Remote-Learner needed an online version of their Moodle training program for teachers and course creators. Until the development of our online courses, most of our training was being delivered mainly on-site (face-to-face).
In deciding to develop an online training program, we recognized that a number of our clients wanted a more flexible, online option. Moreover, we believed our clients would benefit significantly by being immersed in the Moodle environment as a learner while they learned to develop their own Moodle courses.
To help ensure the success of our training participants, we planned to offer a facilitated course with a strong instructor presence. In addition to the asynchronous forum discussions and activity feedback, we wanted to incorporate web conference sessions each week to allow course participants to connect with the instructor and ask questions. In supporting clients previously, we also knew that sometimes you just needed the power of screen sharing!
Today, we offer a Foundations and Intermediate course for course creators as well as a course for Moodle Administrators, with yet another course in development. In their current iteration, our online courses each extend over a period of four weeks with participants spending approximately 4-6 hours each week completing various activities. The course is primarily asynchronous, with one week or unit being revealed at a time. Learners can complete the course activities for a given week any time during that week.
In addition to the asynchronous activities, we also offer weekly synchronous sessions using Elluminate (soon to be Adobe Connect). These web conference sessions are designed to supplement and extend the material that is delivered in the course and to give participants an opportunity to connect with the facilitator and ask questions. We encourage participants to attend the weekly web conference sessions, but for those unable to attend, all sessions are recorded and made available after the fact.
From the start, we knew we wanted to have regular web conference sessions with our learners. The ability level of our learners varied and some needed the option for immediate feedback and screen sharing that the web conference sessions could provide. In previous experiences of teaching online courses, we also found that the synchronous sessions provided opportunities for the learners to get to know each other and connect in ways that are more difficult through text in asynchronous discussion forums. Learners will sometimes ask questions in the web conference sessions that they wouldn't take the time to add to a discussion forum. Plus, having a voice to go with the names and pictures you see in Moodle is great!
For us, offering the student perspective for our training participants is the key to our training philosophy. Even in our synchronous or face-to-face training sessions, we strive to make sure the participants have an opportunity to see and experience a tool from the student or learner perspective before they ever open the settings page.
In researching the various web conferencing tools, Elluminate and Adobe Connect were generally accepted as "best of breed" for delivering online training. There are many other web conferencing programs available, but I've yet to find any that offer the full range of tools that you'll find in Elluminate and Adobe Connect. If you're simply delivering lectures or webinars (web seminars) another tool might suffice, but we wanted the ability to deliver engaging, interactive training through web conference and these tools fit the bill.
Today, we are in the process of moving to Adobe Connect for the delivery of our web conference sessions. We recently developed the Adobe Connect integration for Moodle and have partnered with them as well.
Yes, the feedback has been positive and having the online training option has helped us reach more of our clients so we can better help them to be successful.
The sessions are valuable and needed for a significant subset of our course participants. Specifically, we find that the web conference sessions are popular in our introductory level Foundations course and even more so for the participants just beginning to use Moodle. A broader set of our participants seem to take advantage of the session recordings.
The primary benefit is that we have been able to expand our training options. With the addition of our online courses, our clients can basically choose the training delivery mode that works best for them, whether that's face-to-face, online, or through web conference.
The materials we've created for our online courses have been useful in other settings as well. We've shared videos from the courses with clients, used explanations in the course to help address client questions elsewhere, and utilized the online courses in our own internal training programs.
Our online courses and more specifically, the web conference sessions, have also enhanced our relationships with our clients. A client may not pick up the phone or submit a ticket to report what they see as a small issue, but in a conversation in a web conference session, it's easy for them to slip in that sort of thing. In some cases, the issue has been a point of irritation for some time and, in the web conference session, we solve it in minutes!
The web conference sessions are a great place to learn more about our clients and their Moodle implementations. This information then carries over in terms of on-going support.
First, our clients were more successful in shorter courses with a flexible, minimal time requirement. Most of our participants are not provided with release time to complete training, and therefore, it's important that the course not be time intensive and inflexible. As a result, we regularly schedule the weekly web conference sessions for the evening and our facilitators can be found online at all times of the day, every day.
The second lesson we learned is that our participants were more successful when we started providing them sample content with which to develop. We knew from the start that we needed to provide participants an opportunity to actually build in Moodle, and providing just the information about how to do it isn't enough.
For the web conference sessions, we found that participants wanted more substance and structure than just a live question and answer session. The time to ask questions is important and necessary, but it should not comprise the bulk of the session. Participants also want the session material to provide more than just a summary of what's in the course content. They're looking for new information and activities.
Finally, since we have a variety of facilitators, we identified a need for a detailed course facilitator's guide. Like other elements of our course, this guide has evolved and become much more detailed over time. The guide includes information about scheduling the course orientation session, sample responses for common questions, text for the weekly announcements, and details regarding who to contact for help. The more detailed the guide, the more successful and less stressed is the facilitator.
Branch out! Take advantage of the more interactive, collaborative features Moodle has to offer and engage your learners. If you really, truly want learning to take place, you have to offer more than a lecture equivalent. The same is true when talking about your web conferencing software! The capabilities are tremendous and you can do so much more than just deliver slides and lecture.
You don't need to go it alone. I know it can be tough to resist the urge to figure it all out on your own, but you can save yourself a lot of time and have a much better result in the long run if you take advantage of the experience and skills of others.
Specifically, you can try the following:
- Get Moodle training and/or read the book. If you're coming from another LMS, the learning curve will likely be less steep, but you'll still need help. Every LMS has its own quirks, protocols, features, and training should help you discover a few of those.
- Take advantage of all the Moodle community has to offer. Moodle website and the Moodle Docs at http://docs.moodle.org have tons to offer—for free! An Internet search will reveal tons of tutorials and resources and YouTube has a collection of Moodle videos as well.
- Invest in developing effective synchronous learning. There are companies who specialize in the development and delivery of effective synchronous learning. These organizations can provide training, support, and development services so that your synchronous sessions are as effective as possible. At Remote-Learner, we received training from InSync Training (http://insynctraining.com). Their team was experienced with several different web conference tools and was willing to deliver the training on the system of our choice.
Although it's great to just jump in and implement synchronous tools to extend Moodle based training, emphasis should be placed on sourcing good training on the adopted system and on the effective use of synchronous tools. Remote-Learner works hard to ensure their web conference sessions are highly interactive. The choice of the platform and techniques are important in delivering a successful session.