Using course management systems (CMS) based on open-source applications is a growing trend in many academic institutions that cannot be ignored. Nowadays, one of the most commonly used is Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Developmental Learning Environment), which offers a wide variety of channels and workspaces to facilitate information sharing, collaboration and communication among participants.
With Moodle, pedagogical activities can be applied in any time and place and by different mobile devices (Yingling, 2006). Moodle modular design makes it easy to create new courses and add content that will engage learners. It is designed to support social constructionist pedagogy (Black et al., 2008; Graf & List, 2005) with no special knowledge in programming (Romero et al., 2008). Moodle is entirely supported by a team of programmers and by the user community (Brandl, 2005), which exchange information in dedicated forums, enabling an open dialogue between lecturers and Moodle developers. Moodle is available free of charge under the terms of the General Public License (GNU) and operates in many institutions around the world with millions of users from more than 200 countries (Moodle, 2011).
After a decade of accumulated experience in characterizing online learning systems and their implementation on a large campus, and with the introduction of new systems under open source, such as Moodle, Tel-Aviv University decided to implement Moodle in its online campus alongside its existing learning management system HighLearn with currently more than 5000 courses websites. Moodle has been gradually integrated with the academic teaching at Tel-Aviv University on a campus wide level and has been received positively among lecturers and students alike. As Moodle become more frequently implemented at the campus on a large scale and in light of its potential to enhance and promote academic teaching, essential questions regarding the instructional use of the pedagogical and social capabilities and the exploitation of the pedagogical potential have emerged. Consequently, we are aimed to find out whether the move from HighLearn to Moodle encourages new pedagogical models.
This study is based on empirical data taken from Moodle web-logs, reflecting students' and instructors' usage for 636 courses websites. This data was accumulated automatically in the learning management system's Web servers.
The goals of this study are first to identify and describe the innovative activities and their contribution to the success of online learning (Best practice), and second to understand the main components and characteristics that can be defined as having potential for real pedagogical change in academic instruction.
The preliminary results show a significant number of lecturers displaying their creativity and desire to invest time in using the course website as a lever to change teaching methods. They find unique uses and interesting ways of integrating Moodle in their instruction. A variety of innovative pedagogical activities were created using a set of tools that support an inquiry- and discovery-based approach to online learning.
Furthermore Moodle creates an environment that allows collaborative interaction among students as a standalone or in addition to conventional classroom instruction using activities such as peer assessment, assignments, tests, brainstorming, reflection, construction of content (Wiki), Blog and discussions (forums and chats). However, these innovative activities and models are "islands of innovation". Despite the great potential of Moodle to promote academic teaching, it is still not fulfilled sufficiently. Similar to other findings from previous studies of different learning management systems (Cohen & Nachmias, 2009), the number of content items is rapidly growing in course websites and only a relatively small number of courses operate innovative pedagogical activities. Most of the lecturers primarily use Moodle for distribution of various types of content (text, images, and video), accessibility and comfort and less for innovative methods of teaching.
This presentation will focus on the strength of Moodle in its socio-constructivist pedagogy concept along with the ability to accumulate data in the learning management system servers (Log-files) regarding the learner, online learning and instruction process. I will present a variety of innovative pedagogical activities and new models of integrating Moodle in the academic teaching at Tel-Aviv University. One example is the usage of a new module in Moodle that we have characterized and developed for the Clerkship curriculum in the faculty of Medicine. During these Clerkships medical students participate in clinical studies, which take place in clinical departments in several hospitals affiliated to the University of Tel-Aviv. The students actually become part of the medical staff in the department during their studies. The module that was characterized addresses the needs of the medical school to take control of and information about teaching in hospitals, and more importantly to support the online learning process, in which doctors and department managers are functioning as lecturers and mentors, improving the quality of teaching and its accessibility.
This presentation will demonstrate first, the potential of Moodle to serve as a catalyst for new pedagogical concepts in academic instruction and second, the capability of organizations to develop applications for the open source system, which enables complete access to the source code, and ability to share with user communities worldwide.
Bibliography
Black, E. W., Dawson, k., & Priem, J. (2008). Data for free: Using LMS activity logs to measure community in online courses, Internet and Higher Education, 11, 65-70.
Brandl, K. (2005). Are you ready to "MOODLE"? Language Learning & Technology, 9(2), 16-23.
Cohen, A., & Nachmias, R. (2009). Implementing a Cost Effectiveness Analyzer for Web-Supported Academic Instruction: A Campus Wide Analysis. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL), II, 1-14.
Graf, S., & List, B. (2005). An Evaluation of Open Source E-Learning Platforms Stressing Adaptation Issues, Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'05), Computer society.
Moodle (2011). Moodle Statistics. Retrieved from http://moodle.org/stats/
Romero, C., Ventura, S., & Garcia, E. (2008). Data mining in course management systems: Moodle case study and tutorial. Computers & Education, 51(1), 368-384.
Yingling, M. (2006). Mobile Moodle. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges archive, 21(6), 280-281.
