Extending Moodle, Engaging Learners

See these extentions in action in the Resource Course on RETA Moodle.

The extensible nature of Moodle allows for a high level of customization.

Integration of contributed code (non-standard Moodle modules) and widgets support engagement in an online learning environment and the integration of critical touch points in the learning ecosystem.

Bridge to Engagement

Extending Moodle supports a richer course environment, where social and knowledge networking tools engage the learner in a personalized way. These are some resources which support this concept of engagement for online learning.

• Educause Article - Strategies to Engage Online Students and Reduce Attrition Rates

• Bethany Bovard, of NMSU (and Sloan C Symposium Track Chair), presented about Engaging Online Learners at NM TIE.
  • Some of her excellent strategies as well as those contributed by others are shared here http://distanceteaching.pbwiki.com/.
  • Bethany also created a fabulous anthology and resource guide for her Web 2.0 Technologies presentation at the preconference which helps you use many of these extensible technologies at http://tektrekker.pbwiki.com/

Learning Ecosystem Connection

Online teaching and learning spans across one platform or system. Emerging technologies form an ecosystem of learning touch points where students can access a variety of course tools. The challenge for online educators is to observe and assess this ecosystem of many tools (blogs, wikis, social bookmarks, analytics) in connection to more traditional work completed in the Learing or Course Management System.

Characteristics of learning ecosystems which could be integrated into a Moodle environment are:

• Touchpoints to social media tools involved in the ecosystem
• Access to 'Low investment' & 'high investment' tools
• Integration of student publishing into the course environment
• Connection to wider communities and communities of practice
• Analytics of learning ecosystem for richer observations and meta analysis

Wonderful Widgets for Moodle

See examples of these in the Resource Course on RETA Moodle.

• Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/)
• Voki (http://www.voki.com)
• Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/)
• Youtube (http://www.youtube.com)
• VodPod (http://www.vodpod.com)
• Google Reader Feeds (http://www.google.com/reader)
• Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/)
• Lijit (http://www.lijit.com)
• Yahoo Pipes (http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/)
• Twitter (http://www.twitter.com)
• ScreenCast-o-Matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/)
• Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/)
• Voice Thread (http://www.voicethread.com)

Moodle Tools & Contributed Code...Putting it all together

• Two very extensible tools included in the standard Moodle code are the HTML Block and the RSS Block - USE THEM!!
• Taming Moodle - Google analytics in Moodle course
• More great resources on learning, open code, and engagement - http://metasolutions.us/resources/
• Contributed Code
  • Flexknowlogy » Moodle Open Mod for Sharing Open Educational Resources

    An Open Educational Resources classification type module - a beautiful thing to read up on.

  • NWiki (http://www.dfwikilabs.org/)

    Internal Social Bookmarking on Moodle

    Alternative Wikis for Moodle