UCOL’s successful migration to the learning management system enhancement Moodlerooms was recognised recently, when e-learning team member Cheryl Tyler was invited to speak at Blackboard Education on Tour in Manila.
The Philippine eLearning Society (PeLS) hosted the international conference in March this year. It was attended by more than 75 e-learning professionals from a variety of educational institutions and corporate organisations.
In her role as Learning Designer, Ms Tyler shared with the audience the challenges that came with guiding UCOL staff through the transition from Moodle to Moodlerooms over the past year.
"There were representatives there from massive institutions with up to 78 campuses and some with class sizes around 3000 students," says Ms Tyler. "But no matter how big or small, we all had similar issues."
Ms Tyler gave a short presentation to the day-long conference and said the opportunity to showcase UCOL to the assembled Asia Pacific audience was invaluable. "It was great to connect with others and establish a community of practice."
UCOL is an early NZ adopter and largest organisation in New Zealand using Moodlerooms, an enhancement of the supported learning management system Moodle. Moodlerooms allows access to additional features including advanced reporting, grading and conduit for student integration, and is cloud-based - reducing several hardware and technical challenges.
"The best feature is the responsive design, called SNAP, where the look of the page changes depending on the device being used," says Ms Tyler. "It allows the lecturing staff to better suit the needs of the students by improving their course site and make it more accessible and interactive."
Student feedback has been largely positive about the ease of navigation and consistency across courses within a programme.
Ms Tyler and fellow UCOL Learning Designer Debra Maddocks are running Professional Development Moodlerooms workshops for UCOL staff and they also offer one on one sessions to help tailor designs for specific student interactions.
"Moodlerooms is a natural progression from Moodle and it provides the means to future-proof UCOL's supported learning management," says Cheryl. "We look forward to working more with staff to improve their knowledge and use of Moodlerooms to enhance student engagement and their own abilities when it comes to teaching with technology."