MoodleBites, official Moodle Partner training

NEW FOR 2010

MoodleBites for Course Designers online training

The MoodleBites for Course Designers is 8 weeks in duration and is perfect for teachers and course creators who know the basics of Moodle, but want to take their skills to a higher level, and create awesome Moodle courses. Each week contains approximately 2-4 hours work, although this varies depending on your experience with Moodle and how much extension work you wish to complete

Designed for existing Moodle users and people who have completed MoodleBites for Teachers.
This course is NOT suitable for new Moodle users.
If you are new to Moodle, or in your first year of using it, please refer to the MoodleBites for Teachers course here.

• Each week is facilitated by Stuart Mealor (Managing Director of HRDNZ Moodle Partner and Moodle certification manager) and co-facilitated by at least one other MCCC and experienced international Moodler
  

The fee for MoodleBites for Course Designers is NZ$299+GST per person.
At this time we are able to offer a discount to a special rate of NZ$249+GST.
Places are limited - so book early!

The MoodleBites for Course Designer course runs just 3 times each year starting on the following dates;

• 1st February
• 1st June
• 1st October

Each course includes:

• Multimedia (flash) tutorials
• Discussion Forums
  
• Practical teaching examples
• FAQ's and glossaries
• Individual practice exercises
• Optional group activities
• Tips and tricks
• Selected relevant links
  
• Quizzes
• Selected articles (.pdf's) relating to e-learning course design
  
• Recommended further reading

MoodleBites for Course Designers is unique for a number of reasons:

1. It has a focus on extending basic Moodle teachers skills, building awesome courses, and crafting engaging professional courses.
2. The course development team is international and MoodleBites for Course Designers has been written to be accessible for speakers of English as a second or other language.
3. Designed to run well even over slow internet connections and on older computers.
   

Course content outline

• Week 1, Advanced course management
  Even When creating a Moodle course the designer must often have the understanding of how the course will be actively managed. How do we make like easier when administering and teaching courses?
• Groups and Groupings
• Roles, Permissions, and Capabilities
• Reports, Logs and some extras...
• Understanding and using meta-courses effectively
• Import, Reset, Backup, Restore

• Week 2, SCORM
  The SCORM standard (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) is a collection of standards and specifications for web based e-learning. Essential a SCORM package, or 'learning object' can be used in any SCORM compliant course management system, such as Moodle. But what exactly is a SCORM object?
  • Standards
  • SCORM creation applications
    
  • Working examples
  • Best-practice of using SCORM within Moodle
  
  
• Week 3, Audio and Podcasts in Moodle
  The Apple iPod can be seen as being the device that created an explosion in podcasting. Whilst the technologies behind podcasting are a combination of RSS, popular compressed audio formats. There are a number of possibly ways to create podcast and podcast like activities in Moodle, and this course explores these. This week also explores the wider use of audio within Moodle courses.
  
  • Audio formats
  • Open Source audio applications
    
  • Podcasting courses and activities
  • Audio in Moodle resources
  • Audio in Moodle activities
    

• Week 4, Advanced Graphics
  Few of us are trained graphic designers. However there is little doubt that effectively locating, creating, editing, and using graphics can lift an ordinary course into a visually stimulating and engaging course. This week will help you do just that.
  
  • Open Source graphics applications
  • Graphics processing and management
  • Creatively using images in Moodle
  • Understanding Themes in Moodle

• Week 5, Advanced Database, Lessons and HTML
  The Database and Lesson activities are two of the most powerful activities in Moodle, but they are often avoided by teachers. This week explores the advanced possibilities offered by these two sophisticated modules and the HTML Block capabilities.
  

• Advanced Databases
  
• Advanced Lessons
• Techniques for using the powerful HTML Block

• Week 6, Accessibility and Usability
  This course explores how Moodle courses can be designed with regard to best-practices and accessibility considered. Areas such as fonts, colours, speed, closed captioning, and browsers are discussed, with reference to research and techniques that can be applied to your own course design.
  
• Defining accessibility and usability
  
• Moodle specifics
  
• Course design best practice
  

• Week 7, Web 2.0, social-networking, and collaboration
  This course explores how Moodle can be used with other applications to collaborate more effectively.
• Integrating Flickr, Del.icio.us and Twitter
• Other Web 2.0 and collaborative techniques
• E-portfolios e.g. Mahara
• Video-conferencing with Moodle: Tokbox,WiZiQ, Dim-Dim, VYEW
  
• Google Docs and Google Code
• Integrations
  
  
• Week 8, Extending Moodle through non-standard modules and plug-ins
  This is an interesting overlap between an area relevant to both Teachers and Administrators. Although Teachers cannot add modules, surely it is the educators that should often decide which options to make available?
  
  • How add-ins and non-standard modules work
    
  • Using add-in Blocks, Activity Modules, Reports and Filters, Questions
  • Other add-ins
  • Considering MoodleBites for Administrators
  • Becoming an active member of the international Moodle community
    
  • Using the Moodle Tracker
    

* This outline is subject to change as Moodle changes and we update the content.