Not so difficult for teaching. But I put myself in a tough spot with so much grading and all.
Was teaching two courses, this semester. If I had been teaching three, I would have simplified my workload considerably.
One course was an intro to culture course. Had 144 students in that one. New textbook. Semester-long team projects in 4 parts, with lots of writing. First-time doing team projects. Exams with some paragraph-length answers. Engagement grades. Peer-assessment on team participation for the project. Presentation slides and lesson plans posted regularly.
The other course was an upper-level course in the anthropology of music. Thirty students. New course pack. Semester long project. Three critical reviews. Long-form exam. Engagement grade. Relatively frequent blogging and announcements. Frequent conversations with students outside of class.
At the same time, I was thinking about pedagogy, online culture, blogging, happiness, love...
So, lemme say it was a pretty intense few months.
Haven't taken any real distance from the semester yet but I see there's a lot of things I'd like to discuss about Moodle. Some of these things may have to do with my relative lack of training in Moodle. Others that have to do with dimensions of Moodle which are just plain nice. And yet others which seem to be flaws.
Overall, I would say it has worked relatively well but it has also been a learning experience.
One of the first things I've learned (that I already knew, but hadn't applied): get a separate email account for the course and only respond to that account on a set schedule. I thought I could manage the deluge of emails (including both Moodle notifications and private emails) but, at one point, it really was a lot. I feel I can't give students my full attention when I'm so frequently contacted.
The trick which seemed to work well when I applied it was to advise students to post questions in the forums and/or to direct students to answers on the forums.
I guess I could have had students peer-assess each other's work and assign themselves some grades but, the way I teach, it's a bit difficult to do. My grading criteria are quite clear and non-arbitrary but they're difficult to train others to apply. Even with TAs, I might have some problems.
Both courses were podcast (directly on Moodle, through the university) and some students mentioned the podcasts in communication with me. Not sure how much it helped them. It did help me, to a certain extent. It made me more comfortable with my lecturing as I knew I could push students to listen to the podcasts if they were unsure about something.
The forums for my courses weren't extremely active but they did work to generate something interesting, especially at the beginning of the semester. The "Wild Web Hunting" strategy that I developed with some Moodlers has worked when I used it. I eventually stopped sending students on such hunts but they seem to have had the expected effect.
Pretty much the same thing with journals. They had the expected effect early in the semester and I didn't feel the need to put more of them, later on.
Anyhoo... I now need to collapse.
G'night!