Jumping on the stream train - Some ideas for using Moodle to enhance learning

Editor's Notes

• #3: I am not sure how many of you are aware of the story behind the branding given to Moodle at Massey. Its supposed to mean something to inspire us I supposeThe first paragraph connects with me because I think learning is such an important part of life.Such a lot of what we do is learning, if you think about it. Not only in academic spheres but social ones, hobbies. And learning also underpins research and makes it so fantastic and engaging.
• #4: When I was thinking about what to talk about today, I really didn’t want to approach it from the angle of the technology. To me Stream is just another tool. The important thing is to think about what students are doing. We use activities to get students to do the thinking and practicing involved in learning. What sort of activities will be most helpful for learning?Then what tools can we use to enable these activities. There is more than one tool to use for any particular activity and its not really which tool we use, but the activity we are getting students to do which is importantSo I have picked out 5 important activities we might think about using Stream for and will talk about those.
• #5: The first four of these things are activities for our students to do.The last is something we can do that can then help us to help studentsEach of these things can be done without Stream. Depending on the circumstances using Stream might not be the best way. But the idea of today is to give you some ideas about how you could use Stream to do these things.I am also not going to talk about the details of how. Today I think its more important to think about what you can do not exactly how the tools work. That’s stuff that’s easy to get help with and at the end of the talk I will make some suggestions about where to get help.
• #6: Why discuss things?We use discussion a lot in teachingIt gets students thinking about and verbalising their ideas, applying abstract ideas, can challenge them to think critically and to defend their ideas, gets them evaluating and using evidence. When done in a group enables students to consider different points of view and learn from listening to and watching others (vicarious learning). Less capable or knowledgeable students work at a higher level than they would otherwise and learn more than they would themselves. It can also allow you to scaffold learning by asking probing questions that encourage students to think about what they already know and construct new representations.What’s different about it in Stream?Firstly its writing not talking – a different type of thinking is involved and it involves written expression not oral expression – more formal, complete sentences, more concise verbalisation, even need to use citations etc. Requires thoughtful, careful composition and more clear communication since the message cannot be adjusted on the fly if it is not being understood.Students don’t have to think about what they will say while listening to what others are saying - can concentrate on reading and understanding what others have said, then thinking about it, then writing about it. The quality of the discussion can be betterBecause students don’t have to respond immediately, there is more time to think, and to look things up. Students can give a more considered response. You can do more considered facilitation. But this also means a loss of immediacy and emphasis which can inhibit the flow of conversation and the energy and enthusiasm for it. Students interpret receiving a response to their posting as success and no-responses (silence) as failure. The longer it takes to get a response, the more feelings of failure can creep in and inhibit further learning and participation. If the students posting wasn’t clear and understood by others it may simply be ignored and the writer might not know why, blaming the message itself rather than the communication of it.There is more at stake since what a student says is there for a longer time and for all to see. This can be confronting and difficult for students. It involves personal risk and thus can inhibit discussion. But it also acts to enhance the depth and quality of the responses and the ability to think before answering is less stressful. Online discussion can improve participation. Quiet or marginalised students can have a voice, status is different in the online and face-to-face environment. Students (and teachers!) don’t’ miss the moment to have their say because the conversation has moved on like they can in a verbal discussion. But this also means that the discussion can stagnate with people bringing the topic back to where they are up to or moving it in a different direction to others. This can result in lots of different conversations going on at once. Everyone has a chance to have a say but if everyone uses that opportunity to have a say about the same thing it can be repetitive and boring and stifle further discussion. The non-verbal and verbal cues that contribute to conversational etiquette around turn-taking are not present online. This can mean that some people take up the opportunity to hold the floor and try to say everything they would ever like to say. You can get long postings cover everything and give little opportunity for anyone else to say something different, leading to more repetition and a boring discussion.The time for discussion and thinking can be less constrained than in face to face, but the total time involved can be longer as there will be time spent reading and looking things up, and it takes longer to write than to talk.What to discuss?This really isn’t any different from what would be good to discuss in a verbal discussion.You need open-ended questions that are relevant and interesting. Look for things which may have more than one point of view or where there is more than one right answer (or no right answer).Controversial topics, things that people will argue about, can lead to powerful and memorable discussions where there is great learning.Getting participation vs containing itMaking it relevant and interestingBuilding a comfortable safe community for discussionBreak a large class into groups Compulsory vs non-compulsory?Word limits
• #7: Why discuss things?We use discussion a lot in teachingIt gets students thinking about and verbalising their ideas, applying abstract ideas, can challenge them to think critically and to defend their ideas, gets them evaluating and using evidence. When done in a group enables students to consider different points of view and learn from listening to and watching others (vicarious learning). Less capable or knowledgeable students work at a higher level than they would otherwise and learn more than they would themselves. It can also allow you to scaffold learning by asking probing questions that encourage students to think about what they already know and construct new representations.What’s different about it in Stream?Firstly its writing not talking – a different type of thinking is involved and it involves written expression not oral expression – more formal, complete sentences, more concise verbalisation, even need to use citations etc. Requires thoughtful, careful composition and more clear communication since the message cannot be adjusted on the fly if it is not being understood.Students don’t have to think about what they will say while listening to what others are saying - can concentrate on reading and understanding what others have said, then thinking about it, then writing about it. The quality of the discussion can be betterBecause students don’t have to respond immediately, there is more time to think, and to look things up. Students can give a more considered response. You can do more considered facilitation. But this also means a loss of immediacy and emphasis which can inhibit the flow of conversation and the energy and enthusiasm for it. Students interpret receiving a response to their posting as success and no-responses (silence) as failure. The longer it takes to get a response, the more feelings of failure can creep in and inhibit further learning and participation. If the students posting wasn’t clear and understood by others it may simply be ignored and the writer might not know why, blaming the message itself rather than the communication of it.There is more at stake since what a student says is there for a longer time and for all to see. This can be confronting and difficult for students. It involves personal risk and thus can inhibit discussion. But it also acts to enhance the depth and quality of the responses and the ability to think before answering is less stressful. Online discussion can improve participation. Quiet or marginalised students can have a voice, status is different in the online and face-to-face environment. Students (and teachers!) don’t’ miss the moment to have their say because the conversation has moved on like they can in a verbal discussion. But this also means that the discussion can stagnate with people bringing the topic back to where they are up to or moving it in a different direction to others. This can result in lots of different conversations going on at once. Everyone has a chance to have a say but if everyone uses that opportunity to have a say about the same thing it can be repetitive and boring and stifle further discussion. The non-verbal and verbal cues that contribute to conversational etiquette around turn-taking are not present online. This can mean that some people take up the opportunity to hold the floor and try to say everything they would ever like to say. You can get long postings cover everything and give little opportunity for anyone else to say something different, leading to more repetition and a boring discussion.The time for discussion and thinking can be less constrained than in face to face, but the total time involved can be longer as there will be time spent reading and looking things up, and it takes longer to write than to talk.What to discuss?This really isn’t any different from what would be good to discuss in a verbal discussion.You need open-ended questions that are relevant and interesting. Look for things which may have more than one point of view or where there is more than one right answer (or no right answer).Controversial topics, things that people will argue about, can lead to powerful and memorable discussions where there is great learning.Getting participation vs containing itMaking it relevant and interestingBuilding a comfortable safe community for discussionBreak a large class into groups Compulsory vs non-compulsory?Word limits
• #8: Types of forum toolsGeneral forum and Q&A forum seem most useful to meGeneral forum is for open discussionQ&A forum is useful when want students to answer without seeing what anyone else has said. Therefore not really a discussion until after they have posted. Can be useful if you want to force each member of the group to contribute something before they work on it. But not really learning the skills of group work in that case.
• #9: It can be useful to break up the class into smaller groups.Not every topic has 100 different things to be said about it. One large group of postings might be overwhelming in volume to read, individual voices get lost and too many different ideas coming to have a sustainable conversation. You can use choice as a way to let students form groups according to their interest. Its also a way to divide a task
• #10: You can make separate discussion threads for each group to use. You can let students from other groups see these and the postings in them, or keep them private for the group. You can randomly assign people to groups or make particular groups according to some other scheme
• #11: You can help ensure the discussion is all the work of the students by turning on Turnitin.You can control whether the student sees this or not.
• #12: You can enforce a word count, but its clunky to check postings for the word count – I do it when I need to by copying and pasting the text of the posting into Word.But from early next year when the University goes onto Moodle 2.5, word counts will be able to be turned on for forum postings and will display at the bottom of each post.
• #13: Why collaborate?Working together on things not only teaches skills in team work, but it enables students to consider different points of view and learn from listening to and watching others (vicarious learning). Less capable or knowledgeable students work at a higher level than they would otherwise and learn more than they would themselves. More capable students have learning reinforced by explaining it to others.What’s different about it in Stream?Stream is probably not the way I would collaborate with someone. Face to face is easier for some things. If I had to do it online there are other ways I would do it. We are all used to collaborating on documents which we write in word and exchange by email. These days with better compatibility between software and even good freeware choices available we don’t have as many issues. But version control can be difficult when there are lots of people working on one document. Online systems can allow multiple users to edit the same document contemporaneously – Google Docs for example.
• #14: But remember that discussion is part of collaboration and so forums and group forums are collaborative tools. This is a really simple way to facilitate collaboration between a group of students.
• #15: Wikis are editable webpages that students can use to create a collaborative document. Everyone can edit it (but not at the same time) and it keeps track of who changed what so has good version control. However it’s not the simplest thing to use and the fact that students have to make changes one at a time can be an issue
• #16: The database tool can be useful for creating things where everyone contributes a small section. For example in this database, students are each researching different causes of PUPD and constructing a database of causes and their mechanisms for the whole class. Once again, not so much a collaborative activity, but an activity divided into small parts.Databases can be set up in all sorts of formats
• #17: Without feedback there would be no learning at all.Some feedback is natural feedback – something happens as a result of your action and gives you feedback about that action.Other types of feedback come from peers, and the teacher.Lots of feedback is given through verbal and non-verbal cues – tone of voice, posture and so on. In an online environment a lot of feedback is written but does not have to be
• #18: Don’t forget about the feedback that comes from having open activities. Seeing what other students have done can give students really good feedback about how they are doing relative to otehrs. But open activities are also scary for students
• #19: Direct feedback from other students.Remember in a discussion forum no response is interpreted as failure. Any response is success, but is more meaningful if there is more explicit feedback
• #20: Forums have the ability to have ratings on them which can be a good way for others to give feedback. You can make it anonymous if you want. These are two schemes I have used – one is a five star rating people can give and the other is likes.
• #21: It is very easy to add verbal feedback in Stream I recorded some feedback for students as mp3s and then attached them to a forum posting here
• #22: Using tools like the lesson tool you can automate feedback to some degree, whether the student gets feedback depending on their response.This is a series of cases where students can explore investigations and receive my thoughts on their choices
• #24: You can also do the same thing in quizes, by providing details of why an answer is right or wrong. The details can include images, and other media such as video
• #25: SO reflection is thinking about what you are learning and its really important way to help connect new and old knowledge and to understand your thinking processes. The ability to think about your own performance and evaluate it underpins the development of expertise, allowing you to deliberately practice aspects of your performance and grow and develop.Helping students to be able to self assess is really valuable and sets them up to continue to grow.So reflection happens in a student’s head, but we might want to see what they are doing to help them reflect, and reflecting in a written format is a useful structured way of reflecting.Like collaboration, Stream isn’t the only tool and in some ways is not the best for using for reflection. But it has tools that can enable you to see what students are reflecting on.
• #26: So we keep forming back to forums – they are so useful and really the backbone of all our Stream coursesDiscussion involves reflection in itself, but you can also set up forums as a place for students to share their reflections. When I have done this I have done it using Q&A forum, so that only people who have put themselves out there, can see what others have written
• #27: Using the assignment tool you can have students submit a reflection on a document. This one is an Adobe Form for students to fill in which has some prompts., but you could use any sort of document
• #28: A wiki can also be set up as a private space – one for each student to add their reflections to, like a learning journal. Really probably there are a ton of other software solutions which are less clunky.
• #29: Ok this is all in the news at the moment Stream has many tools which allow you to keep an eye on your students to see what they are up to. The main idea of this is not to spy on students but to try and work out who might be in trouble and need help. It doesn’t always tell you, but it is another tool to use.
• #30: The most basic form of surveillance is to keep an eye on who is actually going onto the Stream site. You can do this by looking at the list of participants and its easy to sort by the time of last access to give you an idea of the rangeYou can see here students who haven't been online for over 3 weeks which is of concern. Its hard to tell for sure if these students are disengaged because they may be monitoring and learning from the ativity on Stream via their email systems, but its something I do need to watch. I can email them to see how they are going.
• #31: You can also look at a number of reports which show you details about who is participating in particular activities. Here is the report from a completely voluntary activity on my course and you can see some students exploring it a lot, and others have not looked at it at all…
• #32: This is a screenshot from my course at the moment which shows the top 10 most at risk students in my class.I set the criteria for how it calculates the at risk based on what I think they should be doing – have they been online, have they been posting in forums and have they been doing their assigned work.Its not very sophisticated in Stream, and is sometimes hard to interpret so I am still getting used to it. We will be seeing better developed versions of this type of thing in future and the Stream people are trialling a dashboard system for me to help me be able to keep track of the 180 students on our programme.
• #33: So just to finish couple of notes about getting help with StreamThis first one is about copyright. Its important and it’s a bit of a minefield, but the general principle to apply is really the same as citing references. You would not use someone elses’ ideas in a piece of writing without citing them and so don’t do it online either. You cant just put documents and images up on Stream that you don’t own the copyright for. Anna Weatherstone is the University’s copyright officer and she is really nice, and if she doesn’t know the answer can ask the copyright licencing authority for you. Linda Laven works with Anna on our copyright compliance and is quite knowledgeable as well . There is a website with a lot of details on it too on the Massey site.
• #34: There is lots of centralised help and support for using Stream.I use the Stream hotline a lot – it is usually picked up by Andrew Rowatt or Quentin but there are a few others as well. They get back to you fast and it’s a good service.There is also information on the Massey website about using Stream in the Staff Guide to Stream, and also courses (both face to face and online) that can give you lots of ideas and information about how to do things on Stream.And don’t forget also Moodle docs which is the online documentation for Moodle and contains lots of information about how to use the tools and a forums
• #35: The other thing to mention is that the university has some centralised services which can help you set up sites. I had though these were limited to loading documents for you, but it seems they will also build quizzes for you…