My brother loves having the latest and best in technology. He was one of the first in the family to have an activity tracker. Now it’s a top of the line sports watch. It tracks all possible activities – walking, running, swimming, cycling, and even came with a chest strap to measure your heart rate. But here’s the thing. He only jogs, and he never uses the strap. Everything he gets out of his fancy watch, I get from a free app on my phone. He’s barely using half the features.
We’re all guilty of this in one way or another. We don’t use all the features on our phones or our televisions. Why? Sometimes we can’t be bothered learning, or we like the way we currently do that process. But often it’s because we simply don’t know what ‘that button does’ and worry that if we press it, something will break.
In many ways, Moodle is a bit the same. There are actually a lot of features, but many people stick to the tried and true – a page, a file, a quiz or an assignment – simply because that is what they know and are familiar with. Learning what all those other options are – that takes time and planning, and most of us don’t have a lot of that. Still, there’s no reason to be scared of these activities. In fact, they can make your lessons that much more engaging.
Here are just 4 tools that are one creative brainwave away from being another engaging learning activity in your course:
There’s lots more than simply quizzes and pages in Moodle, and all are worth exploring. Check out the Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers for more ideas for your classroom.