Ideally, I'd love to see Matt's, Sean's, Will's and Andy's documentation combined with the other bits and pieces scattered around ..to make a single really nice living Moodle course for teachers. The backup of it would be made available for all of us to download and modify as required for local use.
What with the other things I'm working on right now just thinking about this makes my brain hurt, but is there some brave soul who wants to lead this project?
I'll can set up the course here on moodle.org, and assign any number of
writers as teachers in it. Once an overall structure of short chapters is defined, along with a basic style guide,
people can split up tasks and work on short chunks... throw in a copy of the glossary from this course, some sample activities ...etc. it could be very nice.
In reply to Martin Dougiamas
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Andy Watson -
An excellent idea. A course about using Moodle and all its features is long overdue.
I don't feel I've enough experience of using Moodle to lead such a project but I'd be happy to contribute. I've done lots of training of teachers on various aspects of ICT and regularly produce training materials. Before my present job as an ICT Development Officer with Aberdeen City Council in Aberdeen, Scotland, I was a teacher of English and then a teacher of children with special needs. This background has convinced me of the need for simple language and lots of illustrations, even for relatively experienced users.
Here are some first thoughts on the sorts of things to be considered -
- a course is not a manual - it should introduce the basic ideas before adding the finer details
- there may be a need for a series of courses - beginner, intermediate, advanced, etc
- should the course encourage the participant to create a course? If so, could they be hosted temporarily somewhere? (Moodle.org?) This would allow a course to be written without worrying about differences between servers, etc
- should we focus on 1.1 or look ahead to future releases?
- if the course has some sort of written guide, can it be translated easily into other languages?
I look forward to hearing what others think.
In reply to Andy Watson
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Martin Dougiamas -
Thanks, Andy and Jeffery!
Andy, I like your idea of introducing a basic outline and then adding details, but I think we should try keeping it all in one course, with successive topics getting more detailed. The really advanced course on using Moodle is of course this one.
Jeffery, your help with writing and development of graphics will be invaluable.
If possible it would be nice if the tutorial texts (with plenty of graphics!) leaned heavily on the help pages ... referencing them wherever possible, since these are already being translated. I sort of see this course as a structure over the help texts, providing guidance and orientation. I'm sure this will also inform improvement of the help texts.
For this particular course I think it might be good to look at content first, then adding activities later.
But let's discuss this more over in the tutorial course itself! All welcome!
Andy, I like your idea of introducing a basic outline and then adding details, but I think we should try keeping it all in one course, with successive topics getting more detailed. The really advanced course on using Moodle is of course this one.
Jeffery, your help with writing and development of graphics will be invaluable.
If possible it would be nice if the tutorial texts (with plenty of graphics!) leaned heavily on the help pages ... referencing them wherever possible, since these are already being translated. I sort of see this course as a structure over the help texts, providing guidance and orientation. I'm sure this will also inform improvement of the help texts.
For this particular course I think it might be good to look at content first, then adding activities later.
But let's discuss this more over in the tutorial course itself! All welcome!
In reply to Martin Dougiamas
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Przemyslaw Stencel -
I'd also like to help design this course. Martin, what is the official application procedure if I'd like to be granted teacher rights in that course? Will a formal promotion request with a CV be enough? 
In reply to Przemyslaw Stencel
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Martin Dougiamas -
Until I can invent an impossibly ludricrous entrance procedure I'll go by reputation.
In reply to Martin Dougiamas
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Przemyslaw Stencel -
And maybe it would be a good idea to start a similar project for "Student Orientation"?
In reply to Przemyslaw Stencel
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Andy Watson -
Do we really need documentation for students? One of the beauties of Moodle is that it is fairly transparent - you don't really notice the framework and can focus on the course content. If students need a lot of explanation about how to use Moodle, then there's something wrong - either the students lack basic computing skills or Moodle is too complex.
Personally, I think Moodle is easy to use by students and any small explanations that might be required can be included as part of a course.
In reply to Andy Watson
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Martin Dougiamas -
You took the words out of my mouth.
I feel the same way. Unfortunately we have a lot of students that have managed to get through three years of University with only very sketchy computer skills (Or, to be more accurate, good skills in very specific areas, and an almost complete lack in other areas), coupled to an almost total lack of common sense.
And if we don't provide them with full instructions, then we are likely to get into trouble. I really don't want to be sued (either individually, or as part of The Institute) for failing to provide adequate instructions. Believe it or not, that does happen...a former student is attempting to sue us at the moment. He keeps failing certain exams (according to the tutors this is because he is fairly hopeless at the subject, despite lots of extra help, and never does any work), but this person insists that it is because he was not given proper instructions for preparation, amongst other things...
So student instructions must exist. My solution is to do the whole thing as a moodle course. So you learn inside the thing that you are learning about.
And if we don't provide them with full instructions, then we are likely to get into trouble. I really don't want to be sued (either individually, or as part of The Institute) for failing to provide adequate instructions. Believe it or not, that does happen...a former student is attempting to sue us at the moment. He keeps failing certain exams (according to the tutors this is because he is fairly hopeless at the subject, despite lots of extra help, and never does any work), but this person insists that it is because he was not given proper instructions for preparation, amongst other things...
So student instructions must exist. My solution is to do the whole thing as a moodle course. So you learn inside the thing that you are learning about.
In reply to Sean Keogh
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Przemyslaw Stencel -
I do the same. I've created an orientation-socialization course which students attend for 1-2 weeks before they are enrolled in "real" courses. The goals of this course are twofold: 1/to let them try out all the Moodle tools in fun tasks which do not "cost" them anything in terms of grades, and 2/ to get to know each other. The course is then left open for them throughout the whole year and is used as a support course. I don't really want them to ask questions like: "I can't play the audio file, what should I do?" in a British Literature course.
In reply to Martin Dougiamas
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Jeffery Watkins -
I'll help... I write well and this is something I can do... versus coding.
Let me know where to begin, and what you are looking for in terms of organization.
Jeff
Let me know where to begin, and what you are looking for in terms of organization.
Jeff
In reply to Martin Dougiamas
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Jeffery Watkins -
We made some little tutorial movies to help our users with the various tasks involved with using Moodle.
You can see one here: http://www.nyscss.org/netspace/help/add_discussion_topic.html
I could do some for the documentation using the regular moodle theme so it fits with this website.
Jeff
You can see one here: http://www.nyscss.org/netspace/help/add_discussion_topic.html
I could do some for the documentation using the regular moodle theme so it fits with this website.
Jeff
In reply to Martin Dougiamas
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by koen roggemans -
My English is to poor to do anithyng usefull on writing text, but always ready to review the content or translate as you know!
I think a lot of people are waiting for this. I must admit that I learned a lot by translating the helpfiles, as I was forced to read and understand them. But not everyone wants to read ALL the helpfiles
I think a lot of people are waiting for this. I must admit that I learned a lot by translating the helpfiles, as I was forced to read and understand them. But not everyone wants to read ALL the helpfiles
In reply to koen roggemans
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Ralf Hilgenstock -
I'm planning to edit a german demonstration course about Timemanagement. I can also write a german translation of a moodle introduction course.
In reply to Martin Dougiamas
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Paul McIntyre -
Hi my name is Paul McIntyre,
I am a teacher of Religious, Moral & Philosophical Studies in Aberdeen (Scotland). I have worked closely with Andy Watson in implementing Moodle in my department. For what it's worth, I just thought I'd throw my tuppence worth in to this discussion/forum.
I was gobsmacked and delighted when Andy initiated me into the mysteries of Moodle. I have been running our Philosophy course on Moodle since June, and am about to start another one with younger pupils. Andy showed me the basics personally and the rest was trial and error (there is still much to learn and make good use of). I Have now read Andy's tutorial because I wanted something for other members of my dept. to use. It seems to me that this will be a good way of getting people started.
I am a teacher of Religious, Moral & Philosophical Studies in Aberdeen (Scotland). I have worked closely with Andy Watson in implementing Moodle in my department. For what it's worth, I just thought I'd throw my tuppence worth in to this discussion/forum.
I was gobsmacked and delighted when Andy initiated me into the mysteries of Moodle. I have been running our Philosophy course on Moodle since June, and am about to start another one with younger pupils. Andy showed me the basics personally and the rest was trial and error (there is still much to learn and make good use of). I Have now read Andy's tutorial because I wanted something for other members of my dept. to use. It seems to me that this will be a good way of getting people started.
Hi all Moodle-'documentors' 
To the best of my ability and (in my own time...) I'd like to participate in this project. I do have some pedagogical ideas, principles and guide-lines as to how to design computer related courses. To my experience, all ICT-education is not informed by this kind of knowledge ... Moodle is though, and should, and could be even more so. I am not an expert (on anything) 
but I know in what direction I want to go. I am the 'official' Swedish translator, so that is an important part of my learning process concerning Moodle.
Cheers, Anders B
In reply to Martin Dougiamas
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Nicholas Cutajar -
Hi Martin
Has an administration documentation been written yet? I'd like to transfer some course work that I have created from the South Australian DECS (Educ.) server to another and do some more work.
Nicholas
In reply to Nicholas Cutajar
Re: Moodle documentation: Moodle Documentation Project
by Martin Dougiamas -