Introduction
Moodle provides an excellent single access point for students to engage with many aspects of distance and blended learning, however many features of Moodle itself are not ideal. Components of Moodle need to be backwards compatible, so that teachers do not have to recreate large amounts of content when there is an update, and that in turn means that they tend not to be state of the art. Moodle is also a general-purpose tool, and so it does not have subject specific tools. Fortunately, Moodle provides extremely good support for IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), a standard which allows it to act as a single sign-on system for launching custom tools hosted on another platform. LTI is also supported by the FutureLearn platform, so the same tools can also be launched from FutureLearn MOOCs.
LTI is also a key component of the Next Generation DLE concept, a move to replace the current monolithic environment such as Moodle with a more flexible modular environment that can be customised to different subjects needs.
In the College of Science and Engineering we have been making use of this facility for several years, with a mixture of locally developed, third party open source, and commercial tools. In this poster we describe some of these tools, and our experience of using them.
Python and Data Science with ErysNotes
ErysNotes is a lightweight Python notebook system, designed from the start to be run on the web and launched from a VLE using LTI. It is compatible with notebooks written on JupyterNotes, but is designed to run as a true web application on much lower cost hardware. We have been using it along with the FutureLearn platform for a MOOC: "Getting Started with Teaching Data Science in Schools".
Notebooks combine sections of wiki text with blocks of code that can be run individually, and display output including graphs. Although the code blocks run separately, they are part of a single program, so share data and current state. By making use of the online notebooks, students are able to carry out programming exercises online without leaving the VLE environment. Without this it would be necessary for them to install software on their own machines to carry out the exercises, which may not always be feasible.
Online Chemistry pre-labs and reports
In chemistry, we have partnered with a commercial supplier, Learning Science, who provide virtual laboratories and worked with us to develop smart worksheets. These tools have were initially used to support two courses, first year Synthesis Chemistry and third year Organic Chemistry, and have now been rolled out accross the school.
Virtual laboratories allow students to learn and practice basic laboratory skills in an interactive, repeatable and safe manner. Students benefit from instant feedback when they make a mistake, and following practice with the simulations that are concentrate on techniques and safety in the real labs. Staff noticed that students were able to get up and running faster, and asked fewer trivial questions.
Post lab reports were replaced with smart worksheets where students use their own data, and do complex calculations, with instant feedback. Students felt the instant feedback was very helpful, and that the smart workbooks supported them without reducing the challenge.
“It’s just at that point where it is not telling you the answer but it’s helping you get there. If I get the feedback a week later, I’m too busy working on the next lab report.” - Student on new pre-lab interactives
Peer evaluation using ACJ
Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ) is an approach to ranking pieces of work based on doing comparisons of just two at a time, and deciding which is better. The ACJ algorithm decides which two pieces should be compared next, and then sorts all the pieces of work into an order based on the comparisons. ACJ can be used both for formal marking, with teachers doing the comparison, or for peer review exercises. In CoSE we have, developed our own tool, which we are using for peer comparison, allowing students to get a feel of how their work compares with others, and thereby gain understanding of how to improve it. Currently this is used for short essays in Physics, and for code review in a Haskell programming course. Students are not graded, but do receive feedback on which quartile their work is in.
Tools for Maths practice – QTIWorks and NUMBAS
Practice is very developing maths skills, and randomised computer-generated questions are an excellent way of doing this. The quiz system in Moodle has randomisation for basic arithmetic questions, however it is not able to support the level of questions that we require. We initially made use of QTIWorks, a tool developed at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with a consortium of other universities, wever authoring questions for it was tricky, so we are now moving to NUMBAS, a simpler system developed by the University of Newcastle.
GDPR
LTI supports anonymity, however most tools make use of the Student's name and email address which are optional parameters in the single sign-on. This means suitable datasharing agreements need to be in place where tools are hosted by third parties.
Discussion & Conclusions
Using LTI to connect more specialist tools to Moodle, we have been able to move well beyond the limitations of the existing platform whilst retaining the convenience of a single site for students. Because each tool is a separate entity, they can be replaced individually without having any impact on other aspects of the VLE. This has allowed us to gain many of the benefits of the Next Generation DLE concept whilst retaining the benefits of the well proven Moodle platform.
There have been a number of challenges relating to rolling out of these tools. Where the tool is externally hosted, data-sharing agreements are required, and a standard simple contract would simplify this. For locally hosted tools the main challenges is finding appropriate hardware to run them on, and it would be good to have better support from IT services for developing the NGDLE at the University.