there is infinite scope for moodle courses within domains, as noted in this thread (English courses), as well as across domains and in terms of scope across a number of learner age-ranges.  

5. getting 1-4 right sounds pretty fruitful for moodle

Hope helpful

Dawn

 

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In reply to dawn alderson

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by john Simpson -

Good post Dawn, well said.

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Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by ryan sanders -

wow! i am a tad bit overwhelmed. i have yet to go through that many links. so i am a student that did not do his homework last night!  *feeling guilty*

EDIT: sorry for long un-coherent post. attempted to edit to clean it up some. *needs to higher a personal translator for himself*

instead of running school.demo.moodle.org at the latest 2.8.x or soon 2.9  can the site be ran at the oldest supported version?  something like 2.4 or 2.5?  and then all the "open source" / freebie plugins at www.moodle.org/plugins be loaded up into it?   

i ask for the oldest supported version. due to more plugins support the older version. vs newest and greatest. while this may be counter intuitive. for core plugins that come out in newer versions. it would be nice to have some sort of common area were most plugins are installed and be able to be selected and demo'ed directly within one of moodle websites. 

if not the oldest supported version (for security fixes) and not the most latest /newest version of moodle. then some sort of middle ground. maybe 1 or 2 versions behind newest/latest version of moodle. with all the plugins installed. 

REALITY. keeping plugins up to date and checked is pure grunt work. it takes time. and it does take knowledge to do it. more so if an error comes up. it also takes time for third party programmers to come around and check / update to latest version of moodle as things come around.  working off latest version of moodle = a backlog. and nothing getting done. working a version or 2 behind latest version of moodle gives time for stuff to happen. bugs to be found and worked out. security issues dealt with. 

=================

being able to goto say school.demo.moodle.org   and then goto say "course-> plugin -> plugin types -> for both core plugins and third party plugins, down to a specific plugin in a section per say. so it can be demo'ed in a older version might be useful.  

=================

BUT!!!!! above i am just talking about plugins.

it would be nice to create a course.  anyone with say  "particularly helpful moodlers" or "moodle partner" or "moodle developer" or "text writer" or "translator" or..etc....  other words folks that have some base line of knowledge already about moodle. ((this is to partly keep out hackers and newbies that do not necessarily know rules / ethics.)) add a condition NO STUDENTS, you are either a "guest" to view, or "editing teacher"  other words force of acknowledgement that this is a "teachers content" area. and should be treated as such. this is not folks coming in and learning directly on moodle within these courses. but rather, just for teachers. 

being able to create a course. and be able to edit any course and any resource/activity.  with say some restraints of file size. (say 10mb). with exception to restoring a course / activity / resource within any given area of school.demo.moodle.org ((more about being able to bring in information created else were and maybe a slightly larger file size wanted))  

in another way of stating it. i see it time and time again. of folks wanting to create a "hidden course" so teachers can shove various information into it. and be shared by other teachers within that school.  this is what i am looking at mooldeHQ providing. but moodleHQ is not about a single school doing. it needs to handle much much more. and some flexibility. 

it would be no different than docs.moodle.org and/or docs.moodle.org/dev  the exception would be, we actually get to add/edit stuff in creating courses / activities / resources. 

===================

PERSONAL NOTE: i have been tempted a few times in asking. is there a place in moodle websites. that could be created so i could jot down my own notes. or create this or that thing to show example. as a programmer / developer = null and void. tracker.moodle.org and github.com is used. 

BIG SPLIT

non programmers / content creators. seem to be asking for a location they can use. to add/edit/delete and overall share content with one another. not via moodle.net but rather. actual moodle installed and running. and being able to create courses and add/edit/delete and work collaboratively.  these folks are not programmers with high amount of computer knowledge. they know only how to use moodle itself and what is provided by it. they want to share just like php,css,html,javascript developers do in developing moodle. but they have no work area or common easy way to do it.   folks want to see it first. before downloading.  a hub or moodle.net not all demo sites work.  a hub is awesome. but it lacks a certain visual / collaborative doing.

as a result. everything begins forking to 100's of different websites. lets bring these folks in and acknowledge them. *so easily said, so hard to pull off in reality* it is pure grunt work. been there done that.  it can be even more work, getting folks to add content.  and pulling hair out. to get folks to do it themselves. vs someone going around getting permission first and then copy/pasting per say info into a common area.  i have a high respect for care takers per say of those with higher level of permissions here on moodle.org and the sub domains of moodle. it is not an easy job. and folks like myself do not make it any easier! *sticks tongue out*

==============

goes back to his multi tabs of websites / links. before getting himself in more trouble. 

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by dawn alderson -

Ryan...please can I ask that you take a rest-I can't keep up...honest now.....lots in that last post....feet up and I will have a read tomorrow-OK? wink

D

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by john Simpson -

I can't say I can take in everything you had to say Ryan, but you may have something in there between the lines.

Yes, we could do with a Moodle site just for private teachers/tutors, and course writers to work together in creating courses. Those who join, will learn with each other to create the courses, and share the copywright perhaps.

people with various skills in writing, photography, art, quiz/test making, video tutorials, voice overs, and of course the background of managing the moodle site etc could also be useful

Any volunteers to kick start it ?

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In reply to john Simpson

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by dawn alderson -

no point in re-inventing the wheel....some nice stuff exists that can be built upon....certainly the skill-sets of colleagues.  Mary Cooch is the person who would know most about this type of thing.  I would be happy to help with Mary's lead.  We can nag Martin for ideas here and there too-as well as other colleagues-they know who they are wink

Something for discussion/plan of action at the moot maybe....if I can get there....

 I think Mary is the best person to kick start this and oversee it across the long term.

Sounds great!

D

  

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In reply to john Simpson

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by dawn alderson -

John, thank you.  You can call me Sherlock....it has been a busy day...have just now finished mopping the kitchen floor.....phew....mop and bucket away now.....

remember Sherlock...not hemlock! tongueout  

D

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In reply to dawn alderson

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by ryan sanders -

links gave by others. and comments. please remember. newbie here. and maybe using wrong search terms. 

  1. http://moodle.net
    1. found 3 possibilities. but not much initial hope. "i forgot to keep the pages open for links"
  2. http://www.pearsonelt.com/
    1. selling content, not useful, i did not even find "descriptions" of what product was being sold, as being useful. 
  3. http://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/english-language?seeall=1
    1. left column = short less than an hour length to go through
    2. miidle column = free, a few hours to go through
    3. right column = payment it would seem = 1000's of hours long. 
    4. http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/modules/l185
      1. holding off from paying for now.
  4. http://opencourselibrary.org/
    1. some ENGL 100 to 106 if memory serves. just a handful of pdf files. not worth it. 
  5. http://lreforschools.eun.org/web/guest
    1. did not seem useful. maybe using wrong keywords, and also clicking wrong things. (due to lack of my own knowledge)
  6. https://www.oercommons.org/
    1. will come back to.  way to much to sift through.
  7. http://www.freemoodle.org/
    1. not useful, digging through i think i found maybe 2 courses. but all together not even 20 activities/resources combined. 
  8. http://hub.moodlejapan.org
    1. filled in registration, but never received an email to finish out the registration process. 
    2. would be nice to view a few of these courses! the previews were enticing.  
  9. http://stories4learning.com/moodle/course/view.php?id=10 
    1. not useful
  10. http://stories4learning.com/moodle/course/view.php?id=15
    1. useful but not enough. 
  11. http://school.demo.moodle.net/
    1. nothing seemed useful to me.
  12. Cambridge English: First for Schools handbook
    1. there was a couple links in 3rd to 7th page. that would not copy/paste or was not clickable. 
    2. overall good overview, but no content. not what i am looking for.

==================

*brain fried* ending here. for now.


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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by john Simpson -

Pearsonelt, Cambridge, and Oxford are massive publishing companies for selling English course books globally, but at the end of the day they want you as a teacher and student to purchase their hard copies. A face to face ESOL teacher for example could possess about 100 such books, and a student would need several of these books, hence big business throughout the world. So for you to have that knowledge, you need to pay up. These students' books, workbooks, cd's, and dvd's are not cheap.

Now to put that knowledge electronically and interractively into a Moodle, that is not what these publishers want. They want to sell hard copies.

Can writers sell courses profitably online or even as an ebook, and with sufficient security of their copywright? I think it's possible. Providing there is a key for each course that a teacher or admin sells to each student, or the student purchases themselves. It would probably come as a package as a course and a teacher hosting a moodle course.

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In reply to ryan sanders

Re: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english"

by dawn alderson -

Ryan and John, morning

Hope I have wedged this in between the last two posts.  Reason being, I think this thread is now on about two things:

1. a moodle hub and associated stuff

2. creating resources like e-books/TEFL and so on

I think now is a nice juncture to split the thread...and I am going to do that...take across the most recent items for 1.....for the moment-hope that is OK...otherwise I can't focus....and I need to focus to be creative in my thinking for movement forward-forward I say wink not circular (LOLs!)

I will come back to 2...here.

right....next thread on its way.

D

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