Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Using Moodle book


Using Moodle - Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System by Jason Cole and Helen Foster is published by O'Reilly as part of the Community Press series.

"Using Moodle" is now available for download as a zipped PDF file:

Using Moodle (approx 4MB) If that link doesn't work, try this one.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Getting Started with the Grade Center in Blackboard 8

LBCC Blackboard was recently upgraded to version 8, and one of the major updates was the new Grade Center. Check out the "Getting Started" document:

Download the PDF here.

Monday, June 22, 2009

LBCC Moodle Users Support Forum


Have a question about how to do something in Moodle? Post your question to the LBCC Moodle community. Have an answer for a question somebody else asked? Reply to a them and help them out.

Next time you log in to LBCC Moodle, check out the LBCC Moodle Users Support Forum.

NOTE: You must have an LBCC Moodle account and be logged in to utilize the Support forum.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Once upon a time, there was a Pretty Good Teacher. Her students and her peers recognized that she was a Pretty Good Teacher. Humble as she was, though, she also felt that she was a Pretty Good Teacher, and she was proud to be one.

Still, like all good teachers, she wanted to be an even better teacher.

Continue reading…

Monday, June 15, 2009

New eLearning Link on linnbenbenton.edu


Next time you visit the Linn-Benton Community College home page, you'll see that the old "Blackboard" link has been replaced with "eLearning Login," where you can access both our Blackboard and Moodle systems. You may want to simply bookmark/favorite http://elearning.linnbenton.edu/.

Updating Your Moodle Profile

Personalizing your Moodle profile gives your students a better sense of who you are as a person - details like photos, background, interests, and hobbies help humanize you. This fosters stronger student-instructor connections.

You can communicate the your teaching style and personality, giving your students clues about the tone and style of communication you use in class, setting accurate expectations.

Share your expertise and credentials! A robust profile allows you to showcase credentials, educational background, prior experience, awards, and other bonafides. This establishes and strengthens your credibility. Be sure to include your contact details, office hours, preferred communication methods and typical response times.

Personalizing your Moodle profile supports instructor accessibility and approachability - personalized details like an informal tone, quote, or fun facts make you more relatable, friendly, and accessible as a mentor.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

OCCDLA Digital Media Project

By July 1, 2009, every faculty member on every community college campus in Oregon will have access to media content via two different streaming sites, all free of cost to them. The digital media content may be used in the Distance Learning environment, the library, or the classroom.

Why and how did this come about, who will provide the content, and what kinds of digital media content will you be able to access?

About two years ago the Oregon Community College Distance Learning Association (OCCDLA) decided that pooling resources in the area of media resources could result in access to more materials than was presently available.

Read more here.

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom

Twitter has caught fire across many professional fields as well as personally, but it seems to be in the beginning stages in the realm of higher education. The creative ways Twitter users have incorporated microblogging has become inspirational, so the recent trend of using Twitter at college is sure to keep evolving into an ever more impressive tool. Make sure you don’t get left behind by incorporating some of these educational and fun ways that Twitter can be used in the college classroom.

Read more here.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Twitter Experiment



Read more here.

Assessing Online Facilitation

I thought I'd give you a good resource to use as you begin discussing online teaching together. It was developed by Humboldt University and called the Assessing Online Facilitation (Instrument). It's a simple checklist of the various tasks you perform as an online instructor to objectively evaluate your own facilitation of online instruction for strengths and areas for improvement.

It is divided into managerial, pedagogical, technical, and social tasks the faculty member (facilitator) performs as s/he facilitates the course at different periods of time: before the class begins, during the first week of class, throughout the course (term), and during the last week of the course. I believe the instrument has the potential of helping our faculty, especially those new to online teaching, organize and document activities performed as a facilitator for a particular course offering. When used with the AOF, the activity record can guide facilitation and provide a reference document for the instructor for future offerings of the same course.

The AOF is a checklist and record of the delivery of online instruction, whereas the Quality Matters rubric is a tool for applying the quality standards for the design and development of online instruction (what I like to call the blueprints for building the course online). Because our faculty are asked to do all 3 (design, develop, and deliver online instruction) both documents can be used to their advantage and I encourage their use. You can simply print out the AOF from their web site and you can get a Quality Matters rubric booklet from myself (until the end of the month) or from Alan Heywood.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Susan J. Clark, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
Staff & Organizational Development
Linn-Benton Community College 6500 Pacific Boulevard SW (IA-214)
Albany, OR 97321
541.917.4617

Monday, June 1, 2009

"Why I Love the Moodle Questionnaire Module"

The Moodle questionnaire module is a life saver… we use it regularly for all surveys, end of years surveys, feedback from students etc. It really is that good.

Read more here.