Prepared for the 3rd Online Training Seminar of the Autumn 2012 season of Agro-Know's OER Growers pilot project (http://wiki.oergrowers.gr)

1. OER Growers Autumn Season 2012
3rd Online Training
Introduction to e-learning platforms
and agriMoode
Anastasios Koutoumanos
OER Growers Team
wiki.oergrowers.gr
oergrowers@agroknow.gr
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- Agro-Know Technologies
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
wiki.agroknow.gr

2. Contents
 e-Learning: a short introduction
 Modes for e-Learning
 e-Learning for the agronomists
 agriMoodle – a short introduction
 Discussion:
what would you expect from agriMoodle?

3. e-Learning - definitions
 E-learning includes all forms of electronically
supported learning and teaching
– The information and communication systems,
whether networked or not, serve as specific
media to implement the learning process.
 E-learning is the computer and network-enabled
transfer of skills and knowledge
 CBT (Computer-Based Training)
 WBT (Web-Based Training)

4. Technology & Education
books,
print,
projectors, 1840
radio, Distance Education
television, (post, correspondence)
video, ... 1960
Computer-Based
Tranining
1990
Internet and
the WWW
e-Learning 2.0

5. The e- merry
Bringing down barriers:
 Any-time ● distance barriers,
● disabilities,
 Any-place
● language barriers,
 Any-one! ● economic barriers,
● ...
 Just in time
...
 Many-modes
Cost reductions:
– synchronous, ● commuting,
– asynchronous ● buildings,
● equipment,
 Blended learning ● printed resources,
... ● updates,
● ...
 e-skills
 e-literacy

6. And the e-worries
 (usually) Need for more time investment
– both for teachers & creators of learning courses /
resources
– and for learners
 Quality control?
 e-skills and demanding technology competencies
 Intrusive to established educational practices,
techniques and methodologies
 New techniques for studying and making up for
the affordances of established learning tools
– books, pen & paper, the blackboard, the lecture hall

7. Short history
 WW II : soldiers trained to use complex equipment
 1960's – Palo Alto: Stanford Univ. psychology Pr. P. Suppes
and R. Attkinson: math to children
 1970's - 1st generation, PLATO system, CBTs: knowledge
transferring, usually self-paced
...
 1980's - Computer Supported Collaborative Learning:
encourage shared development of knowledge
 1993 – W.D.Graziadei: online computer-delivered lectures,
tutorials and assessment project
 1994 – CompuHigh: 1st online high school
 Today: e-Learning == reading literacy
 Classroom 2.0, e-Learning 2.0
–

8. e-Learning 2.0
 Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
– shift of paradigm:
Assignments → Teacher → Grades → Learner
– becomes:
social learning!
 Web & Web 2.0 tools and software:
– Blogs
– Wikis
– Podcasts
– virtual worlds (Second Life)
– connected Classrooms (e-Twinning)
– ePortfolios

9. e-Learning in the Web 2.0 era
Made by Jose G. Lepervanche, http://josetoons.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/e-learning-overload-2/

10. Some examples
 Online Course - Integrated Pest Management
– http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/training/index.html
 TUFTS Open CourseWare (OCW)
– http://ocw.tufts.edu/CourseList
 Video-Lectures
– http://videolectures.net/dataforum2012_morteo_unfao/
 KHAN Academy
– http://www.khanacademy.org/science/cosmology-and-
astronomy/v/development-of-agriculture-and-writing
 Multimedia
– http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/media/traini
ng/2009/05/bees/

11. Huge set of courses, already!

12. Moodle
 Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic
Learning Environment
 Software for producing Internet-based courses
 Serving > 58 million users
in > 5.8 million courses
 Released on 20 August 2002, now in 2.3 version
 Open Source Software (GNU General Public v.3)

13. A typical Moodle course (screenshot)
from the ITEMS project - http://www.itemspro.net/

14.  provides great green/agri- templates and
themes
 is linked to interesting green/agri- information
sources
 trainers can use tools to import resources from
relevant agricultural repositories
 trainers can easily create and export metadata
for their courses and resources
 learners can benefit from (automatic)
references to useful material, through various
widgets

15. agriMoodle
 Extends Moodle
– with ready-to-use functionality,
services & tools
– targeted towards uses in agricultural context
 Links Moodle
– to existing agricultural information sources & data
 Creates a network of agriMoodle installations
– Facilitating location of educational resources
– Promoting open access and re-use of resources

16. The agriMoodle HUB

17. A Hub for what?
Many more services!
 “Advertise” courses
 Match courses against user preferences
 Provide intuitive statistics
 Export course details (metadata) to relevant
portals and harvesters
 Foster “Communities”
 Push agriMoodle-related notifications
(updates, etc.)

18. A central search for agri-courses!