Using the “Lesson” Activity Module in Moodle as a Primary Building Block for Online Courses

Abstract

Before building out about 50 online courses at MidAmerica University, we surveyed the way existing courses (mostly on-ground, some online) had been constructed across the University’s Moodle platform. We discovered that Moodle was being used mainly as a file-delivery platform, with very little student engagement. Nearly all courses were constructed in a way where the “dreaded scroll of death” was manifested. For the development of the new online courses, we standardized on the Moodle Lesson activity module as a primary building block to accomplish the following: Provide meaningful organization to the learning materials, including guided learning pathways Encapsulate related learning materials into integrative learning modules Provide formative inline quizzing and learning checkpoints within the learning modules Eliminate the “scroll of death” This presentation covers the basics of why the Lesson activity module is a powerful learning tool and how it works, using examples from our recently-completed course development project. We’ll also touch on a little of the as-yet-untapped further potential of the toolset.