E-Learning capabilities of ipmonline.org

Background

The council of IPM has given the green light for the IT committee of IPM to go ahead with a plan to introduce and implement e-learning capabilities for IPM.  It was a timely decision which is a must for IPM as a learning institution to embrace the new immerging technological tends in the global arena in learning.

As a method of introducing e-learning platform to IPM, a software package called “Moodle” was employed. Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Moodle has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students. To work, it needs to be installed on a web server somewhere, either on one of your own computers or one at a web hosting company.

Word Moodle was originally an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment , which is mostly useful to programmers and education theorists.

Why Moodle

The focus of the Moodle project is always on giving educators the best tools to manage and promote learning, but there are many ways to use Moodle:

•           Moodle has features that allow it to scale to very large deployments and hundreds of thousands of students, yet it can also be used for a primary school or an education hobbyist.
•           Many institutions use it as their platform to conduct fully online courses, while some use it simply to augment face-to-face courses (known as blended learning).
•          Many of our users love to use the activity modules (such as forums, databases and wikis) to build richly collaborative communities of learning around their subject matter (in the social constructionist tradition), while others prefer to use Moodle as a way to deliver content to students (such as standard SCORM packages) and assess learning using assignments or quizzes.

Moodle is free to download and registration is voluntary, however, using what Moodle have, Moodle automatically generate some interesting graphs and numbers on our Statistics page.

Moodle Statistics

Registered sites	72,099
Countries	223
Courses	6,886,542
Users	63,951,767
Teachers	1,290,018
Enrolments	49,341,167
Forum posts	115,018,298
Resources	61,733,534
Quiz questions	134,765,677

 

Country	Registrations
United States	12,254
Spain	6,290
Brazil	5,194
United Kingdom	3,995
Germany	3,017
Mexico	2,959
Portugal	2,184
Colombia	2,006
Australia	1,750
Italy	1,720

Following video describes the features of Moodle :

    

What is ipmonline.org        

 
Ipmonline.org is the official website set up for the e-learning initiative and operational yet under construction. We are yet to launch the website, which will take place during the year 2013.

 

 

The capabilities of ipmonline.org

Let us have a look at the capabilities of ipmonline.org one by one.

Assignment – The assignment module allows teachers to collect work from students, review it and provide feedback including grades. Students can submit any digital content (files), including, for example, word-processed documents, spreadsheets, images, audio and video clips. Assignments don't necessarily have to consist of file uploads. Alternatively, teachers can ask students to type directly into Moodle using an online text assignment. There is also an offline activity assignment which can be used to remind students of 'real-world' assignments they need to complete and to record grades in Moodle for activities that don't have an online component.

Attendance – The Attendance module is designed for teachers to be able take attendance during class, and for students to be able to view their own attendance record. A teacher can mark the attendance status of a student as "Present", "Absent", "Late", or "Excused". These status descriptions are configurable, and more can be added. The teacher adds Attendance as an activity of a course, and then sets up the sessions whose attendance is to be tracked. The Attendance module can generate reports for either the entire class or for individual students. Students may also see their own attendance record if the activity is not hidden.

BigBlueButton – This is an open source web conferencing system for distance education. This makes it very easy for a teacher to define and join a virtual classroom from within Moodle.

Book - The Book module makes it easy to create multi-page resources with a book-like format. Previously created websites can be imported directly into the Book module. Books can be printed entirely or by chapter. The book module allows you to have main chapters and sub chapters, but it goes no deeper as the module is intended to be a simple resource for teachers and students. The book module is not interactive. You can, however, link to choices, forums etc., from within a book. Also, Flash movies and other multimedia may be included in a book

Chat - The chat activity module allows participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion in a Moodle course. This is a useful way to get a different understanding of each other and the topic being discussed – the mode of using a chat room is quite different from the asynchronous forums. The Chat module contains a number of features for managing and reviewing chat discussions.

Checklist - The Checklist Module is a Moodle plugin that allows a teacher to create a checklist for their students to work through. The students should tick off each item on the list, as they complete it and the resulting progress of the class can be monitored by the teacher. The student is also rewarded with a progress bar that shows how far through the checklist they have managed to get.

Database - The database activity module allows the teacher and/or students to build, display and search a bank of record entries about any conceivable topic. The format and structure of these entries can be almost unlimited, including images, files, URLs, numbers and text amongst other things.

Folder - A folder allows a teacher to display several course resources together. The resources may be of different types and they may be uploaded in one go, as a zipped folder which is then unzipped, or they may be added one at a time to an empty folder on the course page. Using a folder to display resources is neater than displaying files one by one in a list. It takes up less space on the course page.

Forum - The forum module is an activity where students and teachers can exchange ideas by posting comments. There are four basic forum types. Forum posts can be graded by the teacher or other students. A forum can contribute significantly to successful communication and community building in an online environment. You can use forums for many innovative purposes in educational settings, but teaching forums and student forums are arguably the two more significant distinctions.

Glossary - The glossary activity module allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary. Glossary can be used in many ways. The entries can be searched or browsed in different formats. A glossary can be a collaborative activity or be restricted to entries made by the teacher. Entries can be put in categories. The auto-linking feature will highlight any word in the course which is located in the glossary.

IMS content package - IMS is a body which helps defines technical standards for various things, including e-learning material. The IMS Content Packaging specification makes it possible to store chunks of material in a standard format which can be re-used in different systems, without having to convert the material into new formats.  The IMS content package in Moodle enables such content packages to be uploaded and included in Moodle courses. There are various options for displaying content in a pop-up window, with a navigation menu or buttons etc.

Lesson - The lesson module presents a series of HTML pages to the student who is usually asked to make some sort of choice underneath the content area. The choice will send them to a specific page in the Lesson. In a Lesson page's simplest form, the student can select a continue button at the bottom of the page, which will send them to the next page in the Lesson.

Lightbox Gallery - This allows you to create image galleries within your Moodle course. The Lightbox system is a set of scripts than can be used to apply various effects to image galleries.

 External Tool - A teacher can add an external tool from their course page and an administrator can make an external tool available to all teachers on the site.

 Page - A page resource creates a link to a screen that displays the content created by the teacher. The robust Text editor allows the page to display many different kinds of content such as plain text, images, audio, video, embedded code or a combination of all these. In certain cases it might be preferable to use the page resource instead of uploading a word-processed document, particularly if the document contains text that is just to be read and not downloaded.

Quiz - The Quiz activity module allows the teacher to design and build quizzes consisting of a large variety of Question types, including multiple choice, true-false, and short answer questions. These questions are kept in the Question bank and can be re-used in different quizzes.

File - When you wish to share with your students a simple file such as a Word-processed document or slideshow (eg created in MS Word, Powerpoint, or Open Office) you use the File resource type. It allows you to upload and display a variety of resources on your course. How your students access them depends on your choices in File module settings. Note also that they will only be able to open your files if they have the appropriate software on their own computers.

SCORM package - The SCORM module enables you (the teacher) to upload any SCORM or AICC package to include in your course. SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is a collection of specifications that enable interoperability, accessibility and reusability of web-based learning content. SCORM content can be delivered to learners via any SCORM-compliant Learning Management System (LMS) using the same version of SCORM.

URL - A URL (Uniform or Universal Resource Locator) is a link on the internet to a website or online file. Teachers can use the URL module to provide their students with web links for research, saving the student time and effort in manually typing out the address. The URLS can be displayed in various ways -see URL module settings for example, opening in a new window so a student can access and use the URL, close it and return easily to their original Moodle course page.

Workshop -  Workshop is a peer assessment activity with many options. Students submit their work via an on line text tool and attachments. There are two grades for a student: their own work and their peer assessments of other students' work. Workshop is similar to the Assignment module and extends its functionality in many ways. 

Should you have any clarifications or further information please make a comment to this blog including your email address.