Moodle: Developing Your Course with the 3E Framework and the Exemplary Course Rubric 18-19

In 2018-19 the TEL team will take an active role in auditing all Moodle courses against the standards set out in the Minimum Expectations and the criteria contained within the Exemplary Course Rubric! Please contact us if you have any questions, or require any help or advice!

3E Framework

The aim of our TEL Quality Framework is to assist staff to meaningfully incorporate technology into learning, teaching and assessment, using the principles of the 3E Framework.

Frameworks for TEL can adopt an approach driven by either the technology itself, or the pedagogical principles that underpin the learning that happens within the virtual environment. Each approach has merits and pitfalls. It is for this reason that we have adopted a combined approach that prompts staff to consider not only what tools they will use but how they will use them to facilitate student learning and what type of learning it is they wish their students to engage in.

Recognising the iterative nature of adopting technology, the 3E Framework is based on a tried and tested Enhance-Extend-Empower continuum for using technology to effectively support learning, teaching and assessment across disciplines and levels of study:

• Enhance – Adopting technology in simple and effective ways to actively support students and increase their activity and self-responsibility.
• Extend – Further use of technology that facilitates key aspects of students’ individual and collaborative learning and assessment through increasing their choice and control.
• Empower – Developed use of technology that requires higher order individual and collaborative learning that reflect how knowledge is created and used in professional environments.

The 3E principles are underpinned by a socio-constructivist approach with a focus on active learning, learning as a community, frequent formative assessment and personalised learning through choice. The aim is to improve student engagement, achievement and retention. The 3E Framework considers how activities can be incorporated as a minimum (Enhance), through to uses of technology that give students more responsibility for key aspects of their learning (Extend), and to underpin more sophisticated, authentic activities that reflect the professional environments for which they are preparing (Empower). The Framework encourages the use of technology as a pedagogic tool. It should be used by tutors to aid the design and planning of the use of technology to support or facilitate a learning experience. In essence, it should help tutors to ‘think through’ what it is they want their students to do and how they want them to learn, using technology.

Here are some ideas about how you might meaningfully incorporate the use of some of Moodle’s activities into the 3E element of the TEL Quality Framework: Moodle and the 3E Framework

Exemplary Course Rubric

Staff can now also assess their own Moodle page by using our new Exemplary Course Rubric (ECR).

The ECR is intended to facilitate and encourage a consistent approach to the use of the VLE across the university by allowing staff to measure their practice in four major areas: Course Design, Interaction and Collaboration, Assessment, and Learner Support.

The ECR uses weighting values and numerical scores. For each sub-category (within the main categories of Course Design, Interaction and Collaboration, Assessment, and Learner Support), a weighting value (from 0.5 to 3) has been assigned to indicate the relative importance of that sub-category.

The points available for each of the levels of mastery are indicated (for example: Exemplary (4), Accomplished (3), Promising (2), Incomplete (1)).

For each question, choose which level of mastery best applies to your own Moodle course before moving onto the next question. There are 17 questions in total. You will get a score for each section and then a report at the end, which you can download and save. You will also have the option to email the report to yourself.

Access the Exemplary Course Rubric (ECR).

How did your module score with the ECR? Are there any areas for development, or anything you need help with? Are you using the Enhance-Extend-Empower continuum to effectively support learning, teaching and assessment within Moodle? Please let us know in the comments section below…

Phil