Combining Moodle and GoogleDocs to Create Asynchronous Collaborative

Combining Moodle and GoogleDocs to Create Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Exercises. : 

Combining Moodle and GoogleDocs to Create Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Exercises.

Slide 2: 

The first step in creating a learning exercise such as this one is to explain what is required. As you probably saw from the chunk of text at the top of this Moodle Topic/Course writing out long complicated sets of instructions doesn’t work well.

Slide 3: 

What we have done here is use PowerPoint, with all its bells and whistles to create a more user friendly environment.

Details about this Exercise : 

Details about this Exercise To get to this PowerPoint presentation you would have clicked on a link entitled “Start by Reading This!” The icon next to that link indicates this is a lesson activity. You can use lesson activities to embed presentations, movies, audio files, and images. The activity also allows you to create a variety of question and assessment exercises. You will have to answer a multiple choice question after this presentation, but you set short answer, true/false, numerical or even essay questions.

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After students have read/interacted with their instructions via the lesson (and you have recorded their level of engagement/comprehension with questions), they would move to the discussion forum called the Negotiating Table. Since this is an asynchronous experience your students will need to organise themselves into groups via the discussion board.

Slide 6: 

As you can see when looking at the forum it is possible to include quite explicit instructions. You will be asked to post something into a topic later as part of your task. After the students have organised themselves into groups they can proceed to use the GoogleDocs page created specifically for their group.

Slide 7: 

The GoogleDocs page provides a scratch pad for the students to collate all their research. It can cope with images, videos and audio, as well as web links for referencing. Most of all, multiple students can be working on and editing the same file at the same time, seeing each others words being typed up letter by letter. This is far more collaborative than saving files and emailing them from person to person. There is also a chat function that allows students to interact as they edit their work. For a detailed explanation of why we chose GoogleDocs please read this post: http://blog.ltc.mq.edu.au/aces861stcs/2010/09/03/decisions-digg-diigo-delicious-or-docs/

Slide 8: 

Once students have completed their research each student must create small blog post, using their research to write a first person account. Using a first person approach transforms the blog post from a reflective or journaling exercise, or simply a cut and paste research task, into a constructivist exercise where they must actually engage with their research in order to create their assessment task.

BIM (BAM into Moodle) : 

BIM (BAM into Moodle) The following slide contains a movie that will tell you a little bit about BIM and how to use it. In basic terms BIM is a plugin that no Moodle should be without, it expands the scope for effective and flexible student blogging whilst still allowing easy management via an institution’s LMS. This is because it allows teachers and students to use blogs from providers such as Wordpress inside the control and safety of your LMS.

Slide 10: 

http://www.vimeo.com/13470794

Your Task : 

Your Task Now that you have an understanding of the tools we have used, we would like you to work through a small activity designed to take advantage of these software options. The next page will show you a small background PowerPoint, then you will need answer two questions. After the lesson you will need to access a forum, add a fact about ecosystems to a GoogleDocs file, and write a hundred word blog. At the end you will be able to see the marks you have obtained from this exercise.

I’m inspired, how can I do this? : 

I’m inspired, how can I do this? This exercise was not that complicated to set up. Detailed instructions about many of the steps we have taken can be found on our blog. http://blog.ltc.mq.edu.au/aces861stcs/ Please use the tags to navigate to a post containing step by step instructions.