Help! How can I make my Moodle site look better and be more engaging for my students? Silvia Vogel...

Help! How can I make my Moodle site look better and be

more engaging for my students?

Silvia Vogel & Marissa Viray-CarloseLearning Officers, FMNHS, Monash University

Why bother?

● Learner-Content InteractionFirst type of interaction that enables learning to happen (ref: M.G. Moore, ‘Three types of interaction’, American Journal of Distance Education, 2009)

● DIY whenever possible is best In our case, our team of 6 people support (or try to) over 1,000 academics and staff in our faculty alone; we administer 700+ Moodle units accessed by 10,500+ students

What’s the design goal?

eLearning Content that is:

Engaging = FUN for students

○ F = Findable

○ U = Understandable

○ N = iNteractive

How can we achieve it?

To make your Moodle site FUN, make sure various content elements in your

site CLCC (pronounced ‘click!’)

○ C = Clear

○ L = Logical

○ C = Consistent

○ C = Creative

To get started......run your Moodle site by

○ Navigation - does it CLCC?

○ Content - is it chunked? does it CLCC?

○ Interaction - does it include action items?

do they CLCC?

○ Student feedback - be brave...ask what

they think

Navigation: Distance ed course

Before

Navigation: Distance ed course

After

Navigation: Variations

Different banner and colour theme

Navigation: Variations

Larger banner, text links

Navigation: Variations

Using images as navigational links

Navigation: Variations

No image banner, just coloured table cells

Navigation: Variations

Using web-style navigational structure

Content: Chunking techniques

Use Books

Content: Chunking techniques

Use labels to create consistent headings and dividers

Content: Chunking techniques

Use Pages to chunk content or provide a sitemap

Interaction: Lessons

Interaction: SCORM Packages

Interaction: SCORM Packages

Link SCORM package content pages to Forums, Quizzes

Student Feedback

Find out what your students think:

● Talk to them or ● Do a quick

survey using the Feedback item

To recap:

● Make your site FUN (Findable, Understandable, iNteractive) for students

● Make your design CLCC (Clear, Logical, Consistent, Creative)

● Assess using NCIS (Navigation, Content, Interaction, Student feedback)

Chat with us on our forum space OR Explore the templates for 10-days as a ‘Student’:

http://moodle27.med.monash.edu.au/