Pedagogical principles of Moodle NEW SERIES - an overview

It is now widely known that modern technologies offer numerous possibilities for language teaching and learning, which may also be applied to English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are currently being globally used, as they present online spaces where teachers can organize their work, and the work of their students. Moodle, as one of the most popular VLEs, has been used at the Faculty of Information Technology, University “Mediterranean” Podgorica, Montenegro, since 2009, where it has proved itself to be one of the most beneficial technological means to be applied in ESP teaching and learning. The aim of the paper is to illustrate how Moodle supports communicative and collaborative learning, and how students can improve their communication and the four language skills, enhance specific vocabulary, and simulate some real-life situations. Some blocks and modules in Moodle for providing students with adequate teaching materials, and the ways of assigning different activities to students will be discussed. In conclusion, the vital role of teacher in applying Moodle in ESP will be emphasized.

神田外語大学紀要, 2008

A prominent goal of the Internet Research Project (IRP) group at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) is peer guidance regarding use of Moodle. IRP manages Moodle course pages, is responsible for the promotion of Moodle, and coordinates output of Moodle educational material for educators who choose to utilize this resource. Moodle is made available, with the support of IRP, to all staff within the English Language Institute (ELI) as well as other KUIS departments and is recommended as both an effective course management system and language learning medium for use within an educator's curriculum. While Moodle is employed by many teachers and learning advisors in a wide range of courses and projects, it was unclear how ELI educators are making use of Moodle as a beneficial educational tool, what individual educators' goals are when using Moodle, and why staff selects and implements specific Moodle associated tools. To investigate these issues, it was first necessary to find background information related to CALL in general to view the history, foundations and various approaches to technology in education that Moodle is a part of. With the work of CALL researchers and our 2 own questions in mind, a Moodle survey was conducted throughout the ELI to gather information regarding benefits of Moodle usage, rationale concerning utilization of certain Moodle functions as opposed to others, and educator perspectives and choices concerning Moodle software. The results of this survey contributed to discussion that may point towards future approaches with regard to the utilization of Moodle at KUIS.

Further development of computer and communication technologies and applications has brought from latency toward almost complete integration an absolutely new paradigm of higher education in the Sultanate of Oman. This paradigm has given birth to a dynamic and meaningful perspective (Nunan, 1987) of learning in the environment that allows students’ to enhance their skills and competencies, communicate and work using a variety of tools (Scully, 2008), platforms and targeted websites. Using the example of the English Foundation Programme’s Moodle - based courses, which are offered by the Language Centre at Sultan Qaboos University, the authors demonstrate that learning in a Moodle-based environment - through its flexibility and facility of access – enables novice students nurture the idea of “knowledge maintenance” and adapt to the modern academic environment and its fast changing needs especially in the field of general and academic language acquisition. They also highlight the importance of the content of the Moodle-based courses, which, according to them, should be interesting, motivating and more consistent with students’ culture and traditions.

Training For Training: Moodle as a Teaching Tool By and For Teachers, 2022

The COVID-19 outbreak has accelerated the digitization process in all the areas of daily life, including education. Remote learning has become an indispensable tool from primary school to university. If remote education still does not always prove to be a fruitful experiment, there is no doubt that in the near future e-teaching, both with synchro and asynchronous methodologies, will become a component of the educational program. This research starts from this assumption and aims at creating a training tool for teachers which may enable them to face the challenges of digitization adequately. The ever growing changes brought about by technological innovations can be a great resource for individuals who have the skills to master them rather than be subjected to them. According to a research carried out by Ipsos Institute on over 3,500 high school students and about 2,000 primary and secondary school teachers, during remote learning, 96% of students chat with their friends, 88% eat and 25% cook. These results show that students tend to engage in other activities during remote learning, since they do not feel at the centre of the educational program as active subjects of the lessons. If teachers become skilled in using digital tools, it can be an opportunity to fully develop the principle of learning by doing. For this reason, teachers should fully know the potentialities of the tools at their disposal. This research, therefore, aims at creating an educational workshop for teaching staff (from primary school to university), which, in view of lifelong learning, may help teachers to improve their approach to remote education. Teachers will take on the role of students and will personally experience remote learning through the Moodle platform: being students will enable them to fully understand both the platform tools and the innovative dynamics triggered by this platform in the field of education. At the end of their training program, teachers will have an in-depth knowledge of the platform and will become experts of Moodle. Consequently, they will be able to create interactive educational programs and to make students active subjects

2010

Given the importance given today to language learning and to the development of Information and Communication Technologies, this article describes the tools available through the Moodle e-learning platform to create and implement on-line language courses. Departing from this general framework, this paper focuses on the appropriateness of these tools to produce well-designed languages courses, as well as the possibilities for creating content and training activities in both individual and collaborative ways, an area which is receiving a great deal of interest in order to develop dynamic and interactive training.

Many Canadian Educational Psychology classes currently emphasize and model constructivist teaching practices in addition to integrating the notion of connectivity and Web 2.0 into educational theory. This study examines 'Moodle 1 ' as a technological tool to further enhance participation and performance in addition to the regularly used 'semiotic tools' and social-dialogical activities found in a teacher education program. Similarly, discourse and narrative are described as a mode of thinking, as a structure for organizing our knowledge, and as a vehicle in the process technology and higher education. How can a program of learning be assisted with structuring the delivery and organization of knowledge?

Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 2010

It is substantially accepted that constructivism proposes knowledge as -not a fixed object‖; constructed by an individual through her own experiences. As a learning theory, constructivism in education emphasizes collaborative learning, such as authentic challenging projects involving in students, teachers and experts in the learning community. Its goal is to create learning communities that are more closely related to the collaborative practice of the real world as strongly reflected in social constructivist idea. The technologies used in the filed of education will support learning through collaborative practices, using learners' experiences for -meaning making‖. The challenge now is to extend the educational networks so that it offers access to learning resources, online storage and tools for communication and management not just within the limitation of school and time. Through learning platforms, such as Moodle, teachers and administrators may bring hardware, software and supporting services together to enable more effective conditions among teachers and students.

ICERI 2012. (ISBN: 978-84-616-0763-1), 2012

The vast majority of Spanish universities have integrated Moodle as a Learning Management System (LMS). This is because, in comparison with other LMS, Moodle is a feasible and more effective means for didactic usage. But there are still few studies on the pedagogical impact of Moodle in teaching. Thus, there are a lot of questions to be answered, for instance: What do students know about the tools provided by Moodle? How are these tools used in their training? Are they satisfied with the use of these tools? Which are the needs of teachers? Is the usage of Moodle related with the improvement of teaching? What is the impact of Moodle in the development of professional competencies? The aim of this paper is to understand, analyze and compare the student's perceptions on the didactic usages of Moodle at university teaching. To this end, this study takes a survey design, with the intentional non-random sample of 178 students from Primary Education degree and Social Education degree of Cuenca Campus in the University of Castilla-La Mancha. For collecting information, an ad hoc questionnaire, consisting of 5 dimensions and 118 variables, has been used. Data reveal the relevance of Moodle in university teaching: the role that it plays to visualize the teaching outline and to exchange information. To sum up, students show a high degree of satisfaction, but identify some limitations related to teacher training and technical issues.

ConcienciaDigital

Introduction: higher education has experienced a number of changes in the teaching field due to the current situation. In this context, e-learning through educational platforms has taken on great value in the teaching-learning process. Objective: to apply an educational intervention through the Moodle platform to consolidate the skills of the English language in the students of the industrial maintenance career of the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo during the special period April-September 2020. Methodology: this investigation was carried out in the context of mandatory teleworking due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This mixed research had a descriptive approach with a quasi-experimental focus. To achieve the main goal, 70 students from the third semester took an active part in it who were divided into two study groups: the control group and the experimental group, with 35 students respectively. Before the intervention phase, information was collected through a survey which y...

Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction

In order to design an effective e-learning environment, the present study investigated English as Foreign Language (EFL) students’ perceptions of the use of Moodle as a course management system in a Foundations of Education (FOE) course at the College of Education. The study also aimed at exploring statistically significant differences between student teachers’ perceptions that can be attributed to gender, residence, year in the program, computer skills, and GPA variables. Data were collected from a sample of 60 students using a questionnaire. Findings showed that using Moodle increases students’ participation in learning, exchanging ideas and knowledge (μ = 4.37). Over half the total number of students preferred to use chat rooms and forums in computer labs to formal lecture rooms. Findings also showed that there are statistically significant differences between student responses related to year in the program in favor of students in their third and fourth year. With regard to obst...