Greetings, everyone!
Today finds me working remotely from the comfort of my own home. After a beach outing yesterday, I found myself slightly sunburned, and as a result, I had to don my swimsuit top this morning, which, unfortunately, doesn’t quite fit the office dress code! Fortunately, my work allows me the flexibility to be mobile, and I can accomplish most tasks regardless of my location.
This morning, I’m constructing a course in Moodle—an endeavor that has led me to ponder the stark differences between Moodle and my usual platform, D2L. Despite their contrasting approaches, both systems aim to achieve the same goal! Personally, I admit I have a preference for D2L. In my current Moodle instance, I’m unable to upload CSS or JS pages, which means all styling modifications have to be made page by page, inline! These changes become arduous and time-consuming, unlike in D2L, where I can effortlessly log in and make adjustments to a template. That being said, this Moodle does offer an exciting new design feature.
The institute I’m working for recently integrated a tool called H5P, a gift for course authors and digital media specialists like myself. With H5P, creating interactive components for online courses becomes remarkably swift and straightforward, requiring minimal backend coding—a significant advantage considering the limitations of my Moodle platform compared to what I have access to in D2L!
Initially, I had doubts about designing interactive assessments featuring videos, click-to-reveal functionality, and drag-and-drop interactions, but H5P has truly come to the rescue, proving itself an invaluable resource. Furthermore, there is a wealth of online tutorials available for fellow designers and educators seeking to add some spice to their Moodle-based courses. If your institution hasn’t embraced H5P yet, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Far too often, online courses follow a textbook-like format, where instructors merely upload a PDF and call it a course. As an instructional multimedia designer, I believe this approach does a disservice to both learners and the online medium itself.
We have the potential, within the online environment, to craft an immersive virtual experience that engages students as if they were physically present, rather than simply reading a textbook. In this digital age, calling a basic multiple-choice assessment interactivity just won’t cut it. Infuse your courses with videos, creative leaning activities, and your own personal touch, building a learning experience you can be proud to deliver! If Moodle is your artistic domain for online instruction, consider integrating H5P as your next tool to explore and master.
Mahalo for taking the time to read my musings.
Warm regards,
Kristy
