MoodleMoot AU 2010 Melbourne

The conference this time is in Melbourne and they are looking for Papers on a range of elearning topics. To submit a paper read thd guidelines here at the official MootAU2010 site.

The conference will run from the 11th to the 14th of July and is a must for any moodle developer.

Facebook, Google, as an LMS?

Call me crazy, but with all the fuss about what LMS is the ultimate solution to online training, has anybody considered that the emerging online social networks might be ready to replace a packaged LMS?

The fundamental elements of the LMS you use, (Moodle, BBoard, JoomlaLMS) could already be ready and waiting within the very popular an accessable Facebook and Google space. Let's face it, our learners are using FB and Google everyday.

Facebook as an LMS

Users can Sign In with any email account, then creating a private group, you now have a 'course' where you can create discussions, share training video's, leave notes, and create course events, create new polls and quizzes and I'm sure more will emerge as FB does. Seeing how 1/4 of all Australians internet time is spent on FB, you won't have any hurdles getting learners ready to use this already thriving online community platform.

The one thing you can't do, is upload and share documents, and there is no grading system if your looking to use your LMS for grading.Google as an LMS

When neovet talks about Google, he doesn't just mean 'search'. I'm talking Gmail, Goodle Docs, Google Calender and more.... With Google accounts, learners can Sign In with any email account, the using Gmail and Buzz as a platform , you can update students as a group, launch new discussion boards as Buzz threads, create a course calender, share Google Docs, which can now be almost any file format :) .

The number one reason we haven't used Google as an LMS so far is that most of our students are in Education Qld Schools, that tend to filter/block Google products.

Progressive huh!

If you use Social Media as an LMS, or part of as we already do, please let neovet readers know by posting your story here.

Open Learning for YMIS

Most of the YMIS course content will become open and available in 2009-10 through a 'wiki' like web shell. Each section is built on joomla articles, and you can search content by set categories, search box and a tag cloud. Anybody can seek to contribute by clicking the Do you have a suggestion!, button in the top right corner of the site. The decision to do make content free and available for a 'fee for service' course might be seen by some as unprofitable. Well that's not the point.

Firstly, YMIS course material is both useful for our fee-paying students and the broader community and we believe in sharing the great resources we have with the world, especially if it helps those in youth work. Our 'qualifications' still cost money as does to a degree the mentoring and training support we provide, but there is as an advantage to all involved in an open learning approach to our courses.

Secondly, we are adding value to the YMIS brand, that's no secret, by doing this we are creating a global network/forum for discussion around faith based youth work. WE are also creating pathways to other training and resources apart from our own, so this is a very win-win situation for YMIS.

The URL for this open learning resource will be ymiscentral.com.

Top 5+ LMS tips and tricks

A top 5 is usually a random list of ideas that you can take or leave, so feel free to take what you want from this random tips and tricks for managing a learning experience through an LMS. Here is my top 5.

1. Make external links open in a NEW window please, so the learner can still stay logged into the LMS and NOT lose half their work eg. discussion posts. All it takes is one click and your users will navigate away from their learning space. Let them explore a link in a new window and you will keep them happy. So always set links to "Open in New Window", or in HTML, type target="_blank" in side the link tag.

eg. Same Window or New Window

In the near future you should be able to specify opening new tabs or new windows through CSS.



2. Discussion Groups/Forums, need to have critical mass to be affective. Obvious. But how do you build a healthy level of participation from learners?.

What has worked for me so far, is making Discussion posting a compulsory part of the course. This may sound extreme, but a discussion forum without discussion is dead. Some training organisations simply use a participation point system.

The other way to keep forums alive is to give relevant, current and stimulating material for learners to talk about. Add a little spice to your topic headings, invite some controversy and/or play the Devils Advocate.

Lastly, get involved. Learners want their teachers to join in discussion and be part of the online learning experience. After all we are all learning together and it shows you actually care about what people are posting!

3. Keep it fresh and personal. Learner don't want to visit the same old looking site week after week. Add student photos, funny videos, interesting posts on your front page and in your course areas. Pick the 'forum post of the week' and put it at the top of your course page for all to see. Change the style of your page, just a little, a couple of times a year, or even better, some sites allow for custom color schemes for users. I also invite learners to contribute to blogs, and content to give users ownership of the site.

4. Keep your pages and menus simple, and don't assume just because you know where to find everything on the site that learners will too. Before we started using Accordion, and drop down style menus, our pages looked like a maze of links confusing learners and sometimes even myself. The worst course area we had at one stage, was a list of topics down a 2 meter page that had forums, links and pdf's icons scattered all over the place, and embedded video content of all shapes and sizes making matter worse. Never again.

What you want to do is break down your core course elements and only display what users need to find under clearly defined headings and sub headings. All your menu headings should be consistent throughout the site to help build intuitive navigation amongst your users.

5. Be open and available for feedback, in fact go further, and invite feedback from user on how to make the LMS experience better. Learners are more forgiving with a 'system error' error or a login issue, if they know that you are dedicated to improving your LMS for learners all the time. Plus, users are in the best position to find what works or doesn't work for them in your LMS.


+ I invite comments from others to continue this list.