No, not exactly. As we all know very well, the first version of a lesson, activity, assessment or unit we create is far from finished. These are all works-in-progress, and constant improvement will be inevitable in the future of this online course prototype. And I wouldn't have it any other way!
I am so proud to show you all the progress of my course, which has been built in Moodle with links to other educational web tools and platforms, facilitating multiple learning styles and needs. As a reminder, you can read my course profile here. This prototype includes the learning outcomes in the Patterns and Relations strand of Mathématiques 8 (fransaskois version). As you can see in the course walk through videos below, I can not show everything off in only 5 minutes!
During the creation of this course, I watched at least 20 how-to videos about different aspects of Moodle, from the basic adding of content, to creating badges and using adaptive release functions, to building a question bank from scratch and using the random quiz generation tools.
Since my rationale behind the course is to offer self-paced autonomous learning opportunities for students who needed to fill gaps, I had not given much thought to the communication aspect of an online course. During our discussions in class, readings, webinars, and in large part thanks to the variety of courses my colleagues presented, I came to realize the importance of incorporating some kind of dialogue into the learning process in my course. I added some "Three Act Math" activities inspired my Dan Meyer, and a requirement to post and respond to the discussion forum in order to complete each of the modules. After watching the webinar with David Chandross, How to Design Learning Games Using Online Platforms, I was also inspired to add a bit of gamification/competition to the course by creating badges that students can earn only by successfully completing certain tasks. The logic behind this is that students will potentially be motivated to complete more of the activites more quickly to be the first of their friends to earn a badge. If someone had told me a year ago that this winter I would record myself teaching a lesson to be posted (even privately) on the Internet, my reaction would have been: ​But I ended up recording over 90 minutes of (only slightly awkward) lesson footage, and used most of it to create EdPuzzle interactive explanations of the Pattern and Relations topics in Math 8. As I said, this course is far from perfect. As it stands, there are learning activities housed outside of Moodle, meaning the grade or results are not seamlessly integrated into the Moodle gradebook. For a teacher, this means either manually inputting scores from these activites, or not counting them towards a student's final course grade. Next, I would love to explore some of the more interactive quiz question styles that are available in Moodle, such as drag-and-drop matching, which could potentially lead to less of those external activity links for assessment. Overall, I have come so far in my comfort with and appreciation for technology as a tool for learning, connecting, assessing and creating. I am proud of the course I have created in Moodle, and of all the activities on different websites (EdPuzzle, FlipGrid, GoFormative, Genial.ly) that I would never have had the courage to design and share without the supportive community of learners and educators in EC&I 834.
5 Comments
Gerod Wiens
3/30/2021 08:39:58 am
Thanks for sharing your learning experience Heidi! Taking a subject such as math and making it fun and interactive is not an easy task. The use of gamification and badges in a math lesson/unit is genius in my opinion. Have you had the opportunity to try this with your students?
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Heidi
4/9/2021 01:52:02 pm
Gerod, no I haven't had students in Moodle yet :( We have been at school mostly in person and so I ended up teaching both of these modules face to face. I have given my students links to all the EdPuzzle content, which they think is funny, cringe-worthy AND useful all at once!
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Jennifer Owens
3/30/2021 10:26:59 am
I think my favourite part of your video was where you said, I worked really really hard, and I hope you like it! I can appreciate that feeling:) But, you said that it looks plain...I think it looks excellent! I can see the thought and detail that you have included. It's packed full of interactivity and hands-on learning. I had never heard of genial.ly, but now I want to check it out. Thank you for sharing and for going through all of the different ways that you have engaged the students. I can see that you've put in a lot of time and effect! Well done!
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Your course looks great. I also can appreciate putting a ton of time into something, and hard work, and just wanting it to be useful or noticed from others. I think you did a great job, and I like how you branched out and used an LMS that not a ton of people were using. I also think you need to give yourself credit for this course, as finding resources in French, let alone creating them yourself is a big deal. I know working at a dual-track school, the French Immersion teachers always struggled to find good resources, and often found themselves reinventing the wheel. I think this is extra, as your program is more than immersive language. I also think that you did a great job explaining your work, and translating from French to English while you were doing your video. Great work, it was definitely noticed. Good work! Can't wait to see more next class.
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Jamie Mayoh-Bauche
4/6/2021 06:35:18 pm
Heidi, thanks for sharing. Your chose a very challenging path in creating an asynchronous course. Asynchronous learning can be challenging and given that you chose to create this course to fill gaps it may well be used by students who are not strong with the content. However, you have done a great job in building in pieces that will motivate students and get them to not feel alone in their learning. The videos you have put together will help them feel connected to you and it is fun that you have included some gamification elements. Math seems to be a place where gamification works well.
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A note from Heidi:I adore teaching and learning, irl. I'm up for the challenge of designing effective virtual learning spaces for my students! Please follow my uphill journey with educational technology here. Archives |