Two or three tracks / options in one course

Two or three tracks / options in one course

by Susan Jeffers -
Number of replies: 4

For the past several summers I've been teaching a self-paced biblical Greek course using Moodle.  I set it up using the "topics" format, with one textbook chapter/lesson per topic, and post the resources and assignments for each lesson within its "topic."  This course is very easy for me and students to navigate and keep track of, in part because the topic number matches the chapter number in the textbook.

I'm thinking ahead to next summer, when I plan to offer an "Intro to Biblical Languages" course, with 3 possible options for students:
(1) Both Hebrew and Greek
(2) Hebrew concentration
(3) Greek concentration

I want to still post lessons for all the Greek textbook chapters, plus all the Hebrew textbook chapters, plus some additional lessons for those doing both, that would challenge students to make comparisons between the two.

Obviously I'll lose my nice neat topic number to textbook chapter correspondence.  Any thoughts on how I might use Moodle's organizational options to advantage, in making the course easy to navigate intuitively?  There will be a LOT of "content" posted, and I don't want anyone getting lost or confused...  the languages themselves are challenging enough!

Thanks!!!

Susan Jeffers

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In reply to Susan Jeffers

Re: Two or three tracks / options in one course

by Lesli Smith -
Susan,

At first I thought weekly might be your best bet, but then I wondered if the integration pieces might get lost. My thought is that flex page might be better. I've been experimenting with it this year with my juniors. (See screen shot.) Is this the type of organization you are thinking of? If so, the codebase is available free, if you don't have it on your installation already, and can be found at the bottom of the main Moodlerooms page here. I'm sorry I can't offer any info on how to set it up after it's downloaded as that is NOT my area of expertise, but it's worth a try. I've had success with it. My only caution is that it is SOOO flexible, it needs some good planning to make sure the navigation makes sense. Otherwise, for me at first, anyway, it's turned out to look like a rather confusing snap shot of what's in my head. wink The other advantage for you would be that you would easily be able to copy resources from your separate Hebrew and Greek pages as the actual course content is stored in a main location not associated with a page/topic.

If this looks like it might work and you need help with figuring it out once you've gotten it properly installed, feel free to ask again here. smile HTH,

Lesli
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In reply to Lesli Smith

Re: Two or three tracks / options in one course

by Susan Jeffers -

Thanks, Lesli --

This does look like it would work well for me -- however I try never to ask my site moodle administrators to implement anything for me unless ABSOLUTELY necessary (e.g. adding Greek and Hebrew fonts was necessary).

3 reasons --

(1) I adjunct for several different institutions, and adjuncts asking for customization is the tail wagging the dog

(2) there are already plenty of small differences among the moodle implementations at the institutions; the last thing I want to do is introduce more

(3) I try to use just the "plain vanilla" moodle features, and use them well, to minimize both my own and the sites' learning curve/overhead.

You've given me some good ideas on things to try, just using the regular Moodle features, though, in terms of course page design.  Thanks!!!

Susan

PS the course is self-paced, so I wouldn't want to use "weeks" ....

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In reply to Susan Jeffers

Re: Two or three tracks / options in one course

by Lesli Smith -
OIC. Well, I guess that leaves topics format, then. I do my English 9 course in topic sections broken down by unit/subject. The only thing I worried about for you (I actually thought about proposing that first before I proposed the flex solution) is that everything has to be visible all of the time in an asynchronous course, and sometimes this type of organization can be confusing for participants. I have the benefit of running a blended course in which I can control pacing, etc. by hiding old topics or topics that are still to be covered later in the course.

Hmmm. I'll keep thinking. Glad the screen shot gave you some ideas you could apply, anyway. Best,

Lesli
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In reply to Susan Jeffers

Re: Two or three tracks / options in one course

by Lesli Smith -
Just a couple more thoughts: One thing that can also be problematic in setting up a topics course by unit/area of study is that it can become really huge and unwieldy. I've tried using the glossary as a place to house resources instead of using a ton of resource links on the main page, but the glossary can be tricky to copy from one year to the next with entries in it. The database or book modules would also be options. The point is, you want to try to keep your topic as small as possible (within reason) so that participants don't have to scroll down forever and ever to get to their appropriate topic. Hope that makes sense.

Best of luck,
Lesli
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