Due to such active participation from webinar attendees, we've provided responses (listed below) to the most frequently asked questions that weren't addressed during the Q + A period.
If you didn't have a chance to attend the webinar, you can view it on-demand, here. Also, feel free to submit further questions in the comments section below and we'll provide responses.
Q: Could you provide more information on the presenters? Do the presenters have online links to their blogs or websites?
- Stephen Downes:Stephen works for the National Research Council of Canada where he has served as a Senior Researcher, based in Moncton, New Brunswick, since 2001. Affiliated with the Learning and Collaborative Technologies Group, Institute for Information Technology, Downes specializes in the fields of online learning, new media, pedagogy and philosophy. Stephen’s website can be found at www.downes.ca.
- Colin Beer: Colin is an Educational Developer at Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Australia. As a co-founder and contributor to the Indicators Project, a CQ University research effort, Beer assists in building-on and extending prior work in the analysis of usage data from Learning Management Systems in order to identify further opportunities for research, help inform decision-making of teaching staff, management, support staff and students. Colin’s blog and publications can be found here and here.
- Lou Pugliese:As an entrepreneurial business strategist with global vision and demonstrated talent for identifying emerging trends/new business opportunities, Lou has a successful history of driving growth and success of some of the best companies in the industry. Lou currently serves as President of Moodlerooms. Prior to which he was Executive Chairman of eThority and held several senior executive positions. He is also a noted international speaker on technology innovation in education and has addressed a wide range of issues in education and education policy. Lou’s blog posts are regularly featured on this blog as well as on campustechnology.com and edu1world.org.
Q: The term “social media” was defined very loosely during the discussion. Could you define exactly what the moderator and panelists meant by this? Do you mean Facebook, etc?
- A: While developing content for this discussion, it was decided to use the term “social media” rather loosely to mean any online tool for communication in which a community of collaboration could flourish. We aimed to focus the discussion on the merits of informal learning, a.k.a. the learning that takes place outside of the official classroom (in-person, or online). The widespread public adoption of social media and other Web 2.0 tools (especially by students in higher ed) has led to the incorporation of these tools into the LMS. And as the uses for these tools evolve, such as for informal learning, we felt that a discussion regarding the use of these tools within the learning environment as a whole are more relevant than ever.
Q: Are there any Moodle webinars/archives that we could learn about Moodle as an LMS and specifically if we are considering a full migration from our current LMS to Moodle?
- A: Our next scheduled webinar will focus on the migration process and feature stories from representatives of higher education institutions that effectively made the transition. Check Moodlerooms' event page soon for more details.
Q: What apps are available that allow the use of social media tools within the LMS on a smart phone?
- A: The capabilities of smart phone applications are evolving constantly. Currently, Moodlerooms provides, joule Mobile, an application that makes aspects of its enterprise, Moodle-based e-learning platform, joule, available. As joule Mobile develops, users will be able to harness the social media capabilities of their smartphones within joule Mobile. For more information, visit our mobile solutions page.
Q: Knowing that we lose students by sending them to third party websites, why wouldn't you instead embed or incorporate the same social media tools inside the LMS?
- A: One of Moodle’s main benefits is the flexibility of its component-based architecture. Moodle has incorporated a variety of Web 2.0 and social media tools already, such as chats and discussion forums, and has made it possible for institutions to integrate their instances with various third-party tools such as Adobe Connect. Moodlerooms has taken this effort a step further to make a social networking and collaboration hub called joule Social available to users of its Moodle 2.0-based e-learning platform, joule 2.0. With an intuitive, recognizable interface, joule Social makes popular social media features and functionality available within the LMS. Visit here and here for more information.
Q: How does Moodle 2.0 support social interactions?
- A: Moodle 2.0 has retained all of it's collaborative tools from versions 1.0- 1.9. However, Moodle 2.0 also provides access to Cohorts, or, site-wide groups that enable users to connect and collaborate outside of their traditional course structures.
Q: Do you have examples of specific objective metrics used to capture multi dimensional elements of learning engagement that are not arbitrary behaviors and would not invade privacy expectations? Also, if you're measuring a product (output) and not a process (engagement) are you not relying on a grading rubric to measure learning?
- A: Lou Pugliese and Colin Beer have been forwarded this question and will be providing a response in the future. In the meantime, take a look at Lou's recently published whitepaper about the "New Age" of learning management analytics. Also important to note, page 5 of the whitepaper includes a wealth of perspective on learning outcomes management. You can download the whitepaper here. Stay tuned for his response.
Q: Is there a difference between a teacher built classroom vs. having a team that builds a finished classroom that the teacher then uses (content comes from Topic Expert-course developer)?
- A: This question has been forwarded to Colin Beer. Stay tuned for his response.
Q: Stephen, You describe a "multi-dimensional" perspective of looking at analytics. How can all of that be captured when so much learning happens outside of technology (e.g., face-to-face) and in third-party applications outside of institutional control?
- A: This question has been forwarded to Stephen Downes. Stay tuned for his response.
Q: Stephen, what observations are you seeing as serving student learning needs effectively?
- A: This question has been forwarded to Stephen Downes. Stay tuned for his response.
Q: Question for Colin Beer. What are the other six "best practices" in addition to teacher presence?
- A: This question has been forwarded to Stephen Downes. Stay tuned for his response.
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