I am using moodle to teach ETAP687 because UAlbany was unable to provide instructor-level BLS course shells for the students in this course to create their own online courses, which is a main project for the course. I created the course in Moodle so that students could see from the student perspective what moodle can [...]

Its really funny now that students have experience with other course management systems that all use a common similar basic function-based taxonomy to label categories of types of online course activity – like “discussion” for example – that it has resulted in expectations and consequent confusion when you use the functionality for something other than [...]

So i had every intention of blogging through the delivery of this course…but so far i have had no time. The course is in its third week and i am still trying to figure out how to use the grading features and trying to keep up with it all. I am trying to be a [...]

I have been so consumed with facilitating the course that i have had little time to really blog… the first 2 weeks are almost over. It is going great. There are now 9 students or so signed up to the course. A few have dropped. I was sad to see them go. They were all [...]

so my course has started… 14 enrolled, so far there are 9 that have shown up. One has dropped
i am concerned about several things.
I am not confident that i know exactly how certain things in the course are going to work – the gradebook, the discusion ratings. I just discovered how to make a custom [...]

…quite excited to get the course started! Not everything is perfect yet. I am in Batavia in a hotel and can’t get moodle to load. not sure why. That could be problematic. Very exited though. I am really looking forward to seeing it all come together.
did i say i was excited?

some desicisions i’ve made:

6 modules = 12 weeks
an ice breaking module = 2 weeks prior to term start.
a course information area
a class community area
location of the panes – course info on the left. no choice about the center module/topic area. news announcements top right, participants, then calendar.

This order and locations on the moodle course homepage [...]

so, i am reflecting… when faced with designing this course i had to consider several things:

how long the course will be
who the students will be
and what needs to be covered

1. The course is supposed to be 12 weeks long.
2. The course title is: Introduction to Online Teaching. so i have to make these assumptions [...]

The first time i started using moodle, i just jumped into it cold, no documentation , just pushed buttons.
I guess i am just observing myself and how i do things. I don’t read manuals, or like to use instructions. I like to learn by doing. I also like to be shown. I MUCH prefer someone [...]

the course starts next week. i feel overwhelmed with the responsibility of making this course good and of making it a good, positive and meaningful experience for the students. I have so much that still needs to be worked out. 

All my rubrics…
Trying to figure out how to foster, encourage, elicit, design for high quality interaction [...]