Experience with developing online courses and using Moodle

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1 Experience with developing online courses and using Moodle Fourth AUB Faculty Seminar on Teaching and Learning with Technology American University of Beirut 31 May 2006 Prof. Hassan Artail

2 Mediterranean Virtual University (MVU) A European-Funded Project Partnership between selected universities from Denmark, Turkey, Malta, Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine Goal is to offer online interactive courses that target university students and professionals 40 online courses in Computer Science and Engineering have been developed and delivered by the different partners Plan is under development to identify responsibilities

3 AUB role in MVU AUB is the only university from Lebanon that is participating in this project Has developed and delivered four courses Numerical Analysis VLSI Development Queuing Theory Distributed and Object Database Systems All material had to be developed a priori, including presentations, lecture notes, exercises, tests, plus project requirements and material. The last two of the above courses were offered just recently as regular courses to AUB students Course material was put on WebCT in additional to Moodle

4 AUB role in MVU (2) Persons who worked on the AUB part of the project: Prof. Ayman Kayssi Local Project Manager Prof. Hassan Artail: Course Developer Prof. Ali Chehab: Course Developer Prof. Ali El-Haj: Course Developer Prof. Karim Kabalan: Course Developer Dr. Rima Abdallah: E-learning Content Designer Mr. Wissam Nahas: Instructional Web Designer

5 Distributed and Object Database Systems Graduate course in the ECE Department 18 Graduate students, organized into 6 project groups Course components Midterm + Final (open book, conceptual understanding and applications) Topic exercises at end of every activity Design project (developing a distributed database application) Software components, middleware (e.g., Java RMI), and skeletons of programs were provided to have students concentrate on implementation of algorithms. Research project More than 20 conference papers relating to six related subjects were provided so as to have students address/analyze/expand on chosen topics Two presentations were required from groups to share with the class their findings Course was given as a classical course (face to face) meeting twice a week, but all material, including project requirements, were put online Students were strongly encouraged to use Moodle to get access to material and to collaborate on projects (group members) Students have been using the WebCT LMS for 5+ years and hence, they expect more from Moodle

6 Queuing Theory Graduate course in the ECE Department 5 Graduate students Course components Assignments Two quizzes Final Exam Course project - Observe a real life problem - Identify problem components - Simulate using appropriate simulation tools - Discuss results - Develop a better solution Course was given as a classical course (face to face) meeting twice a week, but all material, including project requirements, were put online Students were strongly encouraged to use Moodle to get access to material and to collaborate on projects (group members) Students at AUB have been using the WebCT LMS for 5+ years students expect more from Moodle

7 Guiding features of online learning In developing the material and designing the environment within Moodle, an important objective was to provide a stimulating environment: Various types of content interactivity, learner-tolearner communication... Gain and sustain learner attention through emotional and sensoriel stimulation (animation, simulation,pictures,..). Different modes of learning (groupware, class discussion, exercises ) Varying presentation style (html, power point )

8 Taxonomy of Delivered material Educational Activities involve knowledge and development of intellectual skills: Lectures in html (Knowledge, Comprehension, Analysis) Summary in PPT (Knowledge, Comprehension, Analysis) Problem solving (Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation) Projects (Research, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation)

9 Evaluation of Teaching material and Environment Goal is to discover student evaluation of the new LMS (i.e., Moodle) and the presentation of the teaching material A survey of multiple-choice questions was given to students toward the end of the semester Students supplied a relatively large number of comments Answers were compiled and summarized Results concerning Moodle may be used to predict how AUB students in general will react to it May be used to fine tune some of the LMS features before its introduction at large

10 Evaluation Session Teaching material: Likes Organization, structure, and coherence Exercises with each activity Tracking feature Interactivity and navigation UI and flow of lectures Distribution of material and flow Use of animations Percent of occurrence

11 Evaluation Session Teaching material: Dislikes Get distracted when browsing multiple pages Too much scrolling Course structure is too expanded on main page Animations do not include sufficient details Separating lecture notes from slides Scrolling down to see the rest of the main page Percent of occurrence

12 Evaluation Session Teaching material: Judging the overall experience Nice way of studying Similar to WebCT Detailed notes, yet just the needed information Animations help in graspin concepts (flash) Flexibility by not having to attend the class Better-understanding and enjoyment Easy access/search Percent of occurrence

13 Evaluation Session Teaching material: Suggestions for improvements Adding notes while reading adding links between summaries and detailed notes Improved animations More examples with solutions Adding audio Percent of occurrence

14 Evaluation Session Project team members collaboration Class was divided into six groups, three members each Each group was responsible for a design and development project: implementing a distributed database For the most part, collaboration is most-effective when meeting in person Often, team members work on a single workstation, especially while integrating components and testing Each same group was also responsible for researching a topic and writing a report Collaboration is possible without meeting in person

15 Evaluation Session Project team members collaboration: Setup Involved three groups: For one group, all members were at AUB but in different locations Meeting duration 50 min For the second group, one member was at AUB while the other two were outside Meeting duration 50 min For the third group, members were at AUB but in different locations Meeting duration 2hr 20 min

16 Observations - Group 1: Initial phases of the design project Had a welcome phase and specified one member as the leader of the session They had a fixed objective: Finding sample code from the web for database functions in java. They decided collectively to divide this task into three subtasks (one per member): selection, insertion and deletion functions. They were looking for code using a search engine, and found some interesting sites. They exchanged and commented the code collectively using textual Moodle chatting and forum. They ended the session and agreed to start working on the code

17 Observations - Group 2: Develop a required ppt presentation and work on the design project They had a welcome phase and specified one member as the Leader of the session They already had a draft power point which was prepared during F2F. One member posted it on the forum and another downloaded it. The objective was to improve this presentation and to agree on some missing points. They were exchanging ideas and made the following decision collectively: To add new slides for Java RMI, To add code for compiling the java RMI server, To modify the customer table by adding more fields to it They ended the session by agreeing on holding another collaboration session to finalize the presentation

18 Observations - Group 3: Work on the design project (agreeing on design decisions) A lot of humor at welcome and while working. Personalization of words, emotional icons used. Did not choose a moderator for the session. The group objective was to agree on implementing fragmentation in their projects. They exchanged ideas and made decision collectively to implement horizontal fragmentation and agreed on the following steps: Name the DB and add a new diagram Import a table and insert a primary key The group accessed the DB online and followed the agreed on steps (i.e., fragmentation design)

19 Students Comments: F2F versus Online F2F (when possible) is more advantageous: Group work is mostly focused around one computer Demonstrating programs lively in front of the other members Faster, easier, and more interactive Express more by body language and by speech Some concepts may be misunderstood online

20 Learner Suggestions for improvement during Collaboration The chat window (if minimized) must : Alert of any new incoming messages Alert of new signed-in users Add attachment capabilities in the chat window A beep button to multiple users to get their attention Audio/visual chatting

21 Concluding remarks The major issues with online learning are: How to motivate the learner and keep him/her on schedule (content design, LMS, tools, etc.) How to effectively evaluate student learning (logistics, policies, technology, etc.) F2F learning, when possible, is more disciplined, consistent, and predictable E-learning technologies however are increasingly making online learning a viable option Role of educator becomes more or less a coordinator?

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