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Cristina M.R. Caridade, Deolinda M.L. Rasteiro
Coimbra Institute of Engineering, Portugal
Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is a course management system to promote interactive and collaborative learning activities. In Coimbra Institute of Engineering, the project e-MAIO (Interactive Online Learning Modules) collects and describes a set of interactive tools for teaching, and learning, mathematics to engineering students through a technology-enhanced environment on the Moodle platform.
This paper aims to present the activity Lesson, available in e-MAIO, one of the most complex and interesting activities in Moodle. This activity enables the formation of theoretical thinking, based on reflection, analysis and planning which leads to mental and intellectual development of students. The students get a self-directed learning, taking the initiative and responsibility for their learning. Therefore, they can guide and evaluate their own learning activities, which can be realized anytime and anywhere.
The Lesson is a set of pages with information and leading questions, with the main objective of teach and test students' knowledge. The lesson can contain a set of alternative paths, providing different content, depending on the student's answers. This feature allows to create adaptative content, being especially useful in contexts of heterogeneity of the prior knowledge or the past students' learning process.
In this Lesson, student learning is self-directed and can be repeated several times to strengthen the knowledge and the understanding of the student. Can be performed anywhere, anytime and can contains materials of any discipline, so it is very flexible. The Lesson is an excellent activity to present the material to students in a structured and interactive way so it can be used as an open educational resource to all students with audio, video, animations, text, questions and images.
In order to reflect and analyse the skills acquired by students when using the Lesson activity and to define strategies for their development, a small pilot study was conducted. Initially it was made a first test about the subject of the Lesson before the students are involved in the learning process. At the end, the students make the same test to be able to assess the knowledge and skills obtained during the Lesson. Furthermore, an inquiry and an interview were made to collect some conclusions and suggestions in order to improve the development of such activities.