Integrating Technology into Your Literacy Practice with Moodle
By Nancy Friday, AlphaPlus Centre
Moodle is an open-source online learning resource used for creating online courses, meetings and discussions and it is increasingly moving into the mainstream education environment in Canada. AlphaPlus has been using Moodle for the past two years to host a number of learning opportunities for practitioners and learners. We have trained practitioners how to use Moodle to create their own courses and we have also used it to develop a number of new AlphaRoute courses for learners.
To date AlphaPlus has trained 40 practitioners in the basics of Moodle and contracted 18 practitioners to develop and deliver 26 Moodle courses for AlphaRoute learners. The practitioners who attended our eight-week self-managed Moodle training received a lot of support and had the chance to try things out while they were learning. AlphaPlus subscribes to the notion of having hands-on practice by assigning everyone a “sandbox” to play in and get their hands dirty. We also took advantage of Centra through live and recorded sessions for parts of the courses.
Practitioners who were contracted to develop Moodle courses for AlphaRoute continued their training in very practical ways as they moved into the role of AlphaRoute course developers. Their courses were reviewed by peer practitioners. When their courses went live in AlphaRoute, they gained practical experience with Moodle’s learning management features. Every course ended with an evaluation that learners completed, providing course developers with valuable feedback and providing AlphaPlus with direction and recommendations for future courses. Practitioners successfully finished this training with practical, relevant training and corresponding experience.
Here is what practitioners had to say in their evaluation of the training:
- Being able to determine when I did the training was great since I was able to fit it into my schedule.
- It was great to have the flexibility to access the training when we had time and to have the live Centra training sessions as additional support.
- Realistic timelines - and these were - really helped keep me on schedule (or close to it).
- This was the best training I've received in my eight years as a literacy instructor. I feel it helped me as an instructor - I can do more for my students - and it helped me add to my own skill set. I was quite confident around computers at the outset, but got a BIG boost from doing this training.
- There was a really good mix of hands-on practice, sharing ideas, and resources we can refer to later.
During June/July and October/November the eight-week Moodle training course will be offered to 50 practitioners. If you are interested, contact Nancy Friday at 1-800-788-1120 x.305. Training spaces are limited.
Community Literacy of Ontario is funded by the Ontario government, under
