We’ve recently finished the latest run of our twice yearly Learn Moodle MOOC and Helen and I have been looking through the feedback in order to improve the course for its next run starting on 8 January 2018. Here’s a brief summary:
Some facts and figures:
6303 participants signed up for the course and 3829 logged in on or after the start of the course on 19 June 2017.
1750 obtained a participant badge for posting and replying in a forum - 46% of those who logged in to the course.
802 participants went on to complete all 35 activities and obtain a certificate of completion and badge - 21% of those who logged in to the course.
In the week 1 choice activity, 79% of participants said that they were new to Moodle or had used it only a little for sharing files.
In the week 4 final feedback, 93% of participants rated the course as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’, and 88% said that the tasks in the course were just the right level for them.
What we did well:
Showcasing new features
Our MOOC always runs on the latest version of Moodle, currently Moodle 3.3, and while this might not be so apparent to newcomers, it means experienced Moodlers can also benefit from the course by exploring what’s new in a real learning situation. This time, along with the new Course overview, the significant advances made in the mobile app meant that participants were able to do all but two of the standard Moodle activities in the course directly on the mobile. (Next time, app users can look forward to doing all standard Moodle activities from their phones - or even from the new Moodle Desktop.)
Up-to-date video tutorials
Participants appreciated having short, focused videos explaining the basic features of Moodle. Download links and subtitle files were provided for those with poorer internet connections or whose first language was not English. The Learn Moodle 3.3 videos are now in our Learn Moodle playlist on YouTube, along with tutorials for earlier versions. Please note that anyone is welcome to contribute subtitles in your own language. (See the guide Translating Moodle video subtitles.)
Powerful peer assessment
While the MOOC is aimed at complete non-technical beginners and therefore covers only basic course management and activities, we’ve wanted to inspire participants to take their Moodling further by engaging them as students in some of Moodle’s more advanced features. One of these is the Workshop activity, a powerful peer assessment tool which is consistently mentioned as a favourite in the final feedback.
How we’re going to improve:
Clarify course requirements and outcomes
While we do specify important dates and weekly content, some participants are still unclear about deadlines and what they need to do in order to complete the course. Next time, we will outline the schedule and certificate criteria in a Moodle book in the hope this will encourage more people to complete the course.
An alternative certificate?
To obtain the course completion certificate it is necessary to complete 35 activities, including one with a deadline. Thus, if you have one of our Learn Moodle completion certificates, you have worked really hard to deserve it! However, this also means that some people might complete 34 out of the 35 activities, missing the workshop deadlines and receive no certificate. We’re currently considering awarding a certificate of achievement for those who perform well but do not manage to complete all 35 activities.
Activity completion
Those checkboxes against required activities always arouse great interest from the moment the course is open. As activity completion is an advanced feature, we haven’t focused on it much before the final week because we haven’t wanted to overburden newcomers. This hasn’t dimmed participants’ enthusiasm for wanting to try it in their courses. Since the advent of the new Course overview block makes understanding activity completion even more essential, we’re going to explain it earlier in the course, along with a video tutorial.
Participant feedback:
...an excellent starting point. The trainers have given me the tools I need to further explore Moodle on my own.
Probably the most interesting aspect was learning with students from around the world. Moodle attracts a very generous and helpful group of people.
I found it useful: new Moodle version, hands on "back to basics" student experience in big Moodle course, etc. I will recommend the future courses to our teachers.
This is a great effort to socialize the Moodle platform and how it can help beginners like me. It surely can ensure we build and develop good courses by maximizing Moodle's capabilities to enable learners best.
For more comments made by participants, please see Learn Moodle: Participant feedback.
