About the project
Welcome stud... errr... fellow Moodlers :)
About the course
This is a sample course in which I decided to highlight Moodle activities that I use the most. I tried to keep the course relatively simple and provide an example of activities that can be easily set up and be used either in classroom as a supplement to class activities or as part of homework assignments.
I imagined the activities being used with K-12 students, during any school subject that deals with environmental studies. The course emphasizes activities that encourage students to learn more about climate change from different sources and perspectives, and motivates them to get actively involved in creating positive change at their homes and in their local communities.
Purpose of activities
The Introduction provides basic information and support for students. A standard News forum the teacher can use to send out announcements, a Standard Forum where students can get help, and a simple Page with all the essential course info, which is what you're reading now (in a real course I'd include info about requirements etc.).
The second section (The facts) includes activities that encourage students to learn about climate change:
- A Collaborative Wiki where students present climate change evidence in detail. The activity can be done in classroom in small groups or at home, and the teacher could also provide a basic template for each wiki page, so the students would just fill in their findings.
- As the wiki doesn't support grades, there's also an Offline activity Assignment that the teacher can use to grade students' wiki efforts. When grading, the wiki History is of course taken into account (especially if students do the activity individually at home).
- Next, we have a basic Dictionary with Automatic linking turned on, which makes definitions only a click away anywhere in the course. Each student has to contribute at least one definition (the teacher grades them), and the course also uses the Random glossary entry block to display a new word of the day each day on the right side.
- While the project is in progress, students are also encouraged to share articles on climate change from local media on another Standard Forum. This can be an extra credit activity, students open a new discussion topic for each article.
- A Database activity is used to collect links to useful resources that students can use to learn more about climate change and find suitable resources for other activities. The teacher checks and grades entries, everyone can comment, and the database uses different field types and custom templates.
- To make the topic more real, the teacher could also organize a special event during which an expert on climate change would be present in the Chatroom to answer students' questions. Students would have to prepare a set of questions beforehand in class, and the expert would be added to the course for the duration of the event.
The final section (Doing my part) includes activities that encourage students to take action:
- Each student has to make a pledge about reducing their carbon footprint on a Q and A forum type that prevents students from copying each other's answers. Two resources are also added for extra motivation: a Link to a carbon calculator and a Page with an embedded YouTube video.
- Students also have to choose a team through a Choice activity (the teacher then manually adds them to the chosen Group), and then use a Standard Forum for Separate groups to coordinate their team work. The final group assignment is then submitted and graded and commented upon through a Advanced uploading of files Assignment (only one group members has to upload the final project files).
The course is also set up to display upcoming events from the Calendar (automatically generated events related to activities and Course Events that are added by the teacher) and uses Grades in two basic categories. I set up Completion tracking (a combination of manual and automatically triggered events) when it makes sense to do so. Activity descriptions are also used to provide additional instructions and some sample entries have been added selected activities. If this was a real course, I would have also added more resources and prepared quizzes (native Moodle Quiz and/or SCORM).
Design note: The courses uses icons from the Scribble set by Double-J designs. The simple design was set up to work with the theme of the current Moodle site.
And that's it, thanks for visiting my course! :) Comments, questions and suggestions always welcome.