ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/

Resource Tools in Moodle

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña

Sharing and analyzing content is indeed a crucial part of any teaching and

learning experience and scenario [F2F, Blended, VLE, etc.]. In an online

setting, selecting and implementing tools that support these educational

processes is vital, but it is also necessary to assess teacher and student

needs and abilities prior to the implementation of any chosen tool. While

cautious gathering of such tools can enhance student learning experiences,

the selection may imply that instructors can face challenges and potential

failure.

Let’s now analyze three Moodle resource tools in terms of their potential

uses within an online or blende learning course and the challenges

instructors may encounter when deciding on the best use of each one. All

changes made to improve student learning experiences may imply that

instructor have to face with a variety of challenges to be successful.

ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/

Moodle Resource Tools Uses Challenges

Wikis

Sharing of web links

with relevant and

updated information

regarding class

content: Vocabulary

sites, grammar

practices, etc.

Collaborative writing

or assignments in

EFL/ESL contexts

Sharing of documents

among students or

with the instructor

The organization of

different pages in the

wiki seems to be not

very user friendly for a

first timer or an

amateur student or

instructor.

Some sort of training

on the use of the tool

is a must to ensure

proper and effective

use of it.

Once both types of participants get the knack of how to use the wiki option in Moodle, they

won’t have much trouble making it work. It just takes a bit of patience to get confident on the

use of the tool.

Blogs

If used as a journal,

they can be a great

tool to encourage and

foster reflective

thinking among

students.

In ELT contexts, they

can also be used to

ensure reflective

teaching and critical

thinking in the search

of answers to their

teaching queries.

They provide some

room for students who

barely voice opinions

or comments in a F2F

For the first timer,

keeping a blog can be

a bit of a problem. As

in any kind of Moodle

tool, some sort of

modeling by the

instructor is a need.

This might subtract

some teaching time

for class but can be

the solution to

potential arising

problems.

Many times students

have claimed that

their blog entries

cannot be accessed or

ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/

class setting. “reutilized” after a

course is over. It’s

always smart to ask

them to keep a copy

of their entries for

themselves.

Blogs are great tools for reflection, voicing opinions and thoughts, commenting, etc. It is

indispensable that instructors take some time off their regular teaching to train students on the

correct, optimal use of the tool to be successful and profit from the blogging experience for

their own learning.

Media embedding

With some basic

knowledge of html

teachers and learners

can contribute greatly

to course content

along with their blog

entries, wiki

contributions,

glossaries, and the

like.

Sample media that

can be displayed with

this Moodle tool are:

o Videos from

Youtube,

Vimeo,

TeacherTube,

etc.

o Docs from

Scribd,

SlideShare, etc.

o Widgets

Training is a must.

Students and

instructors lacking the

basic notions of html

use will find

themselves incapable

of using this tool to

enhance content

within their lessons,

homework

assignments, forums,

etc.

This tool for the

neophyte is or can be

a headache.

From the many options that Moodle provides educators, media embedding is the one that

really does need some sort of training to assess instructors’ understanding.

ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/

Training oneself as an instructor, whether that is by self-instructing

yourself or by being trained by one’s school is the first step to get really

acquainted with a learning platform. The second step is to take some time

off one’s class to train students who are new to the system and need some

extra assistance. After all this you online or blended learning scenario is

going to be easy and highly productive for both the instructor and the

learners.

To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to

research and expand these areas:

1 Moodle tools

2 Moodle training for educators

3 Training students to use a Moodle LMS

4 Embedding media in Moodle

5 Html training for Moodle users

Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

NCTE - Costa Rica Affiliate

Resource Teacher at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

Freelance ELT Consultant four OUP in Central America

ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs and sites I often write for my students at the university are:

1. Pronunciation 1 2. Readding Skills 1

3. Pronunciation 2 4. Computering Applications in

Education

Get new ELT material and ideas by visiting my curated topics on

http://paper.li/ and http://scoop.it/

TEFL Daily English Language Teaching Journal

ELT Daily Phonemics Daily

The Linguists: Linguistics News

Published on October 4, 2013

Language Learning with Moodle? Of course!

http://lingedutainment.com/welcome/tag/moodle/

Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers

http://www.cats-pyjamas.net/wp-

content/uploads/2010/05/MoodleToolGuideforTeachers_May2010_JS.pdf

ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/

CLT Moodle Tool Guide http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/clt/2011/08/16/clt-moodle-

tool-guide/