Sometimes, Lazy is Good

I am a high school German teacher and I think that the course management system Moodle is wonderful. I have seen many good teachers, though, who want to Moodle, but who just never get the hang of it.

The Problem

Often, the problem is just they these teachers want to do too much, too soon. They talk about Moodle's steep learning curve or they say that Moodle is too complicated.

That problem is easy to fix. Don't be so ambitious. Be a lazy Moodler.

A Caveat or Two

Many teachers find Moodle easy to use. They are natural born Moodlers. This resource is not aimed at them. This resource is intended for teachers who may not be comfortable online, who feel overwhelmed by Moodle's many features or who just don't get Moodle. If that's you, keep reading!

In addition, I assume that you are a teacher who will be using Moodle in a blended learning environment. That means that you sometimes teach your students face-to-face and that you use Moodle to enhance this face to face instruction. I am not saying that you cannot use this resource if you are teaching in another context (for pure distance learning or in a business setting, for example). I am saying that I am assuming that you use Moodle the way I do.

What is a lazy Moodler?

A lazy Moodler is simply a teacher who uses Moodle in a limited way at first. It is a teacher who starts small, using Moodle to solve very specific problems. It is someone who slowly adds to his or her Moodle skills over time, letting his or her needs dictate how he or she uses Moodle. If you are uncomfortable with the word lazy, just substitute a better word like smart, sensible or systematic.

The advantage of being a lazy Moodler is simply a reduction of stress. Taking your time and slowly becoming a Master-Moodler will help you preserve your sanity. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? So, I think you should consider taking your time and learning to love Moodle at your own pace.

For example

Here is an example of a problem you might want to solve: Your principal regularly sends lots of email to your faculty. He or she sends out so much email, that you and your colleagues have a hard time keeping track of all the emails you receive from your principal.

Could you use Moodle to solve this problem? Sure.

Perhaps the simplest way would be to simply copy all the emails you get in August to a Moodle web page in your Moodle-based online staff room. (With your principal's permission, of course.) You would name the page something like August 2010 Email. You would then copy September's emails to a September web page. If you were to do this every month, you and your colleagues would always know where to find these emails. Even years later, in fact.

This is not an elegant, sophisticated solution to your problem. You might even call it lazy. But it is an easy, practical approach, is it not?

And it's not a bad way to start Moodling.

Learn about Moodle

If you have never Moodled before, don't worry. You probably need only a brief description of Moodle and a quick look at a demonstration course to understand why you want to use this great teaching tool.

1. Read this description of Moodle -- http://docs.moodle.org/en/About_Moodle.
2. Visit this Moodle demonstration site -- http://demo.moodle.net/.

Now, you know enough about Moodle to get started.

Let's go.

Determine who your Moodle administrator is

If your school uses Moodle, someone administers the site. Find out who this person is. Your principal can surely give you this information.

At my school, Aiken High School, I am the Moodle admin, so you would come to me. If you don't teach at Aiken High School, you just need to find my counterpart at your school.

Get an account

You will need an account with a user name and a password. Ask your Moodle admin how to get an account. He or she may set up your account. Or you may have to set up your own account. Either way, getting an account will enable you to view, create, edit and delete resources on your site.

Find your Moodle

If you are going to become a Moodler, you need to know where your school's Moodle is located. This should not be difficult to find out. Ask your Moodle admin. When you learn the location of your school's Moodle, write it down. Open up your browser and visit to the site. You might want to bookmark the site.

Get access to a course

In Moodle, resources like web pages and forums are found in courses. Generally, teachers can view, create, edit and delete resources. You will need to be a teacher in an existing course and/or have your own course. Again, ask your Moodle administrator about this.

Be sure to ask your admin exactly where the course is located. Writing down the location of the course is a good idea.

As soon as you know where your course is located, launch your browser and visit the course. When prompted, provide your user name and password. Bookmarking the course can't hurt, by the way.

Having trouble logging in? Ask your Moodle admin for assistance.

Set up your course

Let's assume that your Moodle admin has created a course for you and that you have successfully logged in. You may be happy with the course as it has been set up for you.

You can, however, tweak the settings of the course to meet your needs. This is not difficult. It's just a matter of filling in a form. Just follow these directions -- http://docs.moodle.org/en/Create_your_own_course.

Tip: Pay special attention to the enrollment key. Read more about the enrollment key here. -- http://docs.moodle.org/en/enrolment_key

If you are not about your course settings, talk to your Moodle admin.

Create a web page

In the scenario above, you created web pages to archive emails from your principal. Let's stay with that.

Making a web page is easy. You just fill in a form, really. Here's how you make a web page:

1. Log in to your course.
2. Turn on editing. Look for a button like this one. --
3. Find the Add a resource menu. It looks like this. --
4. Click on the Add a resource menu and choose Compose a web page. --
   
5. A form appears. This is where you will create your web page. Name your resource. --
   
6. In the Full text field, add some content. --
7. At the bottom of the form, click on the Save and return to course button. --
8. When students visit your course, they will see a link to your new resource on the front page of the course. The link to your new web page looks like this. --
9. The new web page looks pretty empty, of course, but you can edit it to add more content. Just click on the link to the new web page and then click on the Update this resource button. --
10. You can format the text on your page, add images and links, etc. For more information about web pages in Moodle, read this. -- http://docs.moodle.org/en/Web_page. (Of course, if all you need is a text-based web page to solve your problem, you are done.)
11. To log out of Moodle, click the link at the bottom of the page. The logout link looks like this --
    

That's all for now

You can log in to Moodle and create web pages for your students and your colleagues. As a Lazy Moodler (remember, that's a good thing!), you should be content with that for now.

There's plenty of time to beef up your Moodle skills. As you identify additional problems to solve, you will, of course, want to learn to do more in Moodle. For now, though, you are in good shape.

Happy Moodling!

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