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The system should record usage statistics.
By default, Moodle records all actions from login to logout
that a user performs within the system. These records can
be used to display activity from a specific day, a specific
activity, a specific course, a specific user or a combination
of these. Also all Chat sessions are recorded within the system
and can be reviewed at leisure by users with administration
rights. Finally as the recorded data is stored within a single
MySQL database, it would be possible to further mine the stored
data using complex SQL statements.
The system should allow resources to be presented in
a structured manner.
The final system and Moodle by default, allow courses to
be presented in several structured fashions including a weekly
structure whereby the course is divided into weeks and a module
structure where the course is presented as a collection of
modules.
The system should allow learning to continue outside
of regular classroom hours.
To ascertain whether or not the final solution meets this
requirement, it was necessary to both identify whether the
system provides functionality that can be used to continue
teaching and learning found within LPS School, outside of
the standard classroom hours and to review the logs generated
through usage by the school to identify actual learning that
has taken place.
As identified previously, LPS School uses both Indirect Instruction
and Social Constructivism to teach during regular school hours.
During research into teaching styles was carried out which
highlighted what was required to teach in these methods. It
was written that to teach via Indirect Instruction a teacher
must present the students with materials and exercises that
allow them to go beyond the simple facts they have been taught.
Moodle allows several file formats to be used as resources
as well as links to external websites to be included within
the course, allowing teachers to include materials and resources
that allow teachers to take there learning beyond simple facts.
As the final system has been created to be easily identifiable
as an asset of LPS School and the system allows courses to
be structure in a manor appropriate to the course, i.e. 4
modules within the AA Board Set assignment represented by
4 separate areas of resources, it can be said to mimic an
authentic real world environment. By allow students to openly
participate in discussions via forum posts and to maintain
an identity within the system, the students are encouraged
to take responsibility for their actions within the environment
including their learning. As forum posts are persistent, the
knowledge held within them is always available to course students.
To prove that learning had in fact already taken place within
the environment during the user testing, the activity logs
form the LPS Moodle environment were reviewed with the following
result. During the 2 months in which the system has been in
use, 17 questions have been asked relating to the AA Board
Set Assignment with 37 replies requesting the same information
or providing possible answers to the original question.
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