In reviewing the ‘plugins’ that would enhance teaching, we have recently added Nanogong and Presenter. Over the weekend I was looking for a way our students could improve their self assessment skills. Whilst browsing through the Moodle mods and plugins, what I really wanted was some community was reassurance. Moodle is as diverse as its users and was confident I would find at least a few checklist type plugins, but I would have appreciated some Moodle crowd-sourced feedback. I supposed I wanted what was HOT in Moodle….. so I asked Moodle HQ and they answered….
Yet, I felt that this information could have been displayed more readily, more like…. we see most places online, Youtube, iTunes and so forth. The “Rate my course” block sitting in 42nd place would do a great job of rating almost anything I would think. Could this sit on the Modules information page? Could that star rating be shown on the stats page? Feedback for the developer, assurance for the prospective Moodle administrator?
Well today, we installed and used Checklist. I am confident that it will support students handing in assignments or complex, multi-part projects by
- tracking their progress and having that progress available to them at all times and not only in their folders or on a teachers marksheet
- assessing themselves more accurately – by having the correct criteria to reference and
- by maintaining learner motivation – some of our students fail short following a very arduous and lengthy coursework based ICT qualification of many parts (31). I am confident that when these students come unstuck, the visual presentation in Checklist we show them that distance travelled, is less than distance to the finish line.
It didn’t surprising to find Checklist,sitting proud in 2nd place, only behind questionnaire. (Probably the longest serving No1 since Bryan Adams ‘Everything I Do) I Do For You.’
This mulling than span in a second direction. I wondered if @JosephThibault over at Moodle Monthly would have fun with a mods and plugins chart for the site? Maybe there is a fort-nightly article/chart in there somewhere?
Racing up the charts to this weeks No2……. Checklists! Imagine charting your way through a long, complicated coursework based project. Task after task, bullet point after bullet point…… Checklist allows your students to self assess with guidance before presenting the outcome both visually and as a percentage.