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Moodle

 
Being a teacher in 2022, it is essential to be aware of the limitations that not being face to face with your students have. Teachers and students have begun to transition away from the traditional classroom. “With the various innovations in communications networks hitting the world, it is interesting to note that the traditional means of imparting knowledge in schools and colleges or institutes of higher education have also been impacted to a considerable extent”, (Distance Learning Portal, 2020).

Online Universities, Colleges, High Schools and Elementary schools have embraced the need to teach online and as such the management of the classroom has had to evolve. For me, working in an international school, the challenge has been that the international student body has been limited, in some cases, by the inability to travel. It may be possible for me to teach in person to the majority of the students, however some students have been trapped by the closing of borders. For this, many teachers have had to resort to the use of apps to enable student-teacher interaction and the setting and management of school work. I will discuss today one of these apps known as Moodle.


Moodle is essentially an online classroom. “Moodle is a platform for online learning that enables you to create online courses, add assignments, and keep an eye on your students' progress. It also allows you to communicate with the students and encourage communication between them in forums and discussions”, (Kokoulina, 2021).

The teacher is able to create and set work for the students and manage the students in a modern way. Teachers are able to review participation and contact students directly. It allows the student to access resources, create and be involved in discussions with other students, and receive and submit work. The software is designed to be fully personalized by the teacher to enable student engagement. The software helps the teacher mitigate the untraditional style of teaching and instead create the best possible learning environment. The teacher has the ability to create single activities, activities based on topics, and activities based on weekly interaction. Often, distance learning Universities will use Moodle, or, apps like Moodle to create assignments. A colleague of mine, who is currently studying with the University of the People, uses an app similar to Moodle to have class discussions, receive and submit essays, and also take exams and submit student and teacher feedback.


Personally, I have never used Moodle before, just opened an account while I was taking "Innovating Learning and Teaching" course. While exploring Moodle, I have found out that there are limitations for the age group I teach.  It is difficult for young learners to engage in an app that is designed for higher and further education. However, as an open source piece of software, developers are creating plugins all the time that allow the design of Moodle to change. Perhaps in the future, Moodle will be updated in such a way that will allow Preschool students to better engage and interact with it. “I find the interface a bit too regimented for kids in the early grades. Many kids are still working on character recognition up through 2nd grade. So the textual basis of Moodle is hard for kids who would do better with pictures and icons”, (Saturday et al., 2018). There is however, an application called SeeSaw that may be able to fill the gap in the interim.

Word count: 546

Reference List

Distance Learning Portal. (2020). What is Moodle? what are online learning managements systems? What is MOODLE? What are Online Learning Managements Systems? - DistanceLearningPortal.com. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.distancelearningportal.com/articles/161/what-is-moodle-what-are-online-learning-managements-systems.html

Kokoulina, O. (2021, August 27). The 15-minute guide for teachers on Moodle. Explore the eLearning world with us. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.ispringsolutions.com/blog/getting-started-with-moodle

Saturday, G. S.-, Saturday, C. F.-, Saturday, M. C.-, Monday, G. S.-, Monday, P. C.-, Sunday, ben reynolds-, Sunday, P. C.-, Sunday, M. C.-, & Monday, ben reynolds-. (2018). Moodle in English. Moodle.org. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=141141






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