Things I’ve learned about teaching Moodle.

1) Despite it’s simplicity, there are a few things you can do to clean the interface even more. Do what you can to elminate clutter up front and let them add it. While it’s easy for us, it’s still a bunch of information for somebody new. (Example: Discussion forums. I don’t talk about them right up front. They can be a little confusing and are difficult to “scale” efficiently).

2) They have documents stored on their computer. It’s not always apparent why they would want to put them in Moodle as well. I heard one district successfully implement Moodle by focusing on calling it the teacher’s “web drive”.

3) Not sure what kind of rollout plan you have, but while you have time this summer, create an account and a space for every teacher/course in the school while you have time this summer. Make it painfully bullet-proof for yourself so that when one of those teachers comes to you during the second week of September wondering about it, you simply make the course active and give him/her the password. Make it look quick and easy, like registering for any Web 2.0 service.

4) Keep it simple and build around their personal interests. Like you say, let them play and explore. Poke around.

5) Share what you learned. I’m doing a 6 hour intro to Moodle in August.

Bud, I think you are on the right track. Last December I was at a workshop that gave us lots of resources and then GAVE US TIME TO WORK WITH THEM RIGHT THEN. It was wonderful. I also agree with John; set up a really simple course for each of them, let them play with that, and then add modules one at a time. I think I’d also have a “class” course set up so they can move back and forth between being a student and being a teacher. Maybe you already said you’d be doing that. And plunk a bunch of avatars somewhere and let them change from theirs from the default smiley to something personal. Sounds stupid but it’s one of those little things that seems to make users enjoy it more.

Time for hands on is important as well as showing them what they can do – examples of different Moodle courses. An explanation of how this might make things easier for them rather than simply being MORE work. Is access to computers an issue for your students? If students can use that as an excuse for not completing work, then the teachers will not use Moodle no matter how much they like it.

I targeted a couple of teachers last year and showed them specific features I thought they could use. The drama teacher was very excited to see that she could use it instead of having her students email her their weekly journals. A social studies teacher, similarly, was happy to be able to post assignments that gave students a link to a website to read and a forum to respond in, and one place (other than his email account) to find all their work. It’s the old ‘killer app’ all over again – find what it is that will really work for them and they will want to use it.

If things go well, do let us know what you did! At my last school I hijacked an English department meeting at the end of the year and showed them what I’d been doing with Moodle, suggested some things I thought they could do . . . several faculty were VERY interested, asked good questions, made good suggestions as to what they might use it for. I promised them they’d have classes set up immediately, before the end of the school year. I checked before I left for a new job and it had happened. Took a look today, a year later, and very little has happened with Moodle

My Moodle stuff is here…would love to see what you have put together, Bud.

http://mguhlin.net/wiki/index.php?n=Main.Moodleworkshop

and an article on the subject:
http://mguhlin.net/wiki/index.php?n=Main.Moodlemamboarticle

Take care,
Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://mguhlin.net