Moodle is an LMS (Learning Management System). Sometimes we want it to be a CMS (Content Management System) but at the core of it is the structure of courses and enrolments within those courses. A key thing I have always known about moodle, is that if a student comes back to a course more than once, and things haven't changed at all, they are unlikely to come back again. I tell teachers that students will only visit their moodle course as much as they do (it's not just a 'set and forget' thing - it has to be more of a 'living' thing). I am under no illusions that moodle is like a 'facebook' for students at our school, but by creative (and not to restrictive - eg. allowing messaging) it has become a central hub for our students. Although, I wouldn't got so far as to say they 'like' it...
Our moodle's usage has evolved over the years, and some things have been tried and have failed, while other things have taken longer to make their way into our everyday usage. The 'front page' becomes the focal point, and through using 'permissions' carefully, you can customise this for different users / groups. I thought I would share some of the creative ways we are using Moodle to be much more than just an LMS for school subjects below:
- Digital Suggestion Boxes - on the front page we use a few questionaires (it's a plugin for moodle) as digital suggestion boxes which students can submit to things such as the SRC, or submitting questions to ask our sponsor child etc. They are very easy to setup and an email is sent to the appropriate person when a response is submitted. If the questionnaire needs to be modified, you can easily just give that person the role of teacher or manager on that activity - this could even be a student (eg. student captain)
- Student Surveys - similar to the previous one, but as site wide surveys for students. They are placed the front page (so all students can access them) but often are set to only be visible for a period of time (eg. a week). If it needs to be updated by a teacher, just set the have a teacher role on that activity (permissions are extremely useful and versatile once you get your head around how they can be applied!)
- Morning Notices on front page - one of our admin staff are given permissions on a 'page' which is on the front page. They simply copy and paste the day's notices to that page each morning as part of their routine and students can access them from there.
- Quick Links on front page - there are other websites used in the school, other than moodle - so setting up quick links (in a menu, or just as hyperlinks) for things such as webmail, printing credit, library etc.
- Front Page Polls - the poll 'block' is an excellent module for allowing more interesting interactivity with students. We've taken this to the next level by allowing a student leader permission to create new polls! As well, we have a digital suggestion box (questionnaire) for students to suggest new polls. I use a poll in some of my courses as well to provide students with another interesting thing to interact with.
- School Wiki - a wiki was created on the front page about 5 or 6 years ago. Students are allowed to edit, and there is definitely some dodgy bits, but it is improving over time. It has been good for teaching students about a wiki, and long term appropriate use - as well as collecting valuable information about our school from the student's point of view (eg. the Year 8 page has information about what is done in Year 8 etc.).
- Adverts on the front page - staff can email me adverts for the front page (eg. promoting a school event, or fundraiser etc.). I create them (with images / hyperlinks if required) using a label, but the key part is also to have an 'allow access until' time when the advert will time out. This means I don't need to remember to go and remove it, but it will naturally just disappear from the front page (for students / teachers) after this date. In fact, doing this can allow for creating adverts ahead of time, which only become visible at the 'allow access from' time.
- Students take the teacher role in some courses - we have extra curricular leaders who 'teach' in the courses created for their situations. For example, an 'Art Club' course with photo galleries and other information.
- Laptop Licence Course - when we deploy laptops to students in Year 10, there is online course which they must complete. It was developed by students and teachers and contains lots of information and the key thing is quizzes based on the information. Conditional activities are used to only display 'you have completed this module' at the bottom of each section when the quizzes have been completed satisfactorily. At the end of it, student's receive their 'laptop licence' (another conditional activity which appears at the bottom of the course when all activities have been completed satisfactorily).
- Staff Intranet - a course has been created for staff only. It uses 'cohort' enrolment so staff must be added to the 'staff cohort' by an administrator (this is a pain!) but it means there is no security risk of students accessing this information (if they got hold of an enrolment key or something like that). Along with that, there is a HTML block with permissions for only staff to view it, on the front page with a quick link to this. Some of the more interactive activities we have used on the staff intranet include an 'ideas' wiki where they can contributes software / websites they find useful (by faculty or other), forums, surveys plus information about using moodle and other PD resources as the need arises. Key leadership staff are 'teachers' of this course, but most staff just have a 'student' role.
- Moodle Sandpit - this was a course setup for staff to play around in and try out using moodle without having to first create a course. It uses an enrolment key which teachers use which then sets them to be a 'teacher' of the course. In order to keep the information at the top of the sandpit course safe from being deleted (just some general hints and ideas about what the sandpit is about) permissions on the activities were modified so that a manager was the only person who could delete or modify them.
- Permission Layers - this is not such of a creative thing, but rather just the structure that helps to ensure the long term success of moodle. We have 2 or 3 site managers, but then within categories (each faculty has a category) the faculty coordinator is made to be a manager of that category. This means that a faculty coordinator is ultimately responsible for the courses and management within that category and they take ownership over what is there and how courses are managed. Discussion about how they are using moodle is taken to their faculty meetings and some courses have multiple classes in them, while others are individual to a class and teacher.
- School Footy Tipping - we have a school footy tipping website setup, and so we have hyperlinks to it from our moodle, but it also has a HTML block that shows the top students on the ladder on the front page of moodle. This is just one more engaging thing on our moodle that keeps the students coming back!
I'd love to know the creative ways you use MOODLE in your school! Please share them with me in the comments section.
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