One of the most interesting sessions I attended at the C's took place in the Exhibition Hall. While not explicitly directed at Basic Writing instructors, both are fine examples of the kinds of things we can be doing in the classroom, whether it be virtual or face-to-face.
The first speaker, Jessica Schreyer, from the University of Dubuque, thoroughly and thoughtfully explained the ways that she uses Moodle as the web platform for her courses (In fact, The University of Dubuque , it should be noted, uses Moodle as its course platform for all of its courses). What I was most impressed with was that she used Moodle to encourage her students to collaborate on projects from papers to discussions to peer reviews and class feedback.
Jessica described Moodle as being a "shared space" more than anything, in which student, teacher, peers and course materials formed a dynamic cycle in which each interacted with the other. She has taken advantage of many of the communications features in the program which enable the participants to collaborate both through formal assignments and through discussion lists, to name a few. She creates a program flexible enough so that each student chooses his own degree of participation, though the teacher, through public response and praise can certainly motivate students to become frequent users.
Using Moodle has given students more access to "classroom" resources, whether they be course materials, college links, outside links, or the instructor and other students. And it is this last group that has been most significant as the students develop the confidence to become each other's resources. And they become partners with the instructor in revising the course in that Moodle affords her the ability to post a ten -item questionnaire at the end of each unit, so that the students can give her immediate feedback.
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