LIT2T Leadership Guide

9 TO: TABLE OF CONTENTS individual or multiple elements in a course for sharing to other courses. The administrator must assign responsibility for the backup function to ensure that, if a data failure occurs, there is a recent back up of the course and the learner records. MOODLE.ORG is a global community of Moodle learning management system developers and users. Administrators and instructors can access technical and pedagogical support at this site. We recommend that all stakeholders, including learners, be invited to participate in this community. 2.2 Moodle The learning management system we use on this project is Moodle, an open source product. Moodle is used widely around the world and is a common option in the education sector and in language training. There is no charge or license fee for using Moodle as no one owns open- source software. While there are no LMS costs for a language training centre to establish their own local E-learning courseware service, the real costs are the hosting service for Moodle and hiring a contractor to ensure the LMS is running properly for maintenance and data integrity purposes. Image courtesy: Moodle.org 2.2.1 Moodle Attributes Moodle has a set of activities and resources that are complimented with plugins that the LearnIT2teach development team have installed to increase the functionality of this LMS. These attributes are listed and described below. Contemporary interface It is important for instructors and learners to perceive that technology is current and functional. Moodle provides a responsive experience through its website and mobile app. Responsive design intuitively reconfigures the presentation to match the user’s device. Learners with a mobile phone and users on a desktop workstation see the same media and information. Central to the contemporary look and feel of Moodle is the personalized dashboard. Administrators, instructors and learners use the dashboard to efficiently locate current and archived courses, peers, grades, calendar entries and communication tools. Collaborative Tools and activities Moodle is based on the social constructivist model. Learners are encouraged to communicate, collaborate and construct knowledge through tools and activities. These tools include: ASSIGNMENTS which enable instructors to grade and provide comments on uploaded files and assignments created on or off line. CHATS that allow participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion within Moodle. CHOICES OR POLLS that instructor prompts result in learner selection to form a class trend or a choice based on the prompt. DATABASES that enable participants to create, maintain and search a collection of record entries including images and hyperlinks to other resources.