The South East Training Programme for General Practice, based in the city of Waterford, was established in 1991 to prepare doctors for working in General Practice. In February 2009 the Programme commenced online training with the view to enhancing the onsite training.

After a review of course management systems in use by universities and businesses, it was decided Moodle offered the best solutions.  According to the research carried out by the South East GPTP(1), some of the benefits of Moodle included the ability to:

1. Create a course for GP trainees and control access to the course
2. Lay out the topics for a term and upload aims and objectives, documents, presentations, web links and multimedia
3. Engage in discussion forums with teachers and learners
4. Set and review assignments and receive submissions

Synergy Learning worked closely with the South East GPTP to implement the new Moodle site providing Moodle Hosting, Support and Training.

Results

Questionnaires carried out by the South East GPTP found trainee’s experience of Moodle was overwhelmingly positive:

1. 84% of respondents believed that Moodle had brought positive changes to the training programme
2. 95% respondents would recommend Moodle to colleagues in other GP training programmes

Respondents were asked to comment on their experience of Moodle.  In all, 95% of respondents made comments.  The most frequent topics raised in the comments were:

“ Easy to use, great communication tool, allows wide sharing of information and cuts down on paper waste.”

“Topics posted in plenty of time prior to meetings which allows for better preparation and planning.  Better follow-up by particiapants in topics raised as documents can be uploaded within the week.”

“Immediacy of contact, promptness of reply and all the information in one place.”

“Has fitted in well with the running of meetings and also useful as a study tool”

“It has resulted in better communication between trainees and programme directors and facilitated better planning of day release.  It has also made it easier to communicate with the programme administrator”

“Very positive, all GP training schemes should have one.  Has facilitated communication and information-sharing, I think it has been of enormous benefit”

Conclusion

In conclusion, the authors of the Research Article comment:

“Moodle is easy to use [and] the online learning environment was rapidly adopted and maintained to facilitate teaching and learning.

“Moodle has been successfully implemented in the South East GPTP.  The course management system has received widespread acceptance and participation from trainees, programme directors and trainers.

“Moodle repays the time and effort made by all parties in making it work.  The members of the South East GPTP recommend the use of Moodle to augment general practice training.”

(The South East General Practice Training Programme is funded by the Health Service Executive.)

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According to Moodle.org, My Moodle initially could come with specific pages:

1. home page / dashboard – A completely user configurable page where the informational blocks can be added and moved. Users could have items such as news-feeds, calendars, etc.
2. profile – The same function that currently exists on the user profile page. It will provide options for the user to assign what information can be visible by what roles.
3. blog – Access to the user’s blog (like the current tab on the user profile page).
4. course list – A better version of the current My Moodle page.
5. report – Access to various reports and logs on your activities.

Each page would be available to be enabled or disabled to the My Moodle interface.

The release of Moodle 2.0 is drawing ever nearer.  If you are interested in upgrading your current version of Moodle email me at joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com.

Our Senior Designer, Laura Sweeney, has been working on the site in whatever free time she can get.  I got a sneak preview of what it looks like this morning and I am thinking it has been worth the wait.

Here’s what it looks like so far…

This is entirely unrecognisable from the results I got using my basic Moodle skills (click here for screen shots) and is what you can achieve if you know your way around Moodle software.

Thankfully for me Laura understands the technology and pedagogical requirements of an elearning site, meaning I could give her minimal material and she could turn it into a site that is engaging and easy to navigate.

There is still work to be done on the lessons and quizzes so it’s not ready for release yet.  Laura is a busy girl!

I’ll keep you updated with the progress…

Joel

Reports commissioned by BECTA conclude parents want schools to keep them better informed of their child’s progress, finding 82% of parents felt ‘left in the dark’ about their child’s education.  BECTA’s research also found that a lack of communication with parents hampered a student’s progress.

Online reporting enables parents to get closer to and support their child’s learning, enabling them to work with schools to improve the learning outcomes of their child.

For schools that use Moodle, ZiLink makes this achievable through the effective interoperability of their management information systems and their Moodle.

ZiLink is an affordable, sustainable and scaleable addition to Moodle.  As a Moodle ‘super-block’ ZiLink enables online reporting and parental access to information on their child’s attainment, targets, progress, attendance, behaviour, SEN status.

By incorporating ZiLink in Moodle, parents also have direct access to their child’s currently assigned work, their targets, timetable and one-click access to comments and feedback from their child’s teachers.

ZiLink has entered the market at a time when many schools are aiming to meet former Minister of State for Schools and Learners, Jim Knight’s targets for all secondary schools to provide parents with online reports by September 2010 and all primary schools to do the same by September 2012.

For more information on how your school can meet those targets, or to find out more about our ZiLink services email info@synergy-learning.com.

ZiLink supports parental engagement by adding more than reporting attainment, progress, attendance, behaviour and SEN status. By incorporating ZiLink in Moodle, parents also have direct access to their child’s currently assigned work, their targets, timetable and one-click access to comments and feedback from their child’s teachers.

ZiLink will also assist student assessment, learning, support and achievement with the inclusion of Individual Learning Plans.

Jeremy Meades, Director of ICT Strategy and e-Learning at School’s ICT says:

“For the first time schools can expect and achieve genuine interoperability between their management information system and Moodle. Plus, they can meet the September 2010 target of being able to report online to parents about their child’s attainment, progress, attendance, behaviour and SEN information.

ZiLink is sustainable, affordable and scalable solution to the problem of interoperability of disparate systems in schools.”

Synergy Learning is the only Moodle Partner in the UK offering ZiLink services.

Roy Kerley, Synergy Learning Director, comments:

“Synergy Learning is pleased to add ZiLink to our growing portfolio of Moodle products. As the UK and Ireland’s leading Moodle Partner we are increasingly aware of the vital role parental engagement plays in a student’s development.

ZiLink offers a straightforward, effective solution to support communications between parents and teachers”

For more information on our ZiLink services email info@synergy-learning.com

Schools are increasingly finding cost cutting solutions through the innovative use of technology.  The VLE offers many alternatives to traditional teaching practices that can save vital budget.

The Guardian recently reported on Sawtry Community College’s aims to save up to 20% of the school’s budget over the next year, basing the bulk of their savings on technology.  One solution is the innovative use of their VLE – their science department are saving £1000 a quarter on paper, laser cartridges and running costs by scanning resources into their VLE rather than laser printing and photocopying.

In the same report the Guardian referenced the Carbon Trust, a government funded, not-for-profit company, who’s research found ICT to be one area where UK schools could definitely cut costs.

The big decision facing schools is which VLE to go with, and with cost cutting being at the forefront of every decision makers mind surely Moodle is the obvious choice.

I recently wrote a blog post on the University of North Carolina’s study into the best VLE for them.  At the time they where using Blackboard, but found, “the University would realise a cost savings of 52% in year 2011-2012 by switching to Moodle as the standard University Learning Management System.”

Schools and Universities could make huge savings by switching to Open Source Software.  Both Moodle and commercial platforms require budget for hosting, support, training and content.  The difference is with Moodle there is no licence fee to pay.  By choosing Moodle schools can eliminate the cost of the annual licence fee, which when all things considered is an unnecessary cost.

Moodle is highly customisable, can be themed to suit a school’s branding and comes with a lot of standard features that are not available in commercial platforms.  Not only that but there is an international team of enthusiastic Moodle experts on hand to assist meaning a lot of the necessary costs can be brought inhouse.

As budgets tighten and efficiency becomes even more important schools that need to cut costs without making any of the sacrifices could do a whole lot worse than look to Moodle.

For more information on our services click on one of the following links Moodle Hosting, Moodle Training, Moodle Support, Moodle Themes and Moodle Development.

THE INFLUENCE OF ICT ON BEHAVIOUR | FRIDAY 4TH JUNE 2010: HILTON BELFAST HOTEL

The ICT for Education Conference 2010 in Belfast will address the issues facing those responsible for using ICT to achieve the highest educational standards and most effective educational environment in UK schools.

The event is aimed at those responsible for the selecting and purchasing the ICT for your school or education authority or advise those who buy ICT for education – Head teachers, Heads of ICT, ICT managers, ICT co-ordinators, ICT consultants, LEA purchasers and Network managers.

The ICT for Education Belfast Conference Speakers are:

• Jimmy Stewart Director, C2K

• Richard Hanna Director, CCEA

• David Knox Principal, Ballyclare High School

• Ian Glasscock Director, Games for Life

• Grahame Ward Director of Capital Programmes, Kent County Council

An open floor question time will allow the delegates to question all speakers.

For more information on the ICT for Education Conference in Belfast click here.

Why use Mahara?

As an online portfolio, Mahara is a place to store institutional and personal learning articles or ‘artefacts’.  Students can use these artefacts to demonstrate their development over time to various audiences including prospective universities and future employers.

Mahara also provides a comprehensive blogging tool, social networking and a CV builder.  Users have their own personalised profiles which they can use to add employment and education history, accreditations, achievements and goals.

Communities can be built within Mahara – users have the ability to connect with other users, create and maintain lists of friends. One of the features that differentiates Mahara from other ePortfolio systems is that users control which items and what information within their portfolio other users see.

Moodle and Mahara.

Mahara is designed to compliment Moodle, in fact many of the Mahara development team have also been involved in major Moodle development.  This means it is simple, straightforward and cost effective for Moodle educators to integrate Mahara as an eportfolio system.

A Moodle to Mahara network is very similar to Moodle to Moodle networking with the Mahara system being built on top of the Moodle network.  The networks can be set up to connect one Mahara system to one Moodle system, many to one, one to many or many to many systems.

A single-sign on capability allows users to be automatically logged in to both their Mahara and Moodle accounts by providing a username and password at only one of these sites.

Once set-up any Moodle content created could potentially become a Mahara artefact with students easily being able to export from Moodle to Mahara.  The Moodle content appears in Mahara rendered to HTML or a file that can easily be read by common applications (eg PDF).

Most importantly, like Moodle, Mahara is constantly being developed and updated thus providing a very solid framework for which to build on.

If you are interested in finding out more about Synergy Learning’s Mahara services visit www.synergy-learning.com/mahara or email info@synergy-learning.com.

If reports are to be believed Blackboard’s market share is dropping while Moodle’s is doing the opposite, and social networkers are airing where their preference lies.  It is clear the educational world is increasingly coming round to the seductions of Moodle.  But why?

In 2009 the University of North Carolina (USA) conducted a comprehensive study comparing Moodle and Blackboard Vista, to determine which system they should implement across the Institution.

For your information I have listed a few interesting points made in their report explaining their decision to go with Moodle;

With regards the Usability of Moodle:

The faculty and students involved rated Moodle very highly on key factors of ease of use, flexibility, facilitation of teaching/learning goals, and correspondence to one’s teaching/learning style. Tools and functions crucial for designing and implementing Moodle courses (Assignments, Discussions, Learning Modules, Assessments, etc.) were rated as being preferable to those available in BbV by both faculty and students.

On all tools and functions evaluated, a large majority of faculty expressed a preference (either pro-Moodle or pro-BbV), and as in the Fall, these preferences consistently favored Moodle by wide margins. Once again, ease of use and learning, adaptability, and sufficiency of Moodle tools were important factors for these faculties.

With regards the cost of Moodle:

…the University would realize a cost savings of 52% in year 2011-2012 by switching to Moodle as the standard University Learning Management System.

With regards the Moodle Community:

One attractive feature of Moodle is its open source architecture, which promises flexibility and adaptability to our faculty and student needs. This feature also encourages participation in a nationwide, indeed international, community of teachers and course designers who constantly explore and implement new features within the Moodle LMS.

Conclusion:

The evidence gathered by this committee strongly favors a transition to Moodle on both pedagogical and financial grounds. Moodle provides better or comparable functionality with the benefit of increased relevance and control for what in the long run will be lower cost.

It is worth reading the University of North Carolina’s full report for a full understanding of what is involved in a transition from Blackboard to Moodle.

http://lmseval.uncc.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=9

For more information on Synergy Learning’s Moodle Services email info@synergy-learning.com