Maybe this is something we should buil;d together for the benefit of those who do not immediately how Moodle can positively impact their teaching - http://docs.moodle.org/en/Case_studies. If we had a few dozen example, it could become a very useful resource, I think.
Or does this duplicate something that already exisits?
-- Art
Art,
Nice Idea !
One idea "might" be nice to define some case study metrics / portfolio.
This might help users quickly find more relevant case studies as the list grows.
Topic: Languages/ Science / etc.
Education Level: K12 / High / UNi etc.
Courses: x
Teachers: y:
Users: z
Launch Date:
Description:
Fav. Moodle Site: Recommendation for next case study.
etc.
What else is really relevant, what do people look for ?
There are lots of references here: http://moodle.org/sites/
some of which are unfortunately no longer availabe.
However I also think there are lots of gems there that would fit nicely into such a case study section. I'm sure if we ask some of the we established sites to give us such information that they would be happy to do so.
Maybe we can create a generic request and then ask a few key members to choose their favourite site and ask for their details / case study info.
Darren
Good thinking, Darren.
-- Art
-- Art
great idea art!
Thanks. 
-- Art
-- Art
Rather than full-blown case studies, which may be too overwhelming and have too many irrelevant details to be of practical use, I would like to see an exchange of patterns -- reusable micro architectures that solve recurring pedagogical problems. Patterns became popular among software developers in the 90's as the result of three books written in the '70's by the American architect Christopher Alexander. Alexander described patterns in architecture that were found repeatedly from ancient times to the present in the most successful houses, neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Each of Alexander's patterns has a short, memorable name, for example,
Software-related patterns have been described from both the analysis perspective (by Martin Fowler) and from the design perspective (by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides). I think both perspectives are applicable in this domain. Frankly, I think analysis patterns are more important, but they may lead to a frustrating dead end when it comes to implementing them effectively using Moodle.
Anyway, it is very important to start by describing a pedagogical problem (step 1) and work up to a Moodle solution, not the other way around.
- Entrance transition
- Four story limit
- Activity nodes
- Eccentric nucleus
- Housing in between
- T junctions
- The context in which this pattern is applicable
- The competing forces arising within the context
- How the pattern resolves the forces
Software-related patterns have been described from both the analysis perspective (by Martin Fowler) and from the design perspective (by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides). I think both perspectives are applicable in this domain. Frankly, I think analysis patterns are more important, but they may lead to a frustrating dead end when it comes to implementing them effectively using Moodle.
Anyway, it is very important to start by describing a pedagogical problem (step 1) and work up to a Moodle solution, not the other way around.
> start by describing a pedagogical problem (step 1) and
> work up to a Moodle solution, not the other way around
That sounds like it could be the basis of a very useful resource! Would it go in the Docs wiki?
-- Art
> work up to a Moodle solution, not the other way around
That sounds like it could be the basis of a very useful resource! Would it go in the Docs wiki?
-- Art
John,
Absolutely Brilliant idea !
I do see a similar issue here though:
if full-blown case studies might be too overwhelming,
so too might patterns be "difficult" for some users to define.
Hence I wonder (without wanting to over do it) if we should introduce categories or even steps. This also encourages the start small approach.
A. basic need to know information to help people identify common denominators
A1 case study (Brief or Complete)
A2 pattern thoughts/ ideas / suggestions
I believe we'd need a pattern moderator to ensure common language is used.
Darren
People who write patterns are basically archaeologists. They're not creating anything essentially new, just digging up solutions that already exists and describing them in a systemmatic way, for the benefit of newbies. A rule you often hear for published patterns is "Used Three Times:" A pattern can be called a pattern only if it has been applied to a real-world solution at least three times.
When I started using Moodle not too long ago, I wanted to use it for one-on-one tutoring. So let's describe the pedagogical context: A single tutor and a single student need a private place to meet where the tutor can provide individualized instruction. This "place" may be part of a larger structure (a "tutoring center") where many tutors meet privately with their students. A tutor may have many students, but a student may have only one tutor.
What are the competing forces that arise within this context? The student requires highly individualized instruction. This force pulls in one direction. Since the tutor works with many students, the tutor would like to reuse as much material as possible. This force pulls in the opposite direction. If the tutoring center specializes in one kind of tutoring (e.g., math), tutors would like to share as much material as possible -- another force.
These competing forces need to be brought into equilibrium. What pattern (or collection of interlocking patterns, a.k.a. "pattern language") brings these forces into ideal balance?
I don't have the answer. I came up with a solution, but I can't claim it to be a pattern because I can't substantiate that it been applied successfully elsewhere. But for now, let's suppose there were such a pattern, called "Tutoring Center." It would only remain to describe the pattern in terms of its Moodle implementation and to show how the pattern brings the forces into balance.
The pattern name encapsulates the problem context, the forces, and the solution. Think of Alexander's "Four story limit."
Wiki is the ideal format for recording patterns.
I spotted some interest in patterns in the Technology and Pedagogy course, but the forum discussion was purely philosophical. Patterns are supposed to be practical how-to's, and I'm suprised that this community hasn't latched onto them!
When I started using Moodle not too long ago, I wanted to use it for one-on-one tutoring. So let's describe the pedagogical context: A single tutor and a single student need a private place to meet where the tutor can provide individualized instruction. This "place" may be part of a larger structure (a "tutoring center") where many tutors meet privately with their students. A tutor may have many students, but a student may have only one tutor.
What are the competing forces that arise within this context? The student requires highly individualized instruction. This force pulls in one direction. Since the tutor works with many students, the tutor would like to reuse as much material as possible. This force pulls in the opposite direction. If the tutoring center specializes in one kind of tutoring (e.g., math), tutors would like to share as much material as possible -- another force.
These competing forces need to be brought into equilibrium. What pattern (or collection of interlocking patterns, a.k.a. "pattern language") brings these forces into ideal balance?
I don't have the answer. I came up with a solution, but I can't claim it to be a pattern because I can't substantiate that it been applied successfully elsewhere. But for now, let's suppose there were such a pattern, called "Tutoring Center." It would only remain to describe the pattern in terms of its Moodle implementation and to show how the pattern brings the forces into balance.
The pattern name encapsulates the problem context, the forces, and the solution. Think of Alexander's "Four story limit."
Wiki is the ideal format for recording patterns.
I spotted some interest in patterns in the Technology and Pedagogy course, but the forum discussion was purely philosophical. Patterns are supposed to be practical how-to's, and I'm suprised that this community hasn't latched onto them!
Staying in your metaphor: I run a Moodle museum. I collect all these old modules and patches from the forum and try to keep them alive under every new release: For your problem we have a pattern:
the Dialogue module:
- You create a normal course with resources, glossaries, exercises etc.
- You grab the dialogue modul form the forums somewhere
- you set the style you like: teacher-student/ student-student/everyone (can start a dialogue)
- you even can use group-option
- this modul has four boxes:
- open a dialogue
- tutee answers waiting for your answer..
- (your) messages waiting for a reply from the tutee
- finished dialogues
- Make all the tutees member of this course, a tutor can start a new dialogue, then choose the target-student from a dropdown list, create & send a memo.. and choose another target.
Why is it looking so boring grey? well, it is old, orphan, neglected by my new stylesheet, missing the newer tab-styles, ..and also not checked for security by moodle.org.
(My legal advisor tells me that I cannot forbid you to search in the forums for archeological treasures like this one, but..)
Yes, the dialogue is ideal for one-on-one communication. However the tutoring I have in mind is more than just one-on-one discussion between tutor and student. The tutor will also provide activities for the student: quizzes for practice and assessment, and perhaps lessons. The lessons and assessment quizzes are probably 'standard' (hence reusable), but each practice quiz is designed for a specific student's needs. Use once, throw away.
The need for re-usability/sharing of assessment quizzes and lessons is the same problem facing teachers in a normal school situation. Teachers desire to share activities with other teachers -- and with themselves, across courses (serial reuse) -- and there ought to be a pattern that solves the sharing problem. Sadly, I do not know of one. Please don't say "backup/restore" or "import" because those make copies, and copying is NOT sharing.
A second pattern is needed to solve the problem arising for the need for highly individualized instruction. There IS such a pattern for quizzes -- at least, I will propose one!) I will call it Enterprise Question Database:
Enterprise Question Database
The Enterprise Question Database consists of (1) a question category hierarchy (2) a set of questions (3) a set of rules and procedures for maintaining the questions and categories. The EQD is maintained by a team called Question Developers. Question Developers are completely responsible for content, quality assurance, and maintenance of the question database. They will use Moodle and non-Moodle tools for documentation, bug reporting, modification request tracking, version control, etc. Question categories are published so that questions are visible to Quiz Developers. If questions contain images or other resources (sound, video), those resources will be placed where they will be visible everywhere.Quiz Developers use the Enterprise Question Database to create quizzes for their students. If they find errors in questions, they report them to the Question Developers, following the specified procedures. It is impossible for Quiz Developers to copy, modify, or export questions in the Enterprise Question Database.
Again, the above pattern solves only part of the problem. Re-usability of activities (assessment quizzes and lessons) is still unsolved, since activities are not currently sharable in Moodle.
Quote from:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=55025
I think the looped presentation is a great idea. We've done a few Moodle presentations mostly hands-on workshops where we provide demonstrator courses and show participants how to create tools etc. We have a few sites that suit different audiences eg Schoodle (schools.elearning.ac.nz) for Schools, iTOC (itoc.elearning.ac.nz) for industry, businesses & community and Te Kupenga (tk.elearning.ac.nz) which has Learning Object info.
Potential case study source?
- http://docs.moodle.org/en/Case_studies
This has not really caught on. Would it be better to leave it in the wiki for now or take it out?
-- Art
This has not really caught on. Would it be better to leave it in the wiki for now or take it out?
-- Art