Recommended reading: Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development

Recommended reading: Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development
by Karyn Romeis | Mon, 12/22/2008 - 05:58

The strapline for this book is "A complete guide to successful learning using Moodle 1.9"
I would prefer to see it referred to as a guide to teaching using Moodle 1.9, because the book is decidedly aimed at teachers.

It is a very accessible book. Logically laid out, with lots of screen dumps, and chunks of reusable code.

From the outset, Rice touches on valid point, when he says that Moodle's help files, while explaining 'how', do not explain "when and why to use each feature". He sets out to address that and, on the whole, my view is that he succeeds.

The book looks at learning through the lens of the education sector, so corporate users might feel
somewhat marginalised. Then again, Moodle was primarily designed for the education sector, so corporate users should expect to have to be creative with words like 'student', 'teacher' and 'grades'.

On a related subject, Rice's opening paragraph states:
"I use the phrase 'online learning experiences' instead of 'online course' deliberately. The phrase 'online course' often connotes a sequential series of web pages, some images.... online learning can be much more than that."

He's right, of course, as many of us have been saying for a long time, but sadly the taxonomy of Moodle itself does not serve him well here, since words like 'course' and 'lesson' are among its fundaments. This is not to say that it does not live up to his claim that it can be used to support non-linear learning. On the contrary. Rice amply demonstrates how Moodle can be used to support social constructivism (although I would dispute his reference to this as a 'learning style').

My recommendation is that this is not a book to read on a plane/train (I tried that). It is a book to hold in one hand as you put into practice the features it unpacks with the other.

Tags: CMS, LMS, Moodle, VLE

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