TEACHING WITH MOODLE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Ana Paula Lopes

Institute of Accounting and Administration – ISCAP
Polytechnic Institute of Oporto – IPP
PORTUGAL
aplopes@iscap.ipp.pt

Abstract
Nowadays, with the use of technology and the Internet, education is undergoing significant changes,
contemplating new ways of teaching and learning. One of the widely methods of teaching used to
promote knowledge, consists in the use of virtual environments available in various formats, taking as
example the teaching-learning platforms, which are available online.
The Internet access and use of Laptops have created the technological conditions for teachers and
students can benefit from the diversity of online information, communication, collaboration and sharing
with others. The integration of Internet services in the teaching practices can provide thematic, social
and digital enrichment for the agents involved.
In this paper we will talk about the advantages of LMS (Learning Management Systems) such as
Moodle, to support the presential lectures in higher education. We also will analyse its implications for
student support and online interaction, leading educational agents to a mixing of different learning
environments, where they can combine face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction,
blended-learning, and increases the options for better quality and quantity of human interaction in a
learning environment.
We also will present some tools traditionally used in online assessment and that are part of the
functionalities of Moodle. These tools can provide interesting alternatives to promote a more
significant learning and contribute to the development of flexible and customized models of an
evaluation which we want to be more efficient.

Keywords: Higher Education, Technology, Moodle.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the use of technology, education took a big leap and is changing its paradigms, from a closed
model, and teacher-centered classroom to a model more open and student-centered, where the
teacher moves from one holder of knowledge for a learning mentor, able to manage diverse
discourses and practices as well as stimulate the intellectual capacities of students in the treatment of
information available. In network there is much valuable information, but there are also many errors
and controversies instead of teaching may confuse the students. So, they generally have access to
information, but do not always know to do with it. Nowadays, several tools can promote knowledge
and learning, many practices were improved, such as audiovisual resources that were once closely
tied to the television and video. Today, all were grouped in the same medium that is the Internet. The
Internet is an excellent tool for use in the classroom because it allows extension of horizons, so that
students learn to communicate and collaborate, encouraging, therefore, learning. But you also need to
know how to use the Internet if otherwise the student will spend time to visit all the links, without
retaining any information, because some of its features are the infinite amount of information available.
Without proper care, the experiences in the classroom are not successful.
There are numerous environments that meet a set of features for creating and structuring of courses
in the distance. These environments are also known LMS (Learning Management System) or learning
management systems. Some of these environments used for creating and managing these online
courses are: Moodle,TelEduc, BlackBoard, WebCT, Toolbook, TopClass Server, among others. These
environments vary in many ways is the language they were developed, either in features and
features each offers. LMS has the main objective to centralize and simplify administration and
management of teaching and learning through e-learning. This system covers the entire process of
distance learning, possessing interface and student teachers, tutors, to administrators and the
administrative part. In this sense, helps employees and students to plan their learning processes, and
let’s work together, through the exchange of information and knowledge.
Among the main features of e-learning platforms we can refer to the flexibility, accessibility, focusing
on the student, the economy or rationalization of resources, interactivity and enhancement of the
student. The courses that are developed on the web have the advantage of providing the content for
students anywhere in the world, faster than the other conventional methods distance education.
In addition, the communications resources of the web may make it more efficient to communication
between teacher and students, when compared with other conventional methods.
The Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) platform an Open Source
Learning Management System (OS LMS) is being used since 2005 in the Institute of Accounting and
Administration of Porto – ISCAP, has been done in 2005. Although not directly interested in distance
learning, ISCAP have been deeply involved since their very beginning in eLearning activities, mainly
aimed at improving the quality of teaching/learning experience and at enhancing flexibility slightly
reducing classes’ time. ISCAP created in 2004 an Online Support Project (PAOL) whose main goal is
offering pedagogical and technical support to all teachers and students.

2 WHY AN OPEN SOURCE LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The reasons that pushed ISCAP toward an Open Source (OS) solution are essential three and it
concern costs, infrastructure and integration. One of the main issues with commercial LMS is funding:
the uncertain benefits of online learning made the institution doubt about the real return of a huge
investment as the acquisition of the required number of seats in a commercial LMS. First, teachers
and students did not have established practices in using online tools, so that the actual use of the LMS
was not predictable. Second, the uncertainties of the market and the rapid developments of the
eLearning world made the commitment to a single producer tricky. Finally, in the undesired chance of
a failure, the cost would have made almost impossible to try out another solution. Moving to an OS
solution mitigated these three issues: given the low cost, even a failure would have a reduced impact
on the overall budget, and would not have prevented moving to another OS or even commercial
solution later.
The need of infrastructure, material and human resources, and of within work for setting up the
system, for maintaining the application and for checking, selecting and installing updates. All of these
issues are quite easy in our setting, as in most universities and institutes, who have a dedicated
Information technology (IT) staff able to care after the infrastructure, the installation, maintenance and
update of software applications. Furthermore, the hardware demands of OS software are usually
significantly lower than those of commercial software.
In addition, an eLearning system should be integrated with the standard procedures for class
scheduling, registration, evaluation, quality assessment, etc.
Therefore, one of the main advantages that an OS solution brings to institutional users is the
possibility to tailor the application to one’s needs, and to integrate it in first person in existing
procedures and IT system.
3 WHY MOODLE

The name Moodle is an acronym for Modular Object Oriented term Developmental Learning
Environment and is a course management system (Course Management System - CMS) through the
Internet, also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment
(VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. One
of its main advantages is its open source, or has open source allowing any user with programming
knowledge to modify and adapt the environment according to their own needs.
Moodle can be installed at no cost at many servers. How has code opened there are no maintenance
costs need to pay for upgrades. Nobody can force you to make updates, buy tools that you do not
want or determine how many users should possess; the teacher manages the platform according to
their needs.
This platform is widely used worldwide by universities, communities, schools, instructors, courses,
teachers and even businesses. This system was developed by Martin Dougiamas, thanks to his
background in education as in computing, managed to develop a tool with features technological and
pedagogical satisfactory. The number of users and developers, who are working today in the form of
collaborative communities to include more features in Moodle, has been increased. The great success
Moodle is also due to the fact that the system is available to your code developers in various parts of
the world to contribute new applications for the program, causing the system is today one of the most
used in courses in the distance.
Although initially designed for higher education environment (university), Moodle has quickly become
used across a broad range of organisations worldwide to conduct courses fully online or support face-
to-face teaching and learning.
In reality, Moodle gives a less sophisticated and structured environment than a full-fledged commercial
LMS such as WebCT for instance. As a result of the OS development model, Moodle looks more like a
set of tools that share an environment, while commercial LMS support a complete development
process and provide complex management tools. The question is that, given the simple necessities of
our potential users, and the fact that online courses do not have any dedicated management process,
a set of tools was far enough for our requirements.

4 GENERAL FEATURES OF THE MOODLE PLATFORM

The Moodle platform has three levels of use, with features of differential use and access. So is the
concept of trustee or administrator (the manager of the platform), teacher (who may also have other
designations, for example, trainer, facilitator, promoter) and the student (learner, participant, among
others). These roles and their features are represented in the following table.

Role Function

Administrator Manages the whole environment

Generate events, courses or subjects according to the thematic areas defined
Teacher Generate training or events which are designated

Accesses and interacts with a specific event and participates in the subjects they
Student
are subscribed

Fig.1. Roles and functions in Moodle Platform

Moodle is composed of a simple interface that looks more like a portal of information; layout of this
environment can be seen in Figure 2. In general, the pages of the courses are divided into three
columns that can be customized by the teacher or the course, adding elements such as: calendar,
online users, list of activities, among others.
These elements are arranged in columns to the right and left of the screen the user can be moved
from one place to another teacher.
In the center column, we find a set of options that may be the result of the class through a list of topics
numbered or dated weekly or, areas to group content or similar activities. In the center column of the
courses that use Moodle as a virtual environment, there are generally living areas, for the record of
course-related news, discussion forums, content areas to enter text, images and presentations on the
theme, activities areas, to direct the tasks to be performed or delivered to the teacher or the central
column, is the place where resources and activities are available.

Fig.2. Layout of a page in Moodle

Through this environment, we can create various activities and use a set of tools that can be used
according to each educational objective. We can see in the Figure 3 some activities in the Moodle
platform.

Fig.3. Activities in Moodle

Let’s see what activities are available in Moodle:

• CHAT
The Chat module allows participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion.This is a
useful way to get a different understanding of each other and the topic being discussed – the
mode of using a chat room is quite different from typical internet forums. Chat contains a
number of features for managing and reviewing chat discussions.

• DATABASE
The Database module allows the lecturer and/or students to build, display and search a bank
of record entries about a topic. The format and structure of these entries can include images,
files, URLs, numbers and text amongst other things. Although the database currently has
issues exporting data for different modules, it is sometimes convenient to store and share data
with all the participants. Database consists of multiple fields, which you need to create. You
also set each database to decide how many entries each participant must write in order to
view other entries, minimum and maximum entries one is allowed, and so on.

• FORUNS
Forums are used for asynchronous online discussion. By subscribing to a forum, participants
receive copies of each new post by email. Teachers can impose subscription on everyone if
they want to, and in this way can use a forum to contact all students on a course. They allow
students and teachers to post comments in a central place to simulate (and stimulate)
discussion. All Moodle courses automatically come with a News forum which cannot be
removed, and all course participants will receive email whenever anything is added to that
particular forum. However, you can add new forums as well.

• GLOSSARY
The Glossary activity allows participants to create and maintain a list of terms and definitions,
as in a dictionary. It can be used to build an annotated list of useful websites or FAQs. The
definitions can be searched or browsed in many different formats, and can be linked from
other places on the site.

• QUESTIONNAIRE
The questionnaire module in Moodle allows you to create a survey or questionnaire for
students to fill out, for instance a course evaluation or a reading response survey. You may
choose whether or not the responses are anonymous.

• SCHEDULER
Scheduler is a Moodle Activity that allows the course instructor to post available meeting times
and then has the students sign up for the slot that best suits them. This is useful for required
meetings between student and professor, such as advising days, or simply for optional office
hours.

• LESSON
A Lesson allows a lecturer to create conditional pathways through material. It consists of a
number of pages, each page normally ending with a question and a number of possible
answers. Depending on the student's choice of answer they either progress to the next page
or are taken back to a previous page. When students answer a question, they are redirected
to whatever page you'd like them to see next based on their answer. It can be a helpful tool
for practicing material, studying, and testing.
• HOT POTATOES
The Hot Potatoes module, allows teachers to administer Hot Potatoes quizzes via Moodle.

• ASSIGNMENTS
Assignments allow students to submit work online, including uploading any file type (Word
document, Powerpoint, video clip etc.). Lecturers can grade and give feedback.

Advanced Uploading of Files

This option should be used when you want your students to be submitting multiple files, or
particularly big files. In this sub-module, you will be able to set a maximum file size as well as
a maximum number of files submitted per student, and you can decide if you want students to
work in groups, if students can delete files after they are uploaded, if students can write notes
to you online, and when the assignment is due. You can also decide whether you would like to
receive an email every time a student submits a file. This assignment has a further feature of
allowing teachers to submit feedback in the form of a file, so an electronically corrected
document may be returned. For detailed documentation on this, see the Advanced
Assignments PDF on the right side of this page.

Online Text
This option is for relatively short, text-based assignments. For example, if you wanted to ask
students to submit their thoughts on a reading assignment, you might use this kind of
assignment. Students will not be able to upload files from their computer; they will simply see
a text editor box, approximately paragraph-sized, where they can type something up online
and submit it to you.
In the sub-module, you can set things like due dates, whether late assignments are
acceptable, whether assignments can be resubmitted, and whether you would like to receive
email alerts when a submission has been made. You can also make the submissions easier to
grade by turning on the "Comment inline" option, which will allow you to edit the original text,
or comment using a different color. Furthermore, you can split students into groups, but this is
generally a solitary kind of assignment.

Upload Single File

If you would like to have your students upload files, but you only want each student to upload
one file and the files aren't particularly big (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc.), then
you can use the much simpler "Upload a single file" option, which works almost exactly like
"Advanced uploading of files", except for the number limit on each student. As a professor,
you can set a grade scale, due date, late submission policy, and resubmission policy, as well
as a maximum size of file. You can also split students into groups and have each group submit
one assignment, and decide whether you would like email alerts when files are submitted.

Offline Activity
This is the easiest option to use. There is no online submission of any kind; the assignment
mostly exists as a reminder to students that they have a certain assignment due on a certain
day. Mostly, this is used for assignments from the textbook, or offline worksheets. You can set
a grading scale, a due date, and a late submission policy, but again, this is all for the students'
benefit, since they won't be submitting anything online, anyway.

• QUIZ
The Quiz module allows the lecturer to design and set quiz tests, and includes a range of
question types and reporting options. Moodle Quizzes are a great resource for every
professor. Electronic quizzes can do many things that paper quizzes just can't. You can create
different question types, randomly generate quizzes from pools of questions, allow students to
retake quizzes multiple times, and have the computer score it all. These features open up a
world of possibilities that just aren't practical with paper-based testing.
 Moodle quizzes have two components: the quiz body and the question pools. The body is the
final quiz that a student will see, after all the randomizing and question-picking--it is the
"container" for the various questions pulled from the question pools. You can define rules for
how the body pulls from the pools: for example, you might create three question pools, one for
each chapter that you are testing, and tell the quiz body to pull five questions from the first
chapter, two questions from the second chapter, and three from the third chapter. Pools can
be reused, shared between classes, and moved between systems.

• WIKI
A Wiki enables documents to be authored collectively. A history of all contributions and
changes is stored and the wiki can be rolled back to a previous version at any time.
Wikis can be formatted with Wiki Markup or with HTML if the wiki has been given that option.

• WORKSHOP
A Workshop is a peer assessment activity. It allows participants to assess each other's
projects, as well as exemplar projects, in a number of ways. The key to the Workshop is the
scoring guide, which is a set of specific criteria for making judgments about the quality of a
given work. This helps to provide a framework for both instructor and peer feedback on open-
ended assignments, such as essays and research papers.

• SCORM
Moodle has an embedded module for both SCORM or AICC formats that allows you to easily
create, reuse, and transfer your (or someone else’s) custom training content to and from other
course management systems (and from some text book resources).

• SURVEY
Moodle’s surveys can give feedback on how useful certain aspects of coursework are. There
are currently only five pre-designed surveys to choose from; you cannot write your own survey
at present.

Types of surveys:

• ATTLS: The Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS) is a twenty-question
survey that gives an idea of the learning attitudes of students. It distinguishes between
“connected knowers” and “separate knowers”, where connected knowers favor interaction and
cooperation but separate knowers prefer argumentative learning.
• Critical Incidents: The critical incidents survey provides five free-response questions about
what was effective and ineffective in class and in forums.
• Colles: The Constructive On-Line Learning Environment Survey (Colles) provides feedback on
the effectiveness of certain aspects of on-line learning. Each of the three versions has the
same 24 questions divided into six categories.
o Colles (Actual): This version of Colles asks students about what actually happened.
o Colles (Preferred and Actual): This version of Colles asks students each question
twice, the first time to find out what the student wanted and the second to find out what
actually happened.
o Colles (Preferred): This version of Colles asks students what they want to get out of
an on-line unit.
5 CONCLUSION

The Moodle is an e-learning platform used throughout the world. Universities, communities, schools
and teachers serve up to her to communicate and transmit information to their educational
communities. Developed by Martin Dougiamas is a platform with technological characteristics and
satisfactory teaching, gaining users and developers working collaboratively. The great success of this
platform due to the fact that a open source system, providing programmers the opportunity to make
new contributions, with new applications, making it one of the most widely used in courses distance.
It seems to us that the integration of such platforms deserves special attention and should be included
in educational settings, despite all the limitations and lack of existing at the different levels, such as
difficulty in accessing the platform, because the connections are very slow or that the servers can not
manage the information when there are many users, or because there is no availability of computers
with Internet connection.

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