Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

by Mike Churchward -
Number of replies: 7
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I'm struggling with setting up Moodle in an effective way to solve my problems.

Our platform isn't really a 'teaching' platform (although some teaching does go on), but is rather a learn-by-knowledge-and-experience sharing area. I know this is what Moodle wants to be and I'm sure it can do this.

Our audience is international, with specific country groups participating in local initiatives. Currently, I've set up our application to be broken down into three main categories: Global, Countries and Other Teams. Global is for every member. Any courses in that area are open for anyone to participate in. Countries have their own subcategories for each participating country, and then courses for specific interests. The courses can be scheduled to deliver to small groups of enrolled students. The Other Teams category is for specialized groups to collaborate outside of the other two main branches.

While this works functionally, we also want to be able to share all of the knowledge and experiences that are developed at the country and global levels. This means, that although a member may not have participated in a specific course for a specific country, they should be able to find learnings in the forums and resources that were used there.

Some form of search that would look in all forums and resources of all courses might do this. Or should I layout my structure differently? Should I create a course to hold all forums, and then link back into those from other courses? Same for resources?

Would a global glossary give me this function? Could I spend the effort to create a glossary that contained documents, links, etc., categorized by key concepts that would then appear linked in resources and forums? But that won't let me find the information back to the forum...

If anyone can shed some ideas on how to best do this (assuming I've given you some idea of what I'm trying to do), it would be appreaciated.

mike

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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

by Tom Murdock -
I agree that it might make sense to create one course to hold all forums. Then I would create forums without groups for global discussions.

If you create groups based on country names, you could create visible forums based around country themes. Each individual could participate in the forum with members from her own country, but depending on whether you make them visable or separate, you could allow/disallow her from glancing at the discussion of other countries.

I would probably turn "Other Teams" into side courses, much like Martin has created the Documentation Project, etc., as a second space.

You could create a single glossary (or small ones for each country) and keep it in the main course.  If you toggle it to be global, the Other Teams would still benefit from the work.

Just one possibility. Good luck!

Tom
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Re: Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

by Mike Churchward -
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Thanks Tom -

I haven't played with the Groups feature yet. Are you saying that I can set up a group, say "Canada", and then use that group across multiple courses?

mike

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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

by Tom Murdock -
The cool thing about groups and forums, is that the teacher can arrange it so that totally different discussions can occur within the same activity (and they can be visible but separate, or invisible and separate). This is what I was imagining for your "country" discussions.

If you want the traditional forum where everybody talks, designate the forum as "no-groups." This is what I was thinking for your "global" discussions.

Your course outline might look like this (arranged in topics)

GLOBAL DISCUSSION:
forum #1: no-groups: topic: Issues Facing the Global Economy
forum #2: no-groups: topic: Issues Facing Global Human Rights

COUNTRY DISCUSSION:
forum #1: groups-visible: topic: Issues Facing the Economy of Individual Countries
forum #2: groups-visible: topic: Issues Facing the Human Rights within Individual Countries

Currently, the group feature does not carry across courses. They are specific to the courses where they are initially grouped.

When people enroll in the course, drop them into their corresponding country-group. When they become involved in the forums under the topic of Country Discussions, all of the people in their group will be able to have a conversation. Although they won't be able to participate in the other discussions, if the activity is set to "groups-visible" they will be able to see the other discussions on the site.

I think this will give you the maximum flexibility and make the site seem quite active.
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Re: Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

by Mike Churchward -
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Thanks for this, Tom.

You've given me some stuff to think about. Forums already support rating (as does the Glossary). Could it be set up such that participants could rate posts of forums that they can't post in?

Part of what I need this to do is to help skim the 'good stuff' out of the information. This is best done with as much community participation as possible (rather than just by moderators snipping their choices).

mike

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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

by David Le Blanc -

If you were to create a separate course using the Topic format, you could have separate topics organised by group to hold discussions deemed to be of gloabal interest. This Topic course would be made public or open to all. Within your other courses that are restricted to certain groups, you would then make links to the open topic course section that has been specified for the given group. 

Of course, you will want the links leading to the general Open Topic course to have it open in a new window so that your participants are not required to use their browser's 'Back' button to return to their private course. I have a few courses setup on my server that point to discussions in a certain course of general interest.   thoughtful

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In reply to David Le Blanc

Re: Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

by Mike Churchward -
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I see what you are saying.

My only concern about this method is how complex does it get to set up a course? I deal with varying levels of technical ability, and I'm trying to avoid having a huge 'how to set up your course' manual.

mike

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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Using Moodle for Knowledge Learning Rather Than Teaching

by Jessica Ng Wun -

Hi Mike,

I am wondering if you found a solution to this by any chance?  I am in a similar position with regards to the instance in which we are using moodle within our company and would be interested in knowing how you solved this issue.

Jess

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