Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center

Fall 2010 TLTC/Library Workshops and Webinars:
calendar and sign-up form

Technology and the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

I am starting a series of conversations about the use of Moodle and other technologies to support Chickering and Gamson’s Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.  Sessions will be held Thursday afternoons from 3:30 to 4:30 in the TLTC conference room (L0008, lower level of the Library), starting the week of September 28th.  These are meant to be informal discussions where we can do some show-and-tell and share best practices.  And I’ll plan to do some baking so that we have some snacks to support our late afternoon conversations.

Here is the planned line-up:

• Oct 1 – Principle 1: Using Moodle and other technology to encourage contact between students and faculty
• Oct 8 – Principle 2: Using Moodle and other technology to develop reciprocity and cooperation among students
• Oct 15 – Principle 3: Using Moodle and other technology to encourage active learning
• Oct 22 – Principle 4: Using Moodle and other technology to give prompt feedback
• Oct 29 – Principle 5: Using Moodle and other technology to emphasize time on task
• Nov 5 – Principle 6: Using Moodle and other technology to communicate high expectations
• Nov 12 – Principle 7: Using Moodle and other technology to respect diverse talents and ways of learning

We are planning a large number of Moodle workshops during the last week of August and the first 2 weeks of September, to support the transition from ERes (and Blackboard) to Moodle.  All of the workshops will be limited to 10 or fewer participants, and will take place in the new faculty conference room / training center that we are developing in the TLT Center (Library 0008, lower level across from the elevator).  We have three Moodle workshop topics scheduled:

“Getting Started with Moodle”: The focus of this workshop is to help faculty set up their Moodle course to match the instructional goals of their course, and to cover the different ways that faculty can make course resources available to students.  The topics for this workshop will include: how to structure your course by weeks or topics and what that means pedagogically; how to set and use the enrollment key for your course; how to manage roles in your Moodle courses; what blocks are and how you can use them to augment your Moodle course; how course files are managed; how to upload files; different ways to make files available; linking to websites; adding pages to your Moodle course.  The specific topics covered in each session will be adjusted based on the needs and interests of the faculty participants present.

“Moodle Gradebook”: These sessions will cover use of the gradebook in your Moodle course, to provide feedback to your students.  Specific topics covered will include: defining categories and items for the gradebook; setting up grade calculations; how to edit grades and provide feedback comments; how to tie in Moodle activities in the gradebook; moving grades back and forth between your Moodle gradebook and Excel.

“Learning Activities in Moodle”: This session will demonstrate the variety of learning activities that are available in Moodle, including discussion forums, assignment drop boxes, feedback and questionnaire activities, quizzes, glossaries/databases/maps, wikis, etc.  The specific activities covered in each session will vary based on the interests and needs of the participants at each session.