Virtual Learning Academy

A Two day Virtual Workshop on Develop, Deliver and Assess Online Courses with MOODLE Learning Management System

Introduction

A very promising technological and pedagogical model that has received a lot of attention during the last few years and adoption by Stanford, Harvard, Duke and almost 100 of the world's top ranking Universities to teach millions of learners is that of the MOOC. The MOOC is considered on one hand as a panacea for education and on the other as a defilement of the sanctity of the higher education tradition. Moodle is an open source Learning Management System used to create interactive learning-oriented courses and sites. Moodle is commonly used by teachers, trainers, and course creators to produce effective courses that achieve learning goals and outcomes. Following the best practices in Moodle course design will help users optimize the learning experience, incorporate strategies to aim for students' success, choose appropriate activities and content delivery methods, and create suitable current assessments to test upskilling achieved by the students.

The online workshop is designed to demonstrate the power of web based tools to the faculty members to design, transact and assess online courses in different disciplines with an example of Moodle–LMS platform. The general objective of the workshop is to raise the capacity of the faculty to use Moodle LMS platform for effective delivery of courses in higher education in blended as well as online modes. This online workshop will sensitize the participants how to use the tools available in Moodle to develop unique courses for many kinds of institutions. The workshop also leverages Moodle’s unique capacity to seamlessly bring together instructional materials, dynamic activities, social interaction, and student management functions. Following the best practices in designing a Moodle course, the participants will also incorporate strategies to accommodate multiple learning styles. They will also get familiarized with the emerging instructional technologies and provide a strategy for a wide variety of course modalities, including self-paced independent study, cohort-based courses with student-instructor interaction, and highly collaborative student-centered courses.

Objectives of the Workshop

The workshop would help the participants to

• Adopt Moodle-Platform as an adjunct to face-to-face teaching and to teach in a full online or distance learning context

• Understand the process of planning, designing and delivering online courses

• Create better and active communication and collaboration with the students

• Design contemporary assessment methods.

Resource Required

Keep your Laptop with data card / LAN connection for daily use during and beyond workshop times.

The workshop material is available at: http://profksrinivas.in

Workshop Schedule

Assessment Methods

As this course is supposed to be highly hands on intensive, performance of the participants will be monitored during the practice sessions continuously and creativity exhibited in the submitted assignments.

Programme Methodology

The online workshop is designed to facilitate capacity building in launching and teaching online courses using Moodle LMS platform. The workshop emphasizes participatory and interactive mode of learning. Besides the lecture discussion, nearly 75 percent of time will be devoted for hands-on-experience sessions on a Moodle LMS Platform in the presence of a Resource Person.

Resource Persons of the Workshop

The main resource person Prof. K Srinivas will provide training to 50 participants initially with the support from Prof. D V L N Somayajulu, Director IIITDM Kurnool and Prof. N V S N Sarma, Director, IIIT Tirucirapalli.

Instructions to the Participants

The participants can join the LIVE Orientation along with Resource Person using the following Hardware and enabling environment:

1. Laptop or Desktop

2. Functioning Webcam, Microphone and Headphones

3. Internet connectivity with suitable bandwidth during the Workshop timings

4. Functioning Gmail Account

5. Google “Meet"-Video, Web Conferencing Tool is used for LIVE Orientation. The workshop “link" will be shared to the participants registered email.

6. The Workshop will commence at 11 A.M. on both days and close by 5.30 P.M with short lunch break.

7. A focused Workshop WhatsApp group will be created for better coordination among the learners and facilitators and will be maintained till 35 days from the start of the workshop.

8. For evaluation and assessment of performance of the participant, a Power-point presentation inserting all the features explained during the workshop in image form and also an action plan for next 3 months is to be submitted.

9. Each session will be comprising of Lecture, Discussion, Demonstration and Hands on Activities.

Important Things to Consider

a) Participants should have laptops/Smart phones and Head Phones/ earphones, without which, the hands on sessions during the workshop will not be effective. Participants will have to install all the software required before the start of the workshop as per guidelines issued.

b) All the Participants are requested to prepare one lecture complete in all aspects on any one topic from any familiar course and keep it available on the laptop/smart phone with them as per the guidelines attached by email.

c) All other workshop related instructions/material is enclosed separately along with this mail. In addition, our admin group and resource persons will send messages from time to time using WhatsApp. The name of the group created for academic purpose is VLAWorkshop Batch0