2009

Moodle and British Literature

Shaina Johnston
eLearning Proposal
11/1/2009
 Shaina Johnston
Policies and Procedures for eLearning Programs
eLearning Proposal

Moodle and British Literature

E-Learning for the Classroom

“As the new economy requires more and more people to learn new knowledge and skills in a
timely and effective manner, the advancement of computer and networking technologies are
providing a diverse means to support learning in a more personalized, flexible, portable, and on-
demand manner.” (Nunamaker 2004 p. 76) As we continue to develop our students to enter into
this ever changing world, we need to be willing to accept new and changing elements into our
classrooms. Technology has become a norm for any work place environment and students who
have already used technology to succeed in a class are going to be more comfortable using it to
succeed at a job. “As we [pass] the halfway mark of the new millennium’s first decade, the
nature of the Internet, and just as importantly, the people using the Internet, has begun to change.
These changes are sweeping across entire industries as a whole and are not unique to education;
indeed, in many ways education has lagged behind some of these trends and is just beginning to
feel their wake.” (Downes 2005 p. 2).

E-Learning for an entire class is not something to be afraid of but to embrace. Often people
are distracted by the title e-Learning but “essentially, e-learning is another way of teaching and
learning. In its broadest definition, e-Learning includes instruction delivered via all electronic
media including the Internet, intranets, extranets, satellite broadcasts, audio/video tape,
interactive TV, and CD-ROM.” (Govindasamy 2002 p. 289). We already use e-Learning
everyday in our classrooms and as we continue to support technology in the classroom we need
to broaden our horizon to an all online class with ability to have traditional learning as needed.

Current Program and Modifications Needed

Currently within the Cherry Creek School District an online suite for high school students
called “Plato” is our only real all online learning tool. Plato is an online database of programs
that take students through all the steps of completing a course and gives them the credit for that
course once they have completed a series of tests and quizzes. Plato works well for classes that
are basic and straight forward and do not require a lot of discussion or teacher-lead instruction.
Students learn the material and prove they know it. Basic and simple. My proposal is to add to
the Plato collection by introducing a Senior Level Language Arts course in the form of British
Literature.
The new course that I am proposing would consist of the basic tests and quizzes already
found in the online course material, but it would also provide a platform for discussion and
projects as well. I believe that this addition will lead to superior assessment of the knowledge
gained by the students, requiring that they apply this knowledge to major projects as well as
standard tests. I also think that this would expand the Plato program into something more
interactive for the students that would actually challenge their thinking and communicating
skills.

Advantages/ Challenges of E-Learning

E-learning is a new field that will allow students to take advantage of classes on their
own schedule and at their own pace. It will allow students who may struggle with the workload
of a Senior Level English class to take it over the course of a year as opposed to a semester. This
will also enable students to begin taking college credit courses during normal school hours and
still complete their high school credits at the same time. There is not necessarily a maximum
number of students that can take these courses since they will complete them at their own pace
and not be working as a whole class.

With every “great scenario” there are also negatives. A few negatives of eLearning are that
students will lose the “class time” that is found in a traditional classroom and the discussions that
come out of that time. They will also miss out on basic social skills that are developed through
working in a traditional classroom setting.

Goals/Intended Outcomes of Proposed E-Learning Course

1. My primary goal is to make this course (and others that will hopefully follow) more
accessible to students regardless of their background or schedule. Students will be able
to participate online while not having to fit a set class period into their schedules.

2. I am also looking to make more students passionate about British Literature and
Literature in general through this course and the classics that we will study. I think
everyone is a reader, some just haven’t realized it yet.

Selected Model of eLearning

The model I am going to implement for this project is called Blended Learning. Blended
Learning is a design model that allows for the atypical self-paced learning of online courses but
also applies a firm foundation of deadlines, group work, and synchronous discussion times. I
feel that when working with high school students who have most likely not taken an online
course before, simply saying “here are your tasks to accomplish by the end of the year” is not
going to help them with their work ethic. There is a risk that most of those high school students
would put off the entire workload until the week it was due.

In the Blended Model, students would still have opportunities to select their own learning
times but it would be on a week to week basis as opposed to the entire semester. Students would
have a synchronous session that they would need to be at or view at a later time but would have
to make or attend at least once in order to receive credit for the course. Students would also be
responsible for group work and fulfilling their roles within the group in order to earn individual
grades; this also will help keep students at a even pace and not lagging behind. This Model also
includes Assessments to test students’ knowledge and Supplemental Material to allow students to
research beyond the traditional texts to discover things on their own. In short, it is the best
Model to implement for the course I am proposing and I think one that High School students are
more likely to be successful at when first stepping out into the e-Learning field.

Audience

My audience is going to be that group of High School students that are too busy or behind
with schooling. Senior year it is imperative to get caught up so you can graduate on time with
your class. My primary audience will be this group of students that are trying to get caught up
on school work. The flexibility of the online class will allow them to have a full schedule of
"normal" classes and then work on my class in the evenings or on the weekends. It will basically
be an overload class for them. The second group in my audience would be the over achievers
who either want to graduate early or just have a desire to take the class and don't have time for
the classroom setting. These students are taking the class to "get ahead" and just because they
enjoy the material.

The primary gap I would be filling in would be flexibility and time. Most of the students in
my audience, from either group, will be heavily loaded with homework, extracurricular
activities, and jobs. The flexibility of online allows them to participate in the class when they
have time, even if it is early in the morning or late at night. I think most students that would fit
into either audience would be receptive to the idea of learning this way. On-line is a comfortable
and familiar place to almost any teenager already. This also gives them the flexibility to adjust
their classroom time based on a day to day schedule instead of being restricted to a daily/bi-
weekly classroom meeting.

My secondary audience will be teachers and administration. These two stakeholders are
primarily interested in cost and student learning. Because the class is offered as a normal high
school class, there will be no cost to families beyond their own home function with internet and
computers for students to use. Administrators have an equally limited cost. The only expense
incurred in offering this class would be the overload pay that would be spent towards my salary
through taking on the extra class. This fee could also be eliminated if administrators felt that
they could prevent the overload by moving one or more of my regular classes to other teachers.

Feasibility/Planning

Currently at Overland High School, the Plato Program is run primarily through the Academic
Success Center (ASC) and students have access to this location during off hours, lunch, and
before and after school. With my proposal class, students will be able to use this system that is
already in place to meet their needs for my specific class. The online course will be run through
a program called Moodle which is entirely web based and so requires no purchase or added
technology.

I selected Moodle through several articles verifying it as the best site to use as well as
personal experience and knowledge. Moodle was also created specifically for classroom
teachers and with the development and soon to appear model of Moodle 2.0, there will be even
more resources for a teacher to use Moodle for an online course. In addition, a test run by
Sabine Graf and Beate List of Vienna University of Technology found that when testing sites for
“eight categories [including] communication tools, learning objectives, management of user data,
usability, adaptation, technical aspects, administration, and course management” (2004 p.2) that
Moodle was easily the best of the top nine sites most used in eLearning programs. Thos sites
tested included ATutor, Dokeos, dotLRN, ILIAS, LON-CAPA, Moodle, OpenUSS, Sakai,
Spaghettilearning.

Content design & development plans

The content of this eLearning program will be designed by myself with some feedback from
my department head Kelly Landen. For the most part though, I am the only British Literature
teacher at the school and so most of the material will come from my personal resources and past
experiences teaching the regular British Literature course. I also rely heavily on texts and
supplemental material that is important for the curriculum that I teach. I would like to keep the
online course similar to the classroom course so that students who are struggling online can
choose to sit in on the traditional class in order to get questions answered and receive some extra
support as they see fit. This would allow the online students the flexibility of an online course
but also the foundation of a hybrid course (a course taught both online and in the classroom). In
addition to creating a hybrid setting, keeping both courses on the same page will help create clear
cut objects and learning targets for both students and myself. “The missing ingredients from
most e-learning programs are clear and measurable objectives and cohesive strategies” (Ismail
2002 p. 330).

The overall material used in the course will be changed and updated on a semester basis
based on new material that is relevant to the students currently enrolled and the material as it
relates to society at the time. One major complaint of online courses is that they are not updated
frequently and I know it is better to keep supplemental material current so that it is relevant to
my students. “When identifying relevant material and organizing it within a course section, the
teacher has to think about the class in general. The students in the class have different interests,
knowledge, backgrounds, and learning styles” (Brusilovsky 2004 p. 2) that must be taken into
account as the course progresses on a semester basis. “An e-learning course should not be
designed in a vacuum; rather, it should match students’ needs and desires as closely as possible,
and adapt during course progression” (Graf 2004 p.2).

Administrative support

My primary administrative support will come from the department coordinator and the
administrative faculty for the English department (Kelly Landen and Charla Roosenbery). They
will be directly responsible for allowing students to enroll in this course based on their individual
needs. They will also be the ones monitoring the course through its first test year to verify that
they believe the content is equivalent to that of the classroom and so should transfer in an
equivalent grade. My additional administrative support will come from the Technology
Department at my school and its primary facilitator Samantha Duwe. She will be responsible for
assisting in major technology issues with myself or with students. These issues will be limited
because most will be able to be problem-solved through my own efforts, but she may be needed
for additional support at times.
Technical Specifications

Overall the technical specifications for the course are the responsibility of myself as the
instructor and the students who are enrolled. The course will be made up on a wiki space with
several edublogs attached to it. These two sources will be how students complete all their
assignments and discussions. Both of these sites are very user friendly and require not a lot of
prior skill. The computers used to access the sites should be run using a fast connection due to
the size of the site and the fact that there will be several videos and audio recordings for students
to utilize while working on assignments and discussions.

Overland itself will provide students with the ability to use any of the labs at the school
which consist of Mac computers with Microsoft Office 07, Garage Band, and IMovie, all of
which will be used (or the PC equivalent for students using other computers). All the computers
are connected through a high speed cable connection and students working at home should have
an equal connection type. Due to the availability of these computers to students at the school,
the school will not need to provide students with additional computers or connections for their
homes. Students have ample time before and after school to access these resources already.

Budget plans

The primary cost of implementing this program, is that of the overload class for myself as
the instructor. The cost will be consistent every semester, with the first semester being without
students in order for me to create the site. Following that, the initial sign up of the class will be
the same as others and not require additional work or cost. The total cost will change as my
salary moves along the pay scale at a rate of 20% of my normal salary for that section of the pay
scale. This will cap at the end of a 15 year period or could drop off completely if my class load
is reduced to a normal class amount and this online course is part of my five courses each
semester. A layout of Budget costs is listed bellow in timeline chart 1.1 and an additional chart
with a Master4 year teacher salary and Master5 year teacher salary follows it for exact cost in
chart 1.2.
 Project timeline

Chart 1.1

Section of Project Proposed Time for Cost of Section

Completion of this section

Development and Design of 5 months (August- 20% of current salary

Online Course December)

Trial Run with Single 5 months (1 semester Jan.- 20% of current salary
Semester Students May)

Full implementation with 1 month (June)

any errors encountered
corrected

Total Timeline 11 months to full Continued pay at rate of 20% of

implementation current salary

Proposed Cost is based on Salary Chart for Cherry Creek School District- Based on
teacher at MA4 and MA5 levels.
Chart 1.2

Section of Project Proposed Time for Cost of Section

Completion of this section

Development and Design of 5 months (August- $4398.50 over course of first

Online Course December) semester

Trial Run with Single 5 months (1 semester Jan.- $4389.50 over course of second
Semester Students May) semester

Full implementation with 1 month (June)

any errors encountered
corrected

Total Cost to Full Implementation $8797.00

Total Timeline 11 months to full Continued pay at rate of 20% of

implementation current salary

Following year rate would be:

$9426.20
Implementation

The implementation process will consist of developing all the material in online format.
Currently I use a program called Blackboard which is utilized by the school for all teachers. The
program I am proposing to use is Wiki which will allow for more flexibility for me to make
modifications along the way as needed and upload and collect assignments, projects, papers, etc.
with more ease. The overall development of this will take place over a 5 month period as I
gather and build on-line the same setup as I currently use in the classroom.

Project management

Management of the project for this specific class will fall back onto my shoulders as the
teacher/technical support for the class. I will also need a backup manager in the Technical
support at the High School, Samantha Duwe. She will be helping in the management of the
course simply because she is the technical support. Duwe’s support will be limited and rare and
so does not justify additional pay on her part because it will already fall under her given duties as
the technology expert.

Student management/assessment

Student management would fall onto a few shoulders. As the instructor for the course, I
would be responsible for helping students succeed to the best of my ability throughout their
course work and any trouble with site work i.e. uploading projects, papers, videos, audio
recordings, etc. I will also be the only person responsible for collecting all material for grading
and will be the only person asked to keep grades on students. This I will need to complete in a
timely manner for all students in order to help students maintain the proper level of participation
for the grade they wish to earn. Also, in other online courses, “students consistently rate
communication and support from faculty and other students as having a major influence on their
online learning experience. Specifically, students value prompt and informative feedback on
their work, clarity of faculty expectations of their work…” (Alexander 2001 p. 4)

Students also have a resource called the ASC (Academic Success Center). This is where
students can work on online classes during school time if they have a free period. This area is
run by several techs/retired teachers that provide students with help both academically and
technically. They would undoubtedly be helping several students taking my course and so would
share some of the responsibility for managing students.

Marking/Promotion
 This program will appear listed in the Course Handbook that lists all the other courses
offered at the school. It will appear in the section for Senior Elective English credits and
students can decide to do this course if they wish. Councilors will also have knowledge of this
course in order to guide students into selecting it if working online would be a better fit for them.
Once developed, this on-line course could be offered to students outside Overland, at the
discretion of the administration. If this happens, additional promotion to those expanded
audiences may need to occur.

Evaluation of eLearning/Accountability

At the end of each class, students will take a Final Exam. The Final Exam will be given to
both the traditional class and the online course and they will be an identical test. I will use this
as a way to verify that the online students are learning just as much as the traditional classroom
students. I will also monitor the program throughout the learning process to ensure that students
are able to meet their full potentials and are not restricted due to technology. This will be done
through constant communication with students, parents, and the tech support in the ASC.

Roles

My role through this process will be to create the online course, develop and write the
course description for the workbook, and then evaluate and improve the course once it has
completed its trial run. For the evaluation process I would also like input from those who helped
troubleshoot along the way, particularly students, parents, ASC techs, and administrators. This
will help develop an unbiased opinion on the effectiveness of the course and determine if we
should continue to use it in the school. The evaluation form I will have all stakeholders complete
is as follows and will be completed both at midterm and end of term:

Evaluation of British Literature Online

Please rate the following according to how you felt the course worked through an online setting as
opposed to a traditional setting.

1= strongly 2=disagree 3=no opinion 4=agree 5=strongly agree

disagree

1. The material for this course was easily accessible. ________

2. The teacher was readily able to answer any questions I had through e-mail or
other form of communication. _____________
3. I learned a lot about British Literature and feel comfortable in my knowledge of it
to the point that I could discuss it openly. _____________
4. I learned as much (or more) than I would in a traditional classroom setting on the
same subject. ___________
5. I will take an online class again given the opportunity. ____________
Administration, Tech, and Parent Survey Completed at Midterm and at Course Completion
Further Comments and/or Suggestions:
 Evaluation of British Literature Online for Administrators, Techs, and Parents

Please rate the following according to how you felt the course worked through an online setting as
opposed to a traditional setting.

1= strongly 2=disagree 3=no opinion 4=agree 5=strongly agree

disagree

1. The student I observed had an easy time accessing the material online and
responding to that material through their own online interactions. ____________
2. The student I observed was able to get help readily when needed and received
prompt feedback on all questions. _______
3. The student I observed received a fulfilling class experience through the subject
material. ________
4. This student did not suffer any limitation on subject matter for taking the course
online as opposed to the traditional classroom setting. _______
5. I would recommend this course to other students after observing this students
experience. ________

Further Comments and/or Suggestions:

Change Effort/Leadership Factors

Support and Intervention for the program will come through a variety of venues. Like
any other program, club, or sport, the primary support will need to come from administration and
staff. Students tend to focus on what adults around them are saying and respond to this
influence. This would mean that while I may not have full support of the entire staff, having
staff members being open to the idea of an online learning class would be a great benefit in
helping students to adjust to the idea of it. Also, I feel that if staff or administrators are openly
opposed to it, it could cause a rift to form within both the student population and the staff.
I also feel that having parents on board about allowing students to complete a course
entirely online will also be critical. For each new group of students who apply for the course, I
will need to allow time for a “Back To School Night” with their parents/guardians in order to
demonstrate what the course looks like, how it is run, what the requirements are of their students,
and how they can contact me in case of any technology issues that may arise. I believe that if
parents are comfortable with the online setting that students will adjust as well. This will also
give me a chance to speak to the students about how to navigate the course, find information, and
turn in assignments. I will also provide several reminder tutorials within the course shell so that
students can access information whenever they need a refresher, but learning the material
together in a traditional setting would be a great way to start the program.
In order for this to be successful we need the visible backing of the administrators, the
staff, and the parents. Students are still learning and modeling themselves after adults and if the
adults in their life are not accepting of the program, students will not be accepting either. I know
that as the primary facilitator of the program I will need to make myself available to answer all
questions that may arise and if need be I will provide more than one “Back to School Night.”

Conclusion

E-Learning through a hybrid and blended model is a great way for our students to begin
to experience the world of E-Learning and all the opportunities it could open up for them.
Beyond high school many students are striving for college and future learning opportunities but
are limited by their time and their expenses. This course can help prepare them for the self
motivation and direction they need in order to succeed in other online courses that are less
expensive than traditional college courses. It is also a great opportunity to spotlight Overland as
a leader by taking the initiative to allow students the opportunity to complete a true online course
with fellow peers and an in house teacher. This can pave the way for future classes being offered
online. E-Learning is changing the face of our society and our world, Overland needs to keep up
with that change in order to prepare our students for a brighter future.

References

Alexander, Shirley. (2001). E-Learning Developments and Experiences. Sydney. p. 1-14

Brusilovsky, Peter and Nijhavan, Hemanta. (2004). A Framework for Adaptive E-Learning
Based on Distributed Learning Activities. Pittsburgh. p. 1-8

Carmen, Jared. (2002). Blended Learning Design: Five Key Ingredients. p. 1-11

Downes, Stephen (2005). “E-Learning 2.0” eLearn Magazine.” Trade Journals.

Ismail, Johan (2002). “The design of an e-learning system Beyond the hype.” Internet and
Higher Education. Malaysia: Pergamon. p. 329-336

Govidasamy, Thavamalar. (2002). “Successful implementation of e-Learning Pedagogical

considerations.” Internet and High Education. Malaysia: Pergamon. p. 287-299

Graf, Sabine and List, Beate. (2004). An Evaluation of Open Source E-Learning Platforms
Stressing Adaptation Issues. Vienna. p. 1-3

Nunamaker, Jay F., Zhang, Dongsong, Zhao, Leon J., and Zhou, Lina. (2004). “Can E-Learning
Replace Classroom Learning?” Communications of the ACM. Vol. 47, No. 5