For those of you who are interested, the underlying learning philosophy for Moodle is that of "connectivism." Basically, it means that people learn from one another, and Moodle's framework is structured to maximize interactivity with other students and the content itself. When Moodle first debuted, the philosophy usually involved forums, with some potential for real-time chat. However, with the ability to include webinars using BigBlueButton and other add-ins, the possibilities of synchronous (real-time) and asynchronous interactivity have expanded.
One thing to keep in mind as you develop a course that incorporates connectivistm as learning philosophy is that you'll be working with the affective (the emotional) as well as the cognitive domain. This means that you will be engaging the emotions (which is good for motivation). Connectivism also means that you can also encourage the sharing of experiences and allow people to build on prior knowledge and experience. In fact, building courses that allow students to scaffold their knowledge with experiential and prior learning can give rise to a very solid approach. Your students will be able to do more with the knowledge, particularly if the course has to do with applied knowledge and skills.
In this chapter, we will learn the following:
- How to launch a plan to create your learning site
- How Moodle's philosophy of connectivism creates conditions for learning
- The fundamental architecture of Moodle
- The way people learn with Moodle
- What makes Moodle unique
