The Moodle Research Conference took place on 4th and 5th October in Sousse, Tunisia. There was a lot of presentations of the papers which really made me think about different aspects of learning, and specifically elearning.
Here are some thoughts that I picked out from my notes. These are a mix of being a point from their presentations, and my thoughts related to the presentation. So although not direct quotes – the presentation is referenced for completeness.
We need to enable meaningful communication between students.
Re:- Keynote “Negotiating students’ attention” Prof Dick Ng’ambi
Successful technical management of Moodle is based on using well known standard tools in their management of the system along with skilled motivated staff and strong documented processes.
Re: -“On Optimal Strategies for the Development and Operation of Moodle in Higher Education Institutions” – M Omar Faruque Sarker, Jo Matthews, Jessica Gramp
The use of analytics can underpin the transformative use of Moodle from the initial standard document repository to a more blended and collaborative learning delivery system.
Re: “Beyond the baseline: working with e-learning champions to transform e-learning at a research-led university” – Jessica Gramp
Rather than just providing the content, providing self-assessment tools (like quizzes) for learners to find where they have gaps and thus identify where they need to learn, and then supporting them is an interesting approach to blended teaching and creates effective quality teaching moments.
Re: “Full Mathematical Power In Calculated Questions Through Spreadsheets” – Hiram Bollaert
It is important to assess feedback on Moodle/Online learning into two buckets – institutional/organisational issues and learning platform/learning design issues.
Re: “The Use of Moodle at Cass Business School: A Student Perspective” – Leona Norris, Lowe Sporre, Didrik Svendsen
Personalisation can mean many things to many people. It is important to understand what level of personalisation that you can offer and that you want to offer in the different aspects of learning, and crucially what impact this will have on staff and learners alike.
Re: “Emphasising personalisation movements in contemporary management education: the impact on learning environments” – Martin Rich, Clive Holtham, Ann Brown, Annora Eyt-Dessus, Leona Norris
All the papers are individually downloadable from the Moodle Research Conference website database. The full proceedings are available on the MRC2013 website.
