Title: Session 2
Course: Connecting with Students Online

The Tools to Teach Online
During this session you will investigate how a learning management system can enhance student learning. You will also investigate and use some of the essential features of a pre-existing online course.
Read
- View the video: “What is Moodle” to get an overview of what Moodle is, and what it can do.
  - http://vimeo.com/channels/44004#4955838
- Learn how to get around in Moodle by watching the video “Navigaton in Moodle”:
  - http://vimeo.com/channels/44004#4956483
- Moodle Docs: Teacher Documentation http://docs.moodle.org/en/Teacher_documentation
  - Use this set of online documents, provided by Moodle to get a brief overview of teaching and learning with Moodle, as well as a useful set of links about the various tools available in Moodle. When reading, please pay particular attention to the Assignment activity and the forum activity in the left sidebar)
Explore
The following videos are short tutorials on the various tools in Moodle and how to use them. View the videos on the tools that you are unfamiliar with, or that you want to know more about. Note: some of these videos are hosted on YouTube and will not be viewable within the school firewall.
- Monitoring Student Activity: http://www.moodletutorials.org/view_video.php?viewkey=8ab9159f51fd0297e236
  - Teaching online is easier if you know where students are at. View the video on monitoring student activity to find out how to track students, and to keep track of where they are at in the course.
- Messaging Students: http://vimeo.com/channels/44004#4962018
  - Keeping in touch with students is one important part of being an online teacher. Moodle allows you to message students and to keep track of those messages. To learn more about the messaging feature of Moodle, watch the video on messaging students.
- Adding News Items: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWo-MRK9sXs
  - Another way to keep in touch with students is by adding items to the News forum. This forum allows the teacher to post announcements, but does not allow the students to respond. To learn more about posting to the News forum, watch the video below.
- Adding Resources: http://vimeo.com/channels/44004#4959034
  - If you want to add more information, you will want to add a resource to the Moodle course. You can learn more about this by watching the following video.
Develop
You have been provided with access to a “Sandbox course” entitled Connecting with Students Sandbox Course. This course can be accessed using your same name and password, and is available on your My Moodle page. It contains some pre-existing sample curriculum items, and a space to create your own items.

Please add in the Sandbox course:
- a news item
- a resource in the Sandbox course
- message a fellow student
  - Please add your name/initials to any items you add or edit in the Moodle sandbox course.
Discuss
Go to this session's Discussion Forum to discuss the following question:

Which of the Moodle activities or tools that you investigated, do you think will be particularly effective in working with students? How can you use these tools to assist with student achievement?

Please note specific points from the readings or from your experiences that support your response. Please make at least three substantive contributions to the discussion using the Discussion Forum Rubric, found on the main page of this course.
Optional Reading
- Download and save a copy of Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System by Jason Cole and Helen Foster, to your desktop.
  - http://docs.moodle.org/en/Using_Moodle_book
Broken Links
While we check links regularly, it is not always possible to make sure that all web links are always working. If you encounter any broken links, or other issues with the course curriculum, please contact your course instructor. Thank you!

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