The Learning Technology Team

notes from the Moodle Moot 08 e-Learning Conference…

Another interesting presentation I attended was from Dr Danial Woo – University of New South Wales.

This session presented the outcomes of Moodle usability evaluation sessions using the eye-tracking software. The sessions were to determine ease of process and use of Moodle and a teaching and learning tool.

This software showed us (via Infrared) exactly where teachers were looking for information and buttons to click when creating a course in Moodle.  This provided me with a valuable insight into how teachers use Moodle and gave us some ideas on how we can incorporate the results into our own training at NCTAFE.

Moodle usability evaluation session

The Moodle founders and developers were also present in this session and keen to collaborate about some of the user results, some of which are listed below.

• Tendency to focus on the big blue headings in the middle of the screen, which didn’t look click-able, wandering eyes indicated confusion as to where to go next, so user became engaged with the search box
• Users unaware that they were logged in
• Much confusion for teachers on the course setting page about what ‘Roles’ are
• After course creation, you are directed to assign people to a ‘role’. Once you do this, there is no submit or ok button, so users get confused, finally realising they need to use the breadcrumb links to go back to the course
• The link to/attach files dialogue is confusing, where does it actually upload the files? Note: this feature will be improved in the new version
• Limited to choosing one file at a time to upload
• Some confusion about how to add participants to a course
• No explanation of adding a hidden ‘teacher’ when you Assign Roles
• Some confusion of the editing icons, e.g. indenting a resource icon not that clear

There were also some great tips for Usability Testing;

• Use a quiet space to conduct usability testing
• To create true user-centered design, work with your users, get them involved early (it expensive to make the changes later)
• test early, test often (this will result in cost saving)
• Start designs on paper
• Treat it like a science experiment
• Start simple and then build on your course
• Don’t give instructions to users by using the exact language e.g. “click this button”. Give users a more generic goal, e.g. “Here are some files, upload them to the course”
• Track trends, not just one lot of results
• Analyze findings and create solutions
• Use a note taker, don’t be distracted by taking notes yourself
• Check out the Apple Human Interface Guidelines

What are the implications of this testing?

• Develop Moodle – we can all contribute to the Moodle community. Vote for issues that as teachers, we would like to see fixed first (you can do that here).
• Train more effectively, incorporate these issues into our training
• Continuous Improvement results in happier users, increased performance

notes from the Moodle Moot 08 e-Learning Conference…

After the Keynote from Professor Erica McWilliam, I went along to the Moodle theme workshop, presented again, by Julian Ridden - St Ignatius College.

This session was a very in depth look at some different ways to set your Moodle themes up, some schools allow their students to choose their own theme, which judging by the feedback from the learners I heard later in the day, was a very engaging and popular option.

There were a ton of tips and tricks discussed by Julian and I took loads of notes. Luckliy I don’t have to retype them because Julian has provided his presenation here. (sorry, it’s on YouTube, you’ll need to watch this outside the DET network!)

I did find out about some great tools in this workshop;

• mamp - MAMP installs a local server environment in a matter of seconds on your Mac OS X computer
• cssedit - CSSEdit is a fast and powerful little application for your mac, it allows you to easily design beautiful, innovative and fast-loading standards-based web sites.
• Flock - new browser, based on Mozilla Firefox and allows you to organise your media, social networks and even blog from your browser. Watch the demo.

Also got some great ideas on how to minimise the text at the top of each course using labels (in which images are placed and linked to the actual resources). here’s an example…

Cool huh?

This is my story about using an iPod

We have been addressing cross-cultural learning and communication styles with Aboriginal students by using an iPod with an iTalk microphone.

A lovely man from the local Worimi people had to present a Dreamtime story in some way. He had written out a short introduction telling where the story came from and who had told him, he was nervous about writing it. I suggested we use the iPod to record his story. He was nervous at first, but then sat peacefully on his own in the garden and quietly told his story.

The result was a beautiful story with birdsong in the background. He was amazed at how easy it was and was happy for other students to listen to his story via the iPod and other appropriate spaces. Learning what an iPod is and how it works motivated him to finish other assessments and built up his confidence.

Ever been to Wordle.net?

Enter a bundle of words at Wordle and this really cool web tool will create a word cloud for you. Once the word cloud is created, you can change fonts, chose a colour scheme, or make your own palette. You can even change the layout of your words…

Check out the wordle gallery for inspiration.