Posts Tagged ‘eLearning’

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What’s new in Moodle 2.0? Customised User Profile Pages

Posted by Joel Kerr on 05 Jul
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In Moodle 2.0 site wide user profile pages can be customised by users with blocks, news-feeds and so on.  The aim here is to make the “My Moodle” interface a more usable space that provides each user with their own personal experience.

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.


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The latest with Moodle Test Drives

Posted by Joel Kerr on 10 Jun
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The good news is our studio has been very busy for the past few weeks; the bad news is designing the Moodle Test Drive site was put on the back burner!

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


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Moodle and ZiLink: Keeping Parents Informed

Posted by Joel Kerr on 04 Jun
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As the sole UK Moodle Partner appointed to sell ZiLink, Synergy Learning is a keen advocate of online reporting and parental engagement in the education process.

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.


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Synergy Learning Ladies | Race for Life

Posted by Joel Kerr on 02 Jun
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Congratulations to the Synergy Learning Ladies Race for Life team who have raised £470 so far for Cancer Research UK.

Here is a photo of Laura, Caroline, Andrea, Marie and Donna sporting their medals after breezing past the finishing line on Sunday 30th May.

If you want to add to the donations so far visit www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/synergylearningladies


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What is a Learning Platform? (VLE’s explained)

Posted by Joel Kerr on 25 May
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An entertaining, clear and simple explanation of a VLE by City Learning Centres // Sheffield East


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An Introduction to Mahara

Posted by Joel Kerr on 18 May
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Mahara is an eportfolio system that works in tandem with Moodle.  Like Moodle, Mahara is an open source software with developer support available through it’s own community and peer support available through blogs, wikis etc.

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.


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Moodle v. Blackboard

Posted by Joel Kerr on 12 May
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It hasn’t escaped many Moodlers attention that for the second year running the members of the eLearning Guild have ranked Moodle as the Number 1 LMS.

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


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Moodle Tops the LMS Charts

Posted by Joel Kerr on 06 May
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In 2009 Moodle was ranked Number 1 LMS among eLearning Guild members for the second consecutive year, with 24% of respondents selecting it as their primary LMS.

learningsolutionsmag.com:

“In May 2008, Blackboard and Moodle were neck and neck for the dominant position among eLearning Guild members for their LMS product usage, each with about 20% of the responses. Blackboard recently purchased ANGEL Learning™, a small, privately-held LMS com­pany funded in part by Indiana University, with a devoted following of several hundred clients, 25% of which are corporate customers. Although this purchase will increase Blackboard’s enterprise market share to 21.02%, it is still only a close second to Moodle among Guild members.”

For the full story visit Learning Solutions Magazine


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Moodle Test Drives – Update

Posted by Joel Kerr on 29 Apr
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Our Creative Director, Jonny McAllister, is working away on our Moodle Test Drive site, fitting it into his busy schedule (apologies Jonny for adding to your workload!)

Here is a quick look at where we are at presently.  There are no images added as of yet, and there are a lot of Moodle tweaks to be made, but already you can see an incredible difference between this and what I could create with my basic Moodle knowledge.

The idea of the Moodle Test Drives is to show people the possibilities within Moodle.  There are of course a number of benefits to choosing Moodle other than just the customisable software.  I have had a look over the Moodle case studies that have recently been added to the Synergy Learning website to compile a list of Moodle benefits that were highlighted by companies who are using the software package:

  1. Moodle has a low overall cost of ownership
  2. There is a long-term sustainability with Moodle
  3. With Moodle comes free support offered by the Open Source Community
  4. Moodle is suitable for large-scale installations
  5. Moodle can also be used for elearning networks that will allow one VLE to connect to another
  6. Moodle offers a more engaging way of learning

The integration of Moodle also offers the option of distance learning and with that comes a number of other positives:

  1. Cost savings on travel, resources etc.
  2. An increased user catchment area
  3. The opportunity for teachers and learners to increase ICT competence
  4. Learners can complete courses in their own time

If you are interested in implementing Moodle, or getting more from the Moodle you already have and there is anything you would like to see included in our Moodle Test Drive site, or have any questions or comments then you can join us on Facebook (click here) and get the conversation started.


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