Last week ULCC Moodle Blogger was at the LSN delivering a newly designed Moodle Training session. It was a very successful day with universally good feedback (LSN mentioned that they will recommend ULCC as their primary Moodle training provider!). However, when reflecting on my own notes and that of the delegates in their evaluation form, it occurred to me that they support the concerns we have and still take lessons from:
1. Training shouldn't be in Isolation
To be effective, training has to be structured and fit within a development framework. For example, Moodle 'Drop-In' sessions may have some impact, but to be truly effective, e-Learning and Moodle has to be seen to be important and part of the Quality framework for teaching and learning.
2. Staff Development Strategy
Training should have a clear purpose to raise standards in teaching and learning. Why not think about providing some training on Effective PowerPoint USING Moodle. This means that you can have a series of training that engages teachers with e-Learning and using the learning platform.
3. Be 'fit for purpose'.
My experience is that, for most people, especially if they're new to Moodle, a whole day's training is too long. Try to organise that training is delivered in short manageable chunks, just as we would expect to deliver to students.
4. ‘Follow-up’ training should be clearly sign-posted
When undergoing Moodle training, delegates are motivated if they are shown where they will be going next, rather than just hanging in limbo where everything learned can be forgotten within a week or two.
5. Be ready to go
Using technology can be really frustrating for users, and especially those who aren't familiar with it. Be sure that everything you can do beforehand is done and ready to go, as creating accounts, fiddling with logins, and network issues will turn people off unless they are managed as part of the training.
6. Try to engage the teacher
Make the effort to design Moodle training for teachers - anyone can read what features are included from an online manual, but teachers are inspired by examples of what they can actually use them for. Ensure that everyone is clear about what the training is for (course design, course management, administration, etc.) and it’s what they want.
Another thing that really motivated our delegates was that they were enrolled as learners onto a course beforehand. This enabled them to bring their own real experiences to the training session which had an impact on how they approached the training.
1 comment:
Concur wholeheartedly. We have been very fortunate to achieve maximum penetration of moodle into our T&L. I see echos of all the points you make in our 15 months use of moodle. We achieved regular usage by 95% students (and 100% teachers!) in the first month (Sep`06) and it has remained there ever since.
I believe the key is that moodle is "owned" by teachers & T&L management, not by IT or ILT. IT just answers the questions, provides the know-how and ensures that moodle performance and admin is a non issue.
Substantial teacher inset time is set aside (by college management in the annual inset program) for training of teachers and preparation of course "materials" in moodle.
Most curriculum paperwork (e.g. SOW, Lesson Plans, exams, assessments, coursework submission &c) now resides only in moodle - it is central to the course, not an add on.
Since moodle is so central to T&L, it moved straight to #1 in the critical systems & support priority for whole IT team [but it rarely needs any attention - very stable]
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