Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Mary Cooch -
Number of replies: 22
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Along the lines of the Essay writing in Moodle tip, I thought it might be useful for us to collate the different ways in which students can create a document collaboratively using standard Moodle features. If you have more efficient ways in your organisation, please add them.

Wiki

Working together in a wiki activity is what I imagine many people would first suggest. See Wiki.

Wiki eg

Plus points:

  • It's standard Moodle.
  • Clicking on the History tab allows you to see all changes and revert them if needed:

Editing wiki

  • Students may add comments as well as editing the wiki directly.

Wiki comments

Minus points:

  • Unless your students only edit a single page, they will need to understand wiki editing  which is not intuitive.
  • Editing is problematic with a large number of people working on the wiki at the same time.
  • You can't grade a wiki (although you can add a grade item and manually grade in the gradebook.)

Group assignment with online text:

Since Moodle 2.4, it's been possible to set up assignments so that students can work together and present a final piece of work as a collaborative effort. See Assignment settings

Plus points:

  • With the online text option it is easy for students to click and edit the document.
  • You can force all students to submit, ensuring everyone in the group pulls their weight and each member sees who has not yet done their "bit".

Submission status

  • You can grade them as a group or individually according to how you feel they contributed:

Group grades

Minus points:

  • Setting up a group assignment, and getting the settings right so it works as you wish, is a bit tricky.
  • (As far as I can see) there is no easy way to see who has added or changed what in the submission, if you need to know this.

Linking to an online doc:

Strictly speaking this is not making use of standard Moodle but I am including it as it is a popular option. The link could be added as a simple URL.

Plus points:

  • If Google docs or Word online are used, students are able to collaborate with tools and formatting they are comfortable with.
  • The documents save automatically and seem to work well with a number of people editing simultaneously.

Online docs

Minus points:

  • You've gone outside of Moodle and have to set up a separate item beforehand.
  • If the link is available for anyone to edit, there is no history of who did what. If they are required to log in to be seen, an extra step is required (although this might be fine if your organisation is connected to Google or Office 365; I'm not sure.)
  • It's not automatically connected to the gradebook, although, as with the wiki, you can set up a grade item and grade manually.

Other options:

I have seen Moodlers saying they give teacher rights to students to edit a book collaboratively. This is not to be recommended for security reasons. The capability to edit book chapters is intended strictly for trusted users.  However, there must be other ways I've missed  - what are they? smile

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Itamar Tzadok -

Do we really want to continue limiting our concept of "standard Moodle" to core Moodle? Arguably, for the common learning services provider, Moodle without its rich set of plugins is not that different from other leading LMS platforms. And some plugins in the Moodle plugin repo (e.g. Poodll) are far richer than their counter core modules/components can ever be, simply because their development and maintenance have more resources than what HQ can allocate for the core modules it maintains.  smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

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

True - and I especially love PoodLL smile Happy for people to suggest non-standard features too; I'm just coming from the angle of being in a Moodle-using high school from 2006 - 2013 where there was no possibility of adding other modules so you had to make the most of what you had. And I used to look enviously at other establishments which had the freedom (or knowledge) to add more stuff. (And as an aside, my old school now runs Moodle themselves, so had I stayed, I would no longer  have needed to covet the freedom of others smile )

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Mark Glynn -

I have often used the Moodle Glossary and Database to collaboratively compile information with students and would definitely class them as "easy-to-use"


Can I also suggest that if you do list plugins that you include a link to it on the plugins database so others can easily find them if they want to follow your lead.


Kind regards


Mark

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In reply to Mark Glynn

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Paula Clough -

Mark,

Yes, glossaries and databases can be very helpful for collaborative work!

I agree that providing the links for the plugins would be helpful. I might also suggest that the core Moodle suggestions be listed first and then  any plugins listed further down.  That way those who don't have the ability to install plugins can separate what they can use.  Those that aren't Admins and have an IT department that might be helpful if informed,  can forward the link and have them read that part of the message.


cool

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In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

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

I'd be interested in your examples of how you use databases and glossaries for collaborative document writing in Moodle as I hadn't looked at them from that angle. I am thinking in this instance of ,say a answer to an  essay exam question, so a single document worked on together. To me glossary entries or database entries are single entities and although students can comment on each others they can't collaboratively edit each others and so I am wondering how you work this so to bring together all the component parts?

And yes - we'll be sure to include links to plugins which complement the standard Moodle functionality in future threads smile

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by dawn alderson -

Hello all,

Interesting thread, I suppose collaborative activity is often defined as a pair or group of people working together to reach a shared outcome, as opposed to being in a pair/group and aiming for individual outcomes . Database and Glossary lead to an overall shared-big picture outcome-some might say-if created by one or more person. So, the database as a whole is the shared outcome and ditto for the Glossary.  As I say, if in a group/pairs.  I think, if a whole cohort contribute, then I personally term that as communal activity...as quite often the teacher gets involved too, but of course we need context to support these assumptions. 

I am not sure I have ever heard of this approach before:

 answering an  essay exam question, so a single document worked on together to comment on each others' input and collaboratively edit each others' efforts....

Is this a new thing?  I mean, would the rubric state:  you made so many edits so you get an A/92% ...and you didn't make any edits, so you get a F/0%, sorry I am a little bit confused about that. 

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Itamar Tzadok -

Suppose you have groups of 5, a report with 5 sections, and you assign each group member to one section in the group report. When you look at the 5 entries together you get the group report. But each entry, that is, section, is composed by one of the group members. Then, suppose you have in each entry a comment field where group members can comment on the content of the section composed by their peer. Suppose all this is real. Does it qualify? smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by dawn alderson -

tongueout

Moodle report: Plugin-new-sounds interesting, if you are talking about promoting collab activity in that way-yes, sounds pedagogically sound to me.

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Paula Clough -

Sorry Mary, for not getting back to you sooner. I have been out of town and had company so have not been online much. 

The process we were talking about using the glossary and database would not allow for students working directly on a single document each editing it as we can in Wiki, Google docs or the new group assignment.  We began using this before the group assignment was available and it was teachers who were not comfortable with the Wiki.  This would have been a work around to give the students a work place for working together. It would have been the online version of sitting around a table working on a document while the group secretary put everything together on a primary document. It may not have been as slick, but we have fond memories of working with it.  

Teachers who were more comfortable with the glossary module used it, but it didn't have a group feature, so they created separate glossaries for each group.  The database did have the groups so the teachers who were comfortable with that could use just one.  Different assignments were done differently, but usually the groups had one person who would put up the beginning of the document.  Others would then comment about it and make suggestions. The person who led by putting up the beginning document could then either edit their original post (if this was a short assignment) adding in the information from the comments, or could make another post with the changes.  Other members of the group could also post pieces in their own posts if they were too lengthy to put in comments. In the database, it was also easy to have an extra field for students to post a document for others to look at as well.   Later, we had played about trying with giving students permission in the database to edit other peoples posts, but this seemed to include deleting a post which might be trouble some.

cool


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In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Itamar Tzadok -

In the Dataform you can have grouped entries such that each member of the group can edit the entry content. If the content is a document, then each group member can upload a document or replace the current document in the entry with a new one. Experience shows that groups still designate one group member to upload the group submission file. If the submission consists of multiple sections groups may sometime designate different members to upload/enter the group work into particular sections of the group entry. smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by dawn alderson -

sorry, to be clear-the learning process involves deleting/editing the written words/ideas/thoughts of others willy nilly-correct?

I am missing the advantages for learning here.  

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In reply to dawn alderson

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Itamar Tzadok -

That's life, isn't it? smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by dawn alderson -

I see.

bunny rabbits, clowns, acrobats and ring-master...tis life-I agree Itamar.

But the dataform is not the big top...now come on!

Collaboration involves shared meaning at some point for a shared outcome...can you square that for me if possible? In terms of deleting/editing the voices of others-willy nilly!

It is not collaboration otherwise.

It is a free for all....mash-up that makes no sense other than to the one makes the loudest noise.  


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In reply to dawn alderson

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Andy Chaplin -

Hi Dawn

You seem to be basing your argument on the idea that the editing is done "willy nilly."  With the freedom (or power) to edit someone else's work comes responsibility.  Not a bad thing to learn.

I would suggest that the act of improving the work of others is a very useful skill and an integral part of a learning process.  Equally, it doesn't have to denigrate the work of the original author who may well have come up with an excellent concept, but made a factual error or didn't communicate an aspect as well as they might have done.

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In reply to dawn alderson

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Paula Clough -

This is a process of producing a group project whether face-to-face or online. It may seem willy-nilly to someone on the outside or someone who hasn't done them much, but really it is not.  Part of the idea is that this is much the same process as people have to do face-to-face within business or charity work or whatever in life when having to work together in a group on a project. This type of collaborative work has been a goal in education in the United States for some time.   It also has the advantage of giving students in an online course an additional chance to talk over the learning and perhaps come to a better understanding and make other connections that they might not have without input from other learners. 



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In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by dawn alderson -

Thanks Paula.

Can you outline a specific example in action? I know you have specified practice there, but in that post-can you translate it into an example for Higher Education, please...I am struggling with it....and I know a little bit about this smile enough to question the merit of what you are proposing there, with the utmost respect.  

thank you. 

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Paula Clough -

Thanks, Itamar.

That's good to know.  I will need to play with it, now that I can add what I want to my Moodle.  Ahhh... retiring has it's advantages.


cool

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In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Paula Clough -

Dawn,

I have been thinking about how to explain the process.  It can actually be quite similar to doing the same activity or process that would be done for a face-to-face course.

This example is not as quick as Mary's example of a question on a quiz, but this is what I have personal experience with.  A Spanish class assigns groups to work on a question about Spanish culture which they have been studying. This teacher usually used fairly open questions to see what students would come up with. The first part is to decide what the question really means.  The first person to post might either give ideas or ask some more questions to narrow the focus, bring in things discussed or read in class, or suggest what else might be researched.  Other students would chime in either with more questions or comments. If students are in a venue where they can add directly to the document, they will add directly to the work space, if not they will add comments. If they can post directly, they may  label their additions and comments either with their name or by coloring the text at the beginning. As they get more information it can be added in and worked on. Then they work to come up with a plan for putting the pieces together and get a draft going.  Comments are asked for to make sure they all agree and see what editing needs to be done.  When they are happy with the product, it is turned in.  This isn't as easy to do online in some ways as it is to do in a face-to-face situation.   


I hope that helps.

cool

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In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by dawn alderson -

Very helpful Paula, and thank you for taking the time to respond back to me.

Practice Exemplars like this are always useful in the Docs big grin 

Have a good day.

Dawn

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Thanks for sharing Mary. I think you've provided some short, sweet examples of how Moodle's tools can be used for collaborative work.

In my experience, I've found that it's important to make a distinction between collaborating (everybody working together on each aspect of a project or problem) and division of labour (each person working on a different aspect of a project or problem). I think it's necessary to understand what it is we're actually asking learners to do and what knowledge, skills, and abilities they actually need in order to participate effectively, especially team-work skills necessary for collaborative learning.

Division of labour is straightforward to organise and for participants to understand and define their roles. Interaction, debate, negotiation, etc. are kept to a minimum for the sake of expediency. Assessment is relatively unproblematic.

Collaboration is usually a minefield of ambiguities and uncertainties; a project or problem has to be big enough to warrant multiple minds working together on it and also be sufficiently "ill-defined" in order for it to give sufficient scope for participants to act autonomously, think analytically and critically, interpret aspects, and come up with solutions/contributions that could not be predicted beforehand, i.e. There's no set of right answers "at the back of the book." By definition, effectively collaborative assignments must be large, complex, and ambiguous.

Assessing collaborative work is another minefield but thankfully there's a lot of evidence-based literature about it. I think that teachers and curriculum developers will find it a less daunting and problematic task if they study the literature and find documentation of specific examples before trying it for themselves (or seek expert guidance on getting started).

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Andy Chaplin -

Hi Matt

sufficiently "ill-defined"

What a great bit of insight!  Hope you don't mind if I steal that for a future team meeting! smile

One thing which I experienced as a student, and try always to implement as a teacher, is that the collaborative process is usually the point of the exercise over and above the result of the collaboration.  I can't ever remember meeting a student who felt that they had been fairly treated by the marker in a collaborative exercise, and it the number one complaint among my students.  Therefore I try always to give the documentation of the collaboration a significantly higher weighting than the product of the collaboration.

I suppose it depends on your focus, but for me working collaboratively is a more useful skill for learners than the content of any joint report.

Just my thoughts.

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In reply to Andy Chaplin

Re: Moodle tip: Writing collaboratively in Moodle

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Andy,

Yes, "ill-defined" problems, tasks, and projects is a great way of putting it but I didn't come up with it.

You might find this book interesting:

Gibbs, G. (1995). Assessing Student Centred Courses (1st ed.). Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development: Oxford Brookes University. Retrieved from http://shop.brookes.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?prodid=544


And this online platform is free to use for university faculty: http://info.catme.org/ I think the supporting research is thorough and solid.

I hope this helps!

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