How Moodle changed a school in Perth, Australia. Part Two.

Part two

How Moodle changed a school in Perth, Australia. Part One.

Part One

Ecreators - Moodle customisation

Just found a great company located in Port Melbourne, Australia (just around the corner from us - fantastic) that work as consultants in customising Moodle further to suit your brand image.

We are currently waiting for a quote so I will keep you all posted......

They also add iPad integration to Moodle which I think our students will love!

Here is their site: http://ecreators.com.au/

They also provide:

• Elearning development
• Consulting services
• Articulate training
• LMS hosting
• Support services
• Articulate software; &
• Customisation of Moodle

How to add social integration to your elearning and increase your exposure.

Ning is a great way to create a social network that works in conjunction with your other elearning platforms and advertises your business via social media.

Ning website:  http://www.ning.com/

The following list is just some of the features of Ning.

Create:

• Blogs
• Photos
• Forums
• Chats
• Events
• Groups
• Custom "Like" Buttons
• Video uploads with branded players
• Pages
• Ning aps
• Ads
• SEO tools
• RSS feeds
• And many more

How to identify plagiarism in student submissions via your LMS

 It is hard to identify plagiarism within elearning. Help is at hand with turnitin.

Turnitin is an LMS software/plugin that is able to:

• Check submitted papers against 20+ billion webpages, 220 million+ student papers & leading library databases and publications
• Provide feeedback through online grading where standard and customised marks appear directly on the student's paper.
• Peer review - Engages students in the writing process by providing structured, anonymous feedback of other student's written work.

Website link: http://turnitin.com/en_us/home

Melbourne Moodle Users Group

Join the Melbourne Moodle Users Group to obtain access to support for elearning @:

http://vic.ozmug.com.au/

When you click on one of their courses you will see a login page. On the right you will then be prompted to 'Create new account'. Sign up and get involved!

Face to face meetings: Second Thursday of the month @ 6 - 8PM AEST (Venue variable)
Online meetings: Second Thursday of the month @ 7 - 8PM AEST

Contact the moderator to find out more.

Integrating elearning to save time and data entry

To save time and data entry within an RTO, it is important to find out if you can link your LMS (Learning Management System) with your SMS (Student Management System).

We use Wisenet and know that they provide a Moodle integrator that will work with our LMS. Whilst this plugin will cost money, I am hoping that the cost will lessen our administrative costs and offset the monthly outlay that we currently have in updating both systems.

http://www.mywisenet.com.au/

Moodle resouces:

  

Click on the links for guides and downloads for Moodle:

• http://www.moodle.org - All about Moodle
• http://download.moodle.org/windows - Download it
• http://docs.moodle.org/en/Main_Page - Moodle user guides
• http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5 - Moodle help forums

Optional applications for hosting an LMS

Some interesting sites to consider for LMS & Blogging:

Wordpress: http://wordpress.com/
Google apps: www.google.com/Apps
iSpring: http://www.ispringsolutions.com/
EduBlogs: http://edublogs.org/
BuddyPress: buddypress.org
Google Education Apps: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/

Creating virtual worlds for elearning

Have a look at these great links and information/YouTube recordings on utilising virtual worlds: 

Virtual worlds in education

– Educational uses of Second Life (7 mins)

http://youtu.be/qOFU9oUF2HA

– The Virtual Tourism Project, TAFE NSW (5:43 mins)

http://youtu.be/wA-n9VAB8do

Listing of virtual world platforms (and associated how-to resources)

http://wiki.jokaydia.com/page/Vws_list

Sloodle – a ‘bridge’ that ensures that quizzes & assignments completed in 2nd Life are recorded in your moodle

Try out virtual worlds for free!

http://www.jokaydiagrid.com/signup-for-jokaydiagrid/  

How to create a blog in blogger

Watch this YouTube video to get some hints and tips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU4gXHkejMo

How to interpret text emoticons

Not sure what a text emoticon means? Have a look at this link:

http://www.sharpened.net/emoticons/

Great for moderators in online webinar sessions when participants send an emoticon via the chat session or pod.

How to interpret chat acronyms

Have trouble understanding text and chat acronyms?

Have a look at the following link:

http://www.sharpened.net/acronyms/

Great for moderators that run live webinar sessions where participants may use acronyms to respond in chat sessions or pods.

What is a blog?

 Have a look at these great links on blogging.

• What’s a blog?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI

• Blogs (eg Blogger, Wordpress, Edublogs)

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com

http://www.elearnspace.org/blog

• Why use blogs in education?

http://socialelearning.flexiblelearning.net.au/social_elearning/index.htm

http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/gallery/activities/blogs.htm

What is Phlogging?

Phlogs are Audio posts that can be recorded via ipadio. These posts can be used for evidence in assessment. I.e. Practical responses to questions, providing further information or profile information. Administrators will need to create an ipadio account first and then pose a question to the student. The students then will be provided with information that they will need to be put into their phone. Any phone may be used as long as it has a dial pad.
The type of information that they will need to input to post their audio blog is as follows:

• Ring: Phone number relative to the account would be supplied
• Enter the Registered Number: This will be the registered number of the account. Usually followed by a hash tag
• Enter the Pin number: This pin will be supplied by ipadio and you will need to let students know the pin number
• Begin your phonecast: At this stage the student will talk and provide the required information. Try to place a limit on the time that students talk so as to limit the size of the mp3 file that will be created.
• When the account has been set up you will be provided with a channel homepage where you can go in and retrieve/listen to the recordings. The channel homepage link may look something like the link below:

Channel Homepage: http://www.ipadio.com/channels/(Your name) (NB: this is not a live link)

ipadio's webpage: http://www.ipadio.com/default.aspx

Internet etiquette

This is a great site to teach students how they should use the web responsibly without causing any offence!

Great to add to your LMS to ensure all are up to speed....

http://www.learnthenet.tv/learn-about/netiquette/index.php

Here is a great overview as provided by ACPET:

Learn the Net – Your Online Guide:

1. Capitals = shouting

2. Emoticons clarify meaning

3. Be succinct, especially if your message may be read on a mobile device

4. Use common abbreviations

5. Comments you post to public forums may come back to haunt you

6. Avoid spamming (commenting off topic) & flaming (provoking anger)

7. Keep the subject line of emails on topic (change if topic changes)

8. Identify commercial messages as such in the subject line

9. Consult FAQs before asking questions

10. Be cautious – even deleted messages can usually be retrieved from mail servers

Great web links for subscribing to elearning RSS feeds:

Delicious: http://delicious.com/about/

Diigo: http://www.diigo.com/ - This website also includes the ability to create bookmarks, sticky notes, highlights, images, docs, notes and a library. Also available as an iPad app.

TALO: http://www.protopage.com/teachandlearnonline - This is Teach and learn online's webpage

Google Reader, Google Groups & iGoogle. You will need to create your own Google account and then subscribe/enrol/set up each.

Google Groups: To subscribe to Google Groups go to "More" (Black bar at the top) and choose "Even More". Scroll down until you see Groups. Choose this link and then search for the groups that you would like to join. Great groups for elearning are "Teach and Learn Online TALO" and "elearnspace".

Google Reader: Once logged into Google go to "More" (Black bar at the top) and choose "Reader". Once here you can search for Groups that you may subscribe to to enable RSS feeds. These feeds once added will show on your home page for ease of access.

iGoogle: A great way to create your own webspace that allows gadgets, search functionality and a way of viewing your subcribed groups (if available when searching) as an RSS gadget. An all in one space. When setting up iGoogle you will also be prompted to choose a Theme. Choose a theme that you like. If you wish to change the theme you will find a "Change theme" link on the right hand side of your theme area.

Fun items I added to my space: Funny cat photos (I'm a crazy cat lady), A joke a day and a To Do List. I also have the elearnspace RSS feed, Weather, Google map search, news.com.au, YouTube, Google translate, Date and Time, Currency converter & Recipe of the day - Taste.com.au (I love food!). This is great if you want a quick review of general news and information in a day with a little splash of fun. Love it!

It is also easy to add and delete gadgets. Use the cog wheel drop down choices to delete apps (top right of the gadget bar) and to add gadgets use the menu bar to the left of iGoogle and select "Add gadgets". Search for your Google group or choose a popular gadget.  When finished with adding Gadgets you can expand your window and minimise the gadget menu by clicking on the arrow at the top right of the menu.

ACRONYMS in elearning

PLE's = Personal learning environments. A place for students to engage in elearning that is their own personal space.

LMS = Learning management systems. An online system that is utilised to implement elearning. Learning management systems are a central repository or area on the web where students are able to interact online and access their course work and also submit online assessments etc. A commonly used LMS is Moodle.

BLOG = Web log. An online journal or diary of personal events, interests and information. A personal digest.

RSS = Really simple syndication. A way of subscribing to online feeds to a web page or email etc.

TALO = Teach and Learn Online. A Google group that provides information on