GlobalClassroom

Happy Holidays: here's a bunch of free Moodle

2009-12-21T13:20:00.004-05:00

I find great Moodle stuff on the web every week. I post a lot to Twitter (follow us at http://twitter.com/globalclassroom), but I also accumulate some in my bookmarks. So, in the holiday spirit I wanted to share the most recent clutch of free Moodle resources.

Moodle Good Practice wiki: this one comes via Twitter (Thanks, Moodlerific!). The site is pulling together the best completely open--no authentication, registration or login required--Moodles available to look at. So if you're curious what a Moodle course can look like, this site has some great resources that show you what you can do.
Moodle videos: http://www.slcedtech.net/moodle.htm (a nice list of flash based Moodle tutorials including backing up courses, adding documents, and uploading zip files)
Linux for Education (lots of free courses, all are open to view)
Miguel Guhlin: he's always a great resource for Moodlers. I suggest subscribing to his blog which focuses on using Moodle at the district level, the trials and tribulations and how he and his colleagues are able to foster such a successful Moodle. Most recently he posted this resource of backedup Moodle courses: http://itls.saisd.net/km/uploads/moodle/moodle_example_courses/ which you could download and restore and use.
LearnCentral.org's Moodle group: if you want to dive a little deeper into Moodle, check out LearnCentral.org and the Moodle group there. Always a lively discussion (about Moodle course creation, using SCORM and more)
Finally, if you're interested in learning how to use Moodle in a collaborative 4 week session, consider joining the 3rd Moodle for Teachers (M4T) session at Integrating-Technology.com. It's free! Next session starts January 4th.

From our family to yours, have a wonderful holiday. We'll be open throughout the holiday break (though closed on Christmas and New Years and with somewhat relaxed schedules from now until January 4th), so please contact us if you have any questions.

Image from Flickr (Andrew*)

Digidoug shows us how to use a wiki as a digital locker for sharing student files

2009-12-17T18:21:00.005-05:00

I found this great, short and very to the point blog post today which shows how you can use a Wiki to store and share student files. It's like a digital locker, but all of your students can have their own page!

The video is about 4 minutes and the audio is high quality. If you watch Digidoug work I think you'll see how to get rolling with this innovative use of a wiki.

Here's a link to the video:

http://www.screencast.com/users/digidoug/folders/Jing/media/25305de3-8ad7-45de-bac5-dcd134097c7c

Here are some additional tips that I found helpful when creating my own repository:

Create your wiki and allow binary files right off the bat (binary files are just another term for files from your computer that you would want to allow as an upload).
Seed your wiki's first page with the various pages you want created. For example, say you want to do a file "show and tell" you could ask students to upload their files depending on the file type by creating a list of file types, i.e. [audio], [video], [text]. Note that by putting brackets around the files the terms will automatically become new pages in your wiki.
add basic instructions on each of the pages so students know where to click. At the very basic, show students how access the "attachments" and show them how to navigate to their file and upload it (see image)
Once the files are uploaded you can click on any of your wiki pages and then click the "this page has attachments" link to access a list of the files.

COOL!

Interested in setting one up in your own class? Contact support@globalclassroom.us

Twitter #tourdemoodle

2009-12-09T14:57:00.004-05:00

The #tourdemoodle on Twitter is an activity started a few days ago by @catspyjamasnz. Basically a few twitter users have been sharing their favorite sites so that everyone can get a look at what other Moodles look like. I submitted GlobalClassroom.us (which has a plain theme on the inside, but a heavily modified landing/company website as the landing page) and a few other sites that I know of.

There are some great Moodle sites available on the world wide web. If you have one, and an account on Twitter then do share with the #tourdemoodle tag.

Even if you're Twitter-less, check out all the submissions at http://wthashtag.com/Tourdemoodle.

If you know of a flashy Moodle or one with some free content, please contribute!

Student dreams do come true

2009-12-05T12:11:00.005-05:00

I got this email from a student today and thought I would share.

Dear Teacher Support,

I would like to say this website is AWESOME. I also would like to say that I Dream to be the president of the U.S when I grow up. I am studying hard on your website. Please vote for me!

-James

James,

All I have to say is 'you got it, dude'. I can't wait to see your name on a presidential ticket.

Download a Digital Copy of "Moodle Magic - Make it Happen" for $24.95

2009-12-03T14:44:00.004-05:00

Laurie Korte, who teaches our Introduction to Moodle course (and recently redesigned it) also is an author of two books for FTC Publishing (the other is Open Source Opens Classrooms).

Moodle Magic - Make it Happen (that link will take you to Amazon.com where you can purchase the hard copy) covers Moodle course building from nuts to bolts and is available in digital form (PDF) from FTC. To purchase a copy just visit this link (exclusive to GlobalClassroom and our friends):

Buy Moodle Magic - Make it Happen

A Moodle Commercial

2009-11-30T16:39:00.002-05:00

Here's a quick video from YouTube that you can use to give new or potential users a bird's eye view of what Moodle can do.

It doesn't cover the step by step, but it does give a great, anecdotal overview of how Moodle can increase efficiency in the classroom.

Here's the original post (which seems to be part of a university course assignment): http://blogs.ubc.ca/etec522sept09/2009/11/29/ernies-elevator-pitch-for-moodle-to-school-districts/

A Real Moodler - Carla Cross

2009-11-24T17:03:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago I contact Carla Cross to congratulate her on having such a successful course on GlobalClassroom. The classroom is 8th Grade English and I think it's successful because of the student engagement and activity that it attracted. Over the course of this semester Carla's course became one of the top 10 links clicked on of all Globalclassroom.us urls. In fact, at the end of September Carla's students had visited her course over 12,000 times in the previous 30 days.

That's a lot of visits by less than 100 students.

Setting up a Moodle course with information is easy, but setting it up in such a way that encourages students to visit the site again and again takes skill, patience and expertise. I let Carla know about her course and asked if she'd be willing in talking about her experience with Moodle. Below is what she had to say. A great read if you're looking for some ways to improve your Moodle usage.

I teach in a small Midwestern community-Green Valley, Illinois. Ours is a middle school building which serves sixth through eighth grade (which is a part of a unit district). There are about 280 students in our building and approximately 1500 students in the entire district (k-12). I am a veteran teacher with almost twenty-five years in education who recently switched from special education to English. When I began working on my masters in the CTER program at the University of Illinois, I began taking classes online. My first class introduced me to moodles and required that I create one as a culminating project (two years ago). I liked the idea so much that I searched for another way to put my course online when I came across ILGloblalclassroom. I spent the rest of that summer creating a moodle for my class. When the school year began (last year), I began utilizing it in class.

This is the second year that I have used the moodle as my primary means of instruction. Although I supplement the moodle with traditional classroom lecture at least once each unit, most of the students' work is done in the moodle. Reactions have been mixed. Students that enjoy computers and/or enjoy learning in general seem to really enjoy the moodle. Students that have coasted along in classes by doing only part of their class work and day dreaming while the teacher lectures complain that they prefer classroom instruction. I believe that this is because while using the moodle, they must be engaged in their learning; while a teacher is lecturing, they can "pretend" to be engaged by appearing to pay attention. I particularly enjoy using the moodle because not only does it force the students to be engaged and active in their learning, but it allows my class to instruct in two areas (English and technology). Students learn basics about computer usage and technology as they use the moodle. I have received compliments from high school English teachers about the incoming freshmen's preparedness for their courses, so I guess that it contributes to that success.

I must admit that as of yet I have not used all of the tools that the site has to offer. At present, I love utilizing the test feature. The test is scored for me; I can quickly analyze each question; I can easily print out a test report. That makes testing much easier and less complicated. My advice to someone that is just starting out is that the moodle should never be stagnant. Note how each unit is used by the students then adjust accordingly. If all (or many) students perform poorly on a section, survey the students to find where the problem lies then adjust.

Moodle Q&A: Easy Extra Credit in the Moodle Grade book

2009-11-17T12:05:00.001-05:00

I field questions about Moodle daily and they are often the fodder for this blog. Our users challenge me daily to find new solutions to simple and complex problems and to test and stretch the boundaries of Moodle on GlobalClassroom. So, from now on I'll let you know when I'm fielding a user submitted question by the post title (Moodle Q&A) and in the tags/labels.

Today's question comes from California, the teacher asked,

I can't figure out how to add extra credit. It always comes up as an assignment that can lower a students grade. What grading system do I use and how do I set it up?

Excellent question.

Unfortunately, Moodle 1.9.5, according to the Moodle.org docs is better suited to provide for extra credit. Right now we're running 1.9.4 beta (but upgrading soon). However after playing around a little bit today I found the absolute EASIEST way to create extra credit assignments in your Moodle course. The key is 2 parts:

that you create a sub category in your gradebook and include all assignments
that all of your grades add up nicely to a whole number like 100 (using Sum of Grades)

Here's how I set up a course for extra credit. First, I tallied up all my assignment points and made sure they added up to 100 points (this will allow me to add extra credit assignments later that will bring the total possible points over 100).

In my example course I have 2 assignments, each worth 50 points (though your course may have 20 or 30 assignments which will make the organization a little bit harder, but no less important).

Both of the assignments are currently listed in the default grade category given to all courses (and named the same as the course title). You can view the hierarchy of your course grading categories by accessing your grades, clicking the drop down "view" and selecting Edit --> "Categories and items".

On the Categories and Items page you should see something like this (which is a hierarchy of your course categories--currently there is one--and a list of your assignments):

Next we're going to add a new category which will include all of your assignments already created (which add up to 100). Click "Add category" and on the next page choose the following attributes:

Name the category, I named mine "Assignments"
Aggregation: Sum of Grades (because we want them to add up to 100)
you may ignore the rest (but you probably also want to make sure that no lowest grades are being dropped)

Once complete click "Save Changes".

When viewing the categories and grading items again use the "Move" button to arrange all of your assignments that sum to 100 to the newly created sub-category. Continue until all of your assignments are listed under that sub-category.

At this step you can add your extra credit assignment and adjust the points to equal however many extra points are available in your course (or if you did already, move it outside and below the sub-category). When all is said and done your category/item view should look like this (plus a few more assignments):

Finally, we're going to edit the default grade category to ensure that the grading works. Click the edit button on the Categories and Items page.

On the next page do two things, make sure it's set to "Sum of Grades" and check the box to "Aggregate including Subcategories". Save your changes and then use the view drop down or bread crumb navigation to return to your grader view.

I added an example student to my course so I could make sure that the extra credit feature was working and to test the computation.

As you grade assignments the student's total grade will reflect their progress. If and when they complete an extra credit assignment you can edit it and those points will simply be added to their aggregate score (which should have a total possible score of over 100 points). In the example below, the student got 50/50, 40/50 and 10 points of extra credit (bringing their points total to 100/110).

And that's the simplest and fastest (but maybe not the best) way to add extra credit to your course.

If you have questions you'd like to see answered here please email me at support@globalclassroom.us. Thanks!

Great Post and a Real-life Moodle Example: "Avoiding the String Effect"

2009-11-16T11:08:00.005-05:00

Jen Deyenberg, a Moodler from Canada has a really great blog that touches now and then on her use of Moodle in the classroom. If you're interested in how she uses Moodle for her 5th grade class then she's a great resource to check out.

This past week Jen wrote "Avoiding the String Effect In Moodle". The post covers her use of a Moodle hack which allows you to create a Moodle like a web page. We've covered the process before, but Jen does a great job explaining how this process might be used in a real world application: making a collaborative classroom that focuses on the 2010 Olympics.

This is what the course looked like after setting up the unseen resources to make it look more like a web page:

The post highlights how specifically to arrange your Moodle course in order to create a classroom that looks more like a website, check it out if that interests you. And do check out Jen's blog in general!

For more ways to jazz up your Moodle, check out these related posts:

Great Post: "Moodle is an Airport!"

2009-11-12T14:42:00.002-05:00

I love reading other people's perspectives and opinions about Moodle. They never fail to make me realize something new or to think about Moodle in an fresh, interesting way. ZaidLearn recently posted about Moodle and what it means to him and his organization in a post titled "Moodle is an airport, not a total solution!"

His point, I think, is that Moodle is a just one piece of your overall pedagogical tool belt. It's a central meeting place that provides easy ways to track student activity, post quizzes, and create engaging activities (glossary, wikis, discussion forums).

If you ask me, Moodle is a good meeting place (airport or space station), or a starting point where we get together to discuss and share ideas, before taking off using both inbuilt and integrated learning tools to experience engaging and enriching learning adventures beyond any single VLE can provide (ZaidLearn "Moodle is an Airport...").

It's a great read if you're curious about what Moodle can/can't offer and why it's valuable to 1000s and 1000s of organizations (and growing) world wide. Enjoy the read!

Teach with Contests!

2009-11-10T19:37:00.004-05:00

Here's a cool new site I found through Freetech4teachers (a regular source of great educational sites, content and resources). The site is "Teaching with Contests" and it regularly posts educational contests that teachers can use to motivate their students, or that students can participate in to win their school (or themselves) money, equipment, software and services.

There are some really cool contests coming up, including my personal favorite the 3M tape sculpture contest (from the site):

If you are inspired by the use of everyday objects as art, then Scotch Brand wants to see your creativity come off the roll and into the art space. The Scotch Off the Roll Tape Sculpture Contest, sponsored by 3M, is inviting creative minds to submit photos of their unique tape sculpture — constructed from Scotch Packaging Tape — for the chance to win a $5,000 cash prize. Submissions will be judged by a panel of noted artists and can be voted on by visiting www.OfftheRollContest.com no later than February 28, 2010.
Contest details are as follows: CLICK HERE

Check out the 3M site for tips or the blog for more information and more contests. As always, feel free to utilize our free Moodle classrooms to help facilitate participation, and if you do and want to invite additional students/teachers to join in please contact me: JThibault@globalclassroom.us.

Lots of open educational resources

2009-10-28T17:12:00.003-04:00

One of the best things about having an online classroom is that you can link to all sorts of great resources on the web (as long as they are not filtered by your school network). We'll if you're looking for resources on the web here's a great place to start (Google is also a great place to kick off your search...): The GuidetoOnlineSchools.com has a great resource of online classrooms.

Subjects include anything from Architecture to Women's Studies and the content includes audio, video, and text. All of the resources are culled from the Open Course Ware Consortium, which collects and indexes OCW from MIT, Johns Hopkins, Berkley, Tufts and many more.

Check out the GuidetoOnlineSchools.com or the OCW Consortium and link to some great content today!

3 Ways to Link to Audio in the Classroom

2009-10-27T10:50:00.006-04:00

Did you know there are three ways to link to an audio file in your Moodle classroom? Each of the ways provides a filter that will automatically display controls to play your audio file in the classroom. It's very handy if you're creating podcasts, playing subject-related music or news broadcasts and want your students to have access to them online/outside of school.

Here's a quick run down. Hit the link below to see them in action on GlobalClassroom.us (or if you just want to listen to Vanilla Ice...):

1. upload it to your course files and then copy the link (the destination URL, which will end with .mp3). Create a hyperlink anywhere within your Moodle course and paste that URL. Moodle will automatically create a filter with audio controls for a file that ends in .mp3.

2. edit a web page or the description of an activity, click text you'd like to turn into a hyperlink, click browse, upload the file to the course files, once uploaded click the file. This will produce the same result as 1. (Below is what the audio player looks like.)
3. "add a resource", and choose "link to a file or website". Give the resource a title, and below the "Location" text box click "choose or upload a file..." Navigate again to site files by clicking browse and choose/upload the mp3 (this will show a mp3 icon on the main course page but will open the player as a new window). Instead of browsing you also can paste any mp3 URL copied from another website or from your course files to create a playable audio file (paste the URL into the "Location" text field).

Above is an image of editing a "link to a file or website" resource.

Check out this basic Moodle example which showcases each way.

You might also be interested in how this works for video, or the difference between linking to a file in your Moodle course by hyperlink vs. using the "link to a file or website" resource.

Is the site faster?

2009-10-22T11:25:00.001-04:00

We just upgraded our main server setup, so you might noticed some very nice speed improvements on the site. We want to know what you think, let us know in the form below!

Loading...

New Feature: get a course copy as an editing teacher

2009-10-20T12:04:00.004-04:00

I wanted to let everyone know about a new feature on GlobalClassroom that does two things:

Helps you protect your content by sharing content with non-editing teachers
provides non-editing teachers the complete means to get a copy of your shared course!

On most Moodle sites worldwide, sharing a course and all of it's content with a teacher requires some manual labor (backing up the course and sending it to them) or creates a security risk (giving editing rights to another teacher puts the course in their hands, on the GlobalClassroom site editing teachers can even delete your course!).

To eliminate some of the leg work but provide a great opportunity to share resources and even complete classrooms with other teachers we've changed the non-editing teacher role. We now allow non-editing teachers in your courses to have access to the Backup and Files interfaces within your course.

In order to be listed as a non-editing teacher, the editing teacher will first have to add you using Assign Roles (this is located in the course Administration block, as are Backup and Files, though the Admin block will appear differently to non-editing teachers. Note that editing teachers are the only role in a course that can add additional users through Assign Roles).

Once a teacher is added to the non-editing role, they'll have access to the course either on their profile home page or on their My Courses tab.

If you're a non-editing teacher and you want to get a copy of a course, read on.

To start, login to the platform and access the course where you're listed as a non-editing teacher.

Next, click Backup to initiate the course backup process (this will create a zip file that you can upload and restore on the GlobalClassroom site or any other Moodle). As a non-editing teacher your administration block options will be much reduced.

The Backup process is comprised of several screens where you can choose to backup student data, no data, the course files, etc. My best recommendation, for the cleanest version of the course is to choose to backup without any user data, no logs, and no users. This will ensure that you do not inadvertently add users to another Moodle site or enroll students into your course if restored to the GlobalClassroom site.

Click through the screens of check boxes until your backup is complete (depending on the size of the course it could take several seconds or as long as a few minutes). Once the Backup is completed you'll see a screen that looks like this:

Right click on the zip file in order to save it locally to your computer. Once the download is complete you're ready to restore it for your own use!

Backing up, restoring and importing courses (how to)

Strategies for Online Discussions - FacultyFocus

2009-10-19T13:03:00.003-04:00

FacultyFocus is a great email newsletter I receive daily. It's got great information about how to make the most out of your online classroom (whether fully online or blended). Today I got a great article about how to best engage your students in discussion forums (one of my favorite Moodle activities).

The online facilitator (Michelle Everson, PhD) listed 5 main ways:

Cheer students on and let them know when they are on the right track
Highlight important points made during discussion
Question students about their understanding or ask them to clarify remarks they have made or expand on certain ideas
Correct misconceptions/misunderstandings
Provide direct instruction if students appear to be struggling to understand material

Discussion forums are a great way to enhance on-topic classroom conversations and to extend your time with students (because it's available 24/7).

To read the whole article check out their site: http://www.facultyfocus.com/?p=8713 and consider joining the mailing list so you don't miss their great tips and tricks.

What is the GlobalClassroom?

2009-10-16T11:41:00.003-04:00

This business and the service we provide to teachers nation wide is near and dear to my heart. I love helping teachers do something novel with Moodle. I get great joy out of answering tech questions, finding and fixing bugs, and even changing a password so that a student can get going on their homework again. Without that interaction on a daily basis would be a lot less enjoyable.

That being said, I want to let you know what I (Joseph Thibault) think GlobalClassroom is, where we're going and what it represents in the world of online education/elearning.

In 25 words or less, I think that GlobalClassroom is a "Moodle Community: where schools can host their classrooms securely, teachers can find professional development, and schools, businesses and other organizations can sell and deliver courses."

Let's unpack that a little bit (in more than 25 words) to look at the various pieces that contribute to our site.

1. GlobalClassroom is a community. We run one set of code the supports all of our users at GlobalClassroom.us. So when you report a bug or make a feature request using the "feedback" button (which is connected to our Uservoice account) and we fix or add it: everyone wins! All of our users are stewards of the community because each of you can reach out, give us feedback or report a bug which will benefit us all.

2. Secure hosting for schools/teachers. We offer a basic, free level of service to all teachers world wide. Teachers anywhere can register at GlobalClassroom and create Moodle-based classrooms for free. This is the standard level of Moodle which includes various capabilities and modules (quizzes, assignment dropboxes, glossaries, discussion forums and wikis). Additionally you can upload and display documents, podcasts and even video if you so choose, all in a secure classroom (password protected through the Moodle enrollment key).

For schools that want added security and control we also offer branded eSchools (starting at 10 bucks a month). These provide a way to organize a school's courses and to control access to the eSchool in order to prevent unauthorized users from joining or creating courses. It also has some handy password features and a complete user management dashboard (where you can upload accounts in bulk, and change passwords and roles).

3. Find professional development. When GlobalClassroom was founded in the early 00's, the main focus of the business was providing technology-related professional development online. We've had a really good run in the business of low-cost, facilitated, completely online courses; some of the most popular have been Podcasting, Digital Photography and Video. Today though we offer over 80 titles in such subject areas as ESL, special education, technology and leadership. What I think is unique about GlobalClassroom.us is that teachers can learn about Moodle by taking a class, and then apply those skills directly to their blended or fully online (and free) classroom. It's a great resource and chance for teachers to see something in action, learn a skill and then create resources that benefit student right away. This is the main reason we've introduced #4.

4. A market place of courses. With the open nature of GlobalClassroom.us (allowing anyone to join and being creating resources), paired with the ability to conduct online transactions we're now very happy to offer businesses, schools, teachers and pretty much anyone else with valuable ideas or content that ability to sell courses online.

Whether or not you have an eSchool, users can create content in Moodle and list a price (click for a draft of our agreement with users that opt into selling a course through the GlobalClassroom site). The course will now be available in the community search to prospective users. They can find your course and instantly purchase it either online or by contacting our student services. GlobalClassroom does take a fee in order to support the hosting, support and programming costs of managing a 100,000+ user network (10% of the total course price listed), but we think that's fair for providing a turn key course marketplace (click here for more of the Draft terms).

In the next few months and years we'll be upgrading our site to the specifications that you want most, ensuring that we're using the most updated Moodle version available, adding the popular modules users want and creating more efficient and easy ways to get started building a classroom.

We're very happy that you're here. And we're grateful for the opportunity to serve educators.

Sincerely and on behalf of the staff,

Joseph Thibault

Support

jthibault@globalclassroom.us

National Cyber Security Awareness Month (some 'freesources')

2009-10-08T15:07:00.003-04:00

Did you know that October was National Cyber Security Awareness Month? It's part of a national campaign, supported by some high profile companies and government agencies and I think we should all take a minute to brush up on our awareness. To contribute we've pulled together a few free resources from around the web and hosted them here, in a Moodle classroom (Note that the resources are pulled from Simplemoodle.com, which is free to download SCORM on various topics, including cyber security and computer usage).

Click here to access the SCORM based "National Cyber Security Awareness Month Resources"

Also, you might wish to check out StaySafeOnline.org (home of the NCSA Month activities) where you can find out what you as educators can do to promote cyber security awareness in your students (from the site):

Incorporate cyber security into your computer curriculum and use the USA Today cyber security lesson plans (click here to access the USA Today resources).
Engage parents: discuss cyber security during open houses, PTA meetings, and parent teacher conferences.
Add cyber security tips to the school’s website.
Advocate for district-wide curriculum on cyber security, cyber safety, and cyber ethics that can be implemented district-wide.

Additionally, Google has set up a special Youtube channel to promote cyber security awareness by covering topics such as cyberbullying, internet safety, malware and good password creation. Here's another contribution by Google.

Finally, you might like this free course to download which I created as part of a grant in Vermont: Internet Safety, Acceptable Use, Research and Copyright. The course is available for download from Moodlecommons.org.

PS, if you like the SCORM resources included in the NCSAM Resources course listed above and would like to use them in your own classroom, check out our recent post about SCORM.

SCORM: what it is, where to find it, how to use it, and what it looks like

2009-10-07T14:38:00.010-04:00

SCORM. You might have see it listed as one of the possible formats your course can have (in the course settings under format) or you might have seen it listed in the possible activities you could add to your classroom when editing is turned on. This post will cover four important aspects of SCORM and how you can find, upload, implement and use it in your classroom. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive tutorial, more of a primer so that you can seek more information if you think it will be a benefit to your online classroom.

1. What is SCORM? SCORM is an international standard for learning objects. That is to say, it's a standardized, web-based format that many Learning Management Systems (such as Moodle) can integrate and display. It's an acronym which stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model (no wonder they use the acronym, right?) According to SCORM.com (which is not the originator/creator of SCORM):

SCORM is a set of technical standards for e-learning software products. SCORM tells programmers how to write their code so that it can “play well” with other e-learning software. Specifically, SCORM governs how online learning content and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) communicate with each other. SCORM does not speak to instructional design or any other pedagogical concern, it is purely a technical standard.

What's important to know is that Moodle supports SCORM 1.2 and you can find quite a bit across the internet if you know where to look. SCORM also is a way to do much, much more with Moodle than what is available in a standard install.

2. Where can I find SCORM? There are two ways to find usable SCORM: a. by finding it pre-made and available on the web, or b. by creating it yourself using a program that exports to SCORM. The latter has obvious value for creating your own course materials, but you might be surprised what's available for free to download.

To create your own: I've played around with some SCORM creation programs. By far the best and easiest to use are Camtasia and Articulate (though there are lots if you have the time to learn a new program/application; I've played with both eXe and courselab, but they required more time than the little I had to evaluate). Here's a complete list of SCORM creators from Moodle.org. I will say that the benefit of using a program like Articulate is that you can easily start from a familiar foundation (Articulate uses PPT. I'm not endorsing it though because it's pretty pricey at $995).

Where you can find some SCORM: Moodle.org is the best place to start searching for SCORM. They have a repository set up where there are some good SCORM modules posted. Here are some other sites I know about:

Moodle SCORM repository
SimpleMoodle.com (SCORM is free to download after registering, all packages were created by InfoSource, Inc.)
SCORM.com (though these are just examples)
Selfproject.eu (a few random packages)

If you find another site with SCORM available for download please comment.

3. How to use SCORM: there really are two ways to put a SCORM package to work once it's created and you have it. You can either upload it as a single object in your course (it will display just like any other assignment or web page you create in the online classroom). Or you can make it the complete basis of your course by creating a SCORM format course.

Which ever you choose, the process for configuring the package is the same. Once you've either created your SCORM format course or added an activity --> SCORM/AICC you'll be prompted to configure the resource.

As shown in the screen shot below, you'll need to add a title to your SCORM package, a description, etc. The most important part is the "Package File". This is how we'll choose the file that initiates your SCORM package.

When you have your SCORM package (which should be a .zip file) get to this step and choose or upload a file. Create a folder in your file directory for the package, navigate to the folder and then choose the .zip file and upload it to your course. Note that some SCORM packages can be quite large (some of the packages from SimpleMoodle.com are ~50MB so it will take some time to upload).

Once uploaded, unzip the SCORM package and then locate and "choose" the imsmanifest.xml file included (this is the most important step).

When you've returned to the SCORM configuration page you can play with any of the other fields (putting points on your SCORM, allowing X attempts, opening it as a new window, etc.). These will largely be affected by your individual preferences and needs. The default setup, minus the grading will enable your SCORM to open without a problem though if you just want to Save. Once you've saved it, your SCORM will be operational!

4. So what's SCORM look like? Packages will vary, but for the most part SCORM can be a pretty flashy, it can include assessment items and audio/video. Here's a screenshot of the completed, uploaded and correctly configured SCORM package I downloaded from Simplemoodle.com (I choose to open the package in a new window and to leave it as a learning object...so I'll know when students have completed it but it is given only 1 point per section in the grade book). Each of the sections will display for you (and for students each of the sections they complete will be marked automatically for them (resuming them at the point where they left off when they re-access later.

Clicking on either of the sections will open it in a new window, showing the SCORM in all of it's glory.

If you'd like to check out a sample (free) course with a few SCORM packages already set up, please check out our contribution to National Cyber Security Awareness Month (each of the modules is from the SimpleMoodle.com repository).

And if you read this far, thanks!

Our courses rock!

2009-10-07T13:55:00.004-04:00

We just closed out another quarter (July through September) of offering professional development courses to teachers throughout the country. From each student we collect some great quantitative and qualitative information through an online evaluation form at the end of their course and the information always amazes me.

First, it reaffirms to me that not only is Moodle a great place to host and deliver online courses but out facilitators and course authors are top-notch. Students love our teachers (and so do we).

Here are some highlights from the evaluations:

Overall, on a scale of 1-5 our courses (127 taken this quarter) averaged 4.21 (1 = "poor"; 5 = "excellent")
The subject area that scored the highest was ESL (4.42).
95% of students said they would take another course through GlobalClassroom.us

The qualitative comments about individual courses are great:

About the Moodle course with Laurie Korte - "Moodle has great potential. Anyone interested in learning aspects of Moodle would benefit from the course."
Digital Photography with Rusti Gregory - "I truly loved this class. I've never known so much about my digital camera before taking this class. I truly enjoyed being "forced" to read my manual! =0) And taking online courses has been a wonderful experience. With the completion of this class, I've completed my Master's Equivalency Degree!"
Dr. Carmen Burds' new Methods and Materials for Students with LD and ADHD - "I really enjoyed this course. It is real life information that can have a positive impact on my students immediately."
Dr. Barbara McKenzie's Infusing Technology Integration (Fundamentals) - "Dr. McKenzie provided helpful feedback to me during the course. Each assignment was returned with thoughtful, positive comments. The course also had many helpful strategies, examples and suggestions to help us along in our efforts."
Carolyn McCarthy and the popular Podcasts for Teaching and Learning course - "I thought the course was very helpful in creating exciting podcast and blogs for educational purposes. It was nice to create things you can actually use in the class room and use right away."

How about a round of applause for our great facilitators? :D

Taking an online course can certainly be tough, but the facilitators really make the difference. So if you're interested in ever taking an online course, GlobalClassroom is definitely a good place to start.

Additionally if you want to capture feedback from your own students or want to improve your online course quality let us know. We've been at this for a long time so our experience and expertise can be a great resource: jthibault@globalclassroom.us or 802-735-2066 to reach me directly.

What's YOUR Moodle skill level?

2009-09-29T18:11:00.003-04:00

I found a neat Moodle Skill Template on Scribd.com today which outlined various need-to-know Moodle skills (like navigation, creating content, updating content, adding pictures and HTML , etc.) and thought that it was an interesting idea.

It also could be a great resource for school-based technology integration specialists or eSchool administrators to better target professional development and Moodle training. I modified the scale to include/exclude a few details and to make it more applicable to learning Moodle on GlobalClassroom or another standard Moodle install (the template included some modules we do not provide or support). Basically, it's a form that you could copy and take (let me know and I'll share a copy with you through Google Docs - joseph.thibault@gmail.com).

I'm interested to know though, regardless of your role or previous usage, how our GlobalClassroom and blog audience population looks. This will help me target my future posts and build the training that we need. Additionally I'll answer any specific questions asked in a future post or directly by email if you let me know in the easy to fill out form.

Click here if you receive this via email: Moodle Skills Matrix

Welcome 100,000th User!

2009-09-24T18:36:00.003-04:00

On behalf of Global Classroom, Inc. I'd like to welcome our 100,000th registered user who joined us earlier today (9/24/09)!

We're proud to have made so much headway in the last year, providing the web's leading Moodle community/platform. We've given over 3200 courses to teachers, helped to facilitate courses in nearly every state (and a growing number of countries) and have doubled our daily visitors since the end of school last year.

Thanks for using GlobalClassroom as the foundation of your online classrooms. Great stuff soon to come!

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmab2003/

1st Week of Teaching and Learning Online (With MrsDurff) is Free!

2009-09-22T17:00:00.005-04:00

Lisa Durff, also known on the web as MrsDuff, recently revised Teaching and Learning Online (the 1st installment of a 3 course series in online course development) and it's waiting for you to check it out.

The entire first week of the course is available as a free trial for you to checkout. If you like what you see, you can easily purchase the course and continue with the content. The next course starts officially on 10/1/09 and the course is offered with Act 48 Credits (certified in PA, course number 20040780).

The first week of the course includes the teacher introduction, a review of online resources, discussions and a week ending reflection assignment. All are available to you in the free trial. Additionally, this course is built to become increasingly collaborative as the weeks progress, urging you to team up with other students to complete assignments and to work as a group to create a database of great resources.

Check out the free trial here, as long as you're registered at GlobalClassroom.us you can click course checkout and enroll at no cost.

Here's a taste of the course, MrsDurff's course introduction video:

Or click here for the link if you're receiving this via email.

If you don't know Lisa Durff, she's one of my favorite web personalities. Lisa co-hosts It's Elementary at EdTechTalk.com, she blogs at http://durffsblog.blogspot.com/, she's presented at the K12 Online Conference (here's her presentation from '07) and she's personally invited me (on several occasions) to chat with educators and online learners world wide).

She's going to rock as an online facilitator.

Don't be Daunted: 8 Steps to Grow your Moodle

2009-09-17T17:07:00.006-04:00

A political science professor once said this about Democracy to me: "It's the worst type of government, except for all of the others." One might say the same about Moodle. It gets a lot of guff for being a behemoth of code (over 500,000 lines) and for being a little extra complex (even though the standard install is pretty "bare bones" compared to the customized Moodles around the web).

For all of the criticisms, no other Learning Management System (LMS) or eLearning platform has enjoyed the rapid growth and press that Moodle has, thanks to it's huge user base, great online support forums and community at Moodle .org and it's widespread adoption by hosting companies and enterprise solution providers working to provide is freely to the world (including GlobalClassroom.us).

We're happy to offer it freely to teachers and students worldwide, and we're doing our best to support the community at large (and small). And if you're one of the critical or skeptics, or if you're a teacher just starting out and want to create your course then keep reading...

I ran across a great blog post that talks about the complexity of Moodle and how the author suggested teachers can get past the "Whoa". Check out the Changing Face of Education in Iowa blog (by Evan Abbey) for more information. The original post is a must read, here's a quote:

Moodle is not for the faint of heart. After showing it to teachers, I often hear something along the lines of "Whoa, that is a lot more complicated than a wiki!"

Yes, that's true.

But, you can also do much more with it. Not just in terms of individual tasks, like a discussion board and a database, but also big-picture outlook. You have several different starting points. And best of all, you can start and just get your feet wet, or when you are ready, you can always progress in your use. There are many acceptable levels of use that improve your classroom instruction... you don't have to become fully immersed in it to use it well. (from "Degrees of Moodle Use in the Classroom" by Evan Abbey)

Evan goes onto suggest several (8) steps that a teacher might use Moodle and not be overwhelmed with the advanced features or complex forms and fields required to create all at once. Wade into the Moodle pool by advancing through these steps (note that after each step the basic assignment/resource that might correspond to each is in parenthesis after; I've also linked to past blog posts where you might learn more, if applicable):

Repository of documents (link to a file or website/display a directory)
Links to all the websites you use in class (link to a file or website/create hyperlinks)
a Classroom calendar (utilize the classroom calendar and add events)
Digital Assignment Dropbox (upload a single file/advanced uploading of files/online text assignments)
Classroom discussion board (forums)
Enrichment (differentiate instruction using groups and groupings)
Supplement (quizzes/wikis/lessons)
Full online course (all of the above and more!)

Click here for the full post at Evan's blog. And discuss and comment on his great contribution there.

Image Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiddedevries/ / CC BY 2.0

Did you Know? 4.0

2009-09-16T14:44:00.005-04:00

These are internet-famous videos about the rapidly changing information landscape. The newest installment just arrived (fall 09) and is embedded below:

Other versions of Did you Know? are available through the Xplane Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/xplanevisualthinking

Enjoy the thought provoking video!