LBCC Moodle Online Summer Camp

As you probably know, we’ll be transitioning from Blackboard to Moodle next year. We’ll have both systems available all year long, so you can begin your own transition to Moodle at a time and pace that’s convenient for you.

As one way to help you learn how to use Moodle, both from a teacher’s perspective and from a student’s perspective, we’re creating an informal, fun Moodle “Summer Camp Online.”

Here’s the deal: if you’d like to start a reading discussion group (trashy novels welcome!), a summer recipe sharing group, a mini-class in how to participate in Facebook, a Mac user’s group, a movie discussion group, or any other fun summer learning activity, please volunteer to become a teacher/facilitator or discussion leader and tell us (the Technology Initiatives sub-committee of ITEC) what you’d like to do. We’ll set you up with a Moodle course shell and point you toward some basic instructions on how to use it. (We might even have a short in-person workshop. But the nice thing about Moodle is it doesn’t take much help to learn it.) Then you’ll create your course or discussion group and be the official teacher/facilitator.

If you’d like to be a “student,” stay tuned for our “Course Catalog” email that will let you know what’s being offered. Then you can sign up and have something fun to do this summer while learning a bit about using Moodle!

Of course, this is all voluntary - no pay for teachers/facilitators, no tuition for “students.”

If you’d like to offer a short course or lead a book discussion group, please send us an email with a brief description by next Tuesday (June 2). We’ll then do our best to send out the “Course Catalog” email by next Thursday, June 4. Let’s aim for starting our courses the week of June 29, to avoid conflict with the first week of summer term, and let’s aim for most courses lasting 4 weeks.

Please send your course ideas, proposals, and/or questions to me right away, even if you just have a 1-2 sentence idea of what you might like to do. Nothing fancy or detailed required.

For example, I'm thinking of leading a reading discussion group on "The War of Art" - a book about recognizing and facing the resistance that comes up whenever we try to do something creative or meaningful.

Don't be shy - let's set up some fun, informal courses to teach each other something cool this summer!

Paul Hagood
Co-Chair
Technology Initiatives sub-committee of ITEC

LBCC Moodle Instructor Development Sites

If you are an LBCC Faculty or Staff member, and want to dive in to Moodle, get with Paul Tannahill to set it up for you.

LBCC Diagnostic Imaging Commercial

Moodle Book Recommendation

I have had a number of Faculty & Staff asking for Moodle resources, and, besides the wealth of information at Moodle.org, a book entitled, "Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System" has proven to be a very valuable resource to help me wrap my head around Moodle. I got my copy on Amazon, but the LBCC Library has a couple of copies.

Make your Moodle Course Look Like a Webpage

What Makes a Successful Online Student?

#1 Be open minded about sharing life, work, and educational experiences as part of the learning process.

#2 Be able to communicate through writing.

#3 Be Self-motivated and self-disciplined.

Read more of this article here.

Google Apps Education Edition

"Imagine how valuable it would be if your entire campus community — students, faculty, and staff — could share information and ideas more easily. With Google Apps Education Edition, you can start bringing that vision to life."

Faculty & Staff: Login to LBCC's Google Apps for Education account here. If you don't have an account, contact Paul Tannahill at x4647 to get one.

Moodle: The World's Favourite LMS

"It came as little surprise to us that Moodle has become the most used LMS by organizations of all sizes or that it was the most cost-effective LMS to install and customize. On-going costs of Moodle were also the lowest per user, not surprising given Moodle is Open Source and licence free. "

Read more here.

Why Google Apps for Education?

Jeff and Sam from Google talk about Google Apps Education Edition

The Philosophy Behind Moodle

The design and development of Moodle is guided by a "social constructionist pedagogy".

From a constructivist point of view, people actively construct new knowledge as they interact with their environments.

Constructionism asserts that learning is particularly effective when constructing something for others to experience. This can be anything from a spoken sentence or an internet posting, to more complex artifacts like a painting, a house or a software package.

Social constructivism extends constructivism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this, one is learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels.

Read more here.

LBCC Is Switching to Moodle

You may have heard the rumors, and now it's official: over the next 18 months we will be transitioning from Blackboard Academic Suite to Moodle as our CMS of choice.

We currently aren't quite ready to create new course shells in LBCC Moodle for Summer Term 09 enrollments, but anticipate being able to soon. Until then, we can created a development (sandbox) shell for you. You can build your course in that shell and (unlike Blackboard) change the Course ID number to that of your course whenever you want.

If you are an LBCC Instructor, and would like an LBCC Moodle development shell, email Paul Tannahill.

Recomended reading: Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System by Jason Cole & Helen Foster.

Stay tuned here for more updates!

LBCC Academic Google Calendar

Here it is!

LBCC Moodle Introduction Videos

"The Two Pauls" (Hagood & Tannahill) have teamed up to deliver some videos to introduce Moodle to LBCC Faculty and Staff involved in the CMS decision-making process. Here is Paul Hagood's Moodle Rationale document, in case you haven't seen it yet.

Paul Hagood's video gives a broad overview of various Moodle features:


View the high-resolution version here.
-------
Paul Tannahill's video shows Moodle Blocks and Themes:


View the high-resolution version here.
-------
Feel free to share your ideas for future screencasts, as they serve as a valuable tool to proactively answer questions and to promote good eLearning knowledge and practices among all LBCC Faculty and Staff.