edufire
Free Introduction to Teaching with Moodle Online Class
Submitted by Allisun on Sat, 06/06/2009 - 18:47I offer a monthly free Introduction to Teaching with Moodle class on Edufire, and have recently scheduled June's edition. It's happening Monday, June 29th at 5:30pm PST. I will be developing a few more classes on Edufire about Moodle topics this summer, too. What would you like to see?
Sign up for Edufire and Introduction to Teaching with Moodle here.
Some feedback about my course:
Very informative class packed with useful information. Allisun provides expert demonstrations and useful lecture material that gives an excellent overview of Moodle.
Lisa on Monday Apr 13
I thought Allisun did a wonderful job of introducing Moodle to the class. She kept the class engaged with questions and answered them as the arose but stayed on track with the presentation. I will say, there were times when I was experiencing lags in the video and audio but overall a good experience. The lags may have been due to the fact that I am in Japan and she was in the US. I will look into other class/course by Allisun and other instructors as well. Good job to Allisun and EduFire.
Bill on Tuesday Mar 17
Allisun ran a huge class really well and shared lots of interesting information. I humbly suggest some student activities might be good for future sessions - possibly a short time 'playing' with some live Moodles via own browser outside eduFire. A great class though, and definitely recommended.
Mair on Tuesday Mar 17
Very nicely run class. I was more interested in an overall view of how one might use Moodle and felt this was definitely delivered. Also appreciated reading several of the informative chat q&a on the sidebar including from some who clearly weren't seeing Moodle for the first time. Learners helping learners - nice!
Mark on Thursday Mar 19
the 1.5 hr presentation was a generous hands-on tutorial on moodle's general features and usability. the intro course shares moodle as an all-in-one teaching application that unburdens the teachers load with its simple system of monitoring and organization. thanks again, allisun! an online tutor who actively responds to spontaneous queries is a world of a difference to an embedded powerpoint. thank you for sharing us your time. ^_^
ana on Tuesday Mar 31
Webinars & Moodle
Submitted by Allisun on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 15:06I have been offering a monthly webinar class through Edufire that introduces Moodle & applications for its tools. The turnout has been awesome, with 99 enrolled (the maximum allowed) in my first class, and 85 in the second. I'm very appreciative of the incredible feedback I've been getting in the form of Edufire comments on the course (nice feature, Edufire!), and I'm enjoying the challenging of making this class even better each time.
My next one is on a Sunday morning the first week of May. You can enroll at this link. I've been having a great time teaching with Edufire and am getting better with the tricks of handling a webinar course with their platform, Adobe Connect. I am looking forward to the free Adobe eSeminar on Secrets of Webinar Production & Management. There's another in May titled Making your Webinars as Engaging as In-Person events. I will be sure to recap my takeaways here. Register here: http://tinyurl.com/adobewebinars
Web Conferencing Systems: I find all the intricacies & differences between webinar platforms interesting - so far I've worked with WebEx, Adobe Connect, and DimDim and have participated in sessions with Elluminate & Wimba. While the ultimate features are very similar, certain administrative tasks can be very different. For instance, managing roles & microphone rights in WebEx is very smooth & easy to work with, and one can view the chat room while screensharing. I haven't looked into this deeply, but I did not see an apparent way to screenshare and show a presentation at the same time. Adobe Connect's roles are a bit more confusing yet their blocks interface allows you to easily set up a slideshow & application share. However, during my second Moodle class session, the full screen button for my application share which I had grown so comfortable using was disappearing & failing to work. This caused a bit of a bumpy ride, but I now have a clearer strategy of handling the interface if this happens again.
Moodle Tip: Every one of the webinar systems above has an integration of some sort with Moodle, and a free one is available so you should be seriously considering the use of a live web meeting system to enrich your online & face-to-face courses. These integrations typically offer the ability to create, schedule, and access the web meeting - with connections to Moodle's calendar and gradebook. I will be writing more on strategies & practices for employing webinar software soon. You can find some links to get you started below, and I plan to update this list with further details, links & info.
Adobe Connect: An Adobe Connect Reseller, RefinedData, offers an integration. There is a review of this posted on the Moodle community, and a Powerpoint of how this has worked for Lubeck University in Germany.
DimDim Web Meeting: The only free solution of the bunch. This is an easy to download & install 3rd party module for Moodle 1.8 & beyond.
Elluminate: Remote-Learner's integration with Open Knowledge Technologies involves a module and a block, with an option for an ELM version if you're hosting Elluminate yourself, or an SAS version if Elluminate is hosting for you. Elluminate offers documentation, a quick reference guide, and a free one-year full use license to any K-12 school.
WebEx: A WebEx module & integration will be available soon with Moodlerooms. I recently documented this feature & am excited for its release! More information will be posted to their documentation site as it is available, which I will announce here.
Wimba: Wimba has a lot of support for this integration - they occasionally offer a live demo, provide a documentation guide for versions 1.6 through 1.9, and have a showcase and sandbox area you can play in. Moodlerooms offers a Wimba integration which Michael Penney will be speaking to in a webinar on April 28th.
