After nearly twenty years helping people learn how to use Moodle, I have begun to reconsider my approach. I’ve come to believe that my previous methods, walking potential Moodlers through screen after screen of Moodle settings, are less than optimal. Any individual setting, after all, often isn’t too difficult once you know what you want to accomplish.
The harder part, it seems, is sorting through all of the available tools and features and then determining which are best suited to any given situation. Once there, the next hurdle is generating enough momentum to see you through the development before your motivation peters out and you resort to loading a collection of documents, links, and forums.
Recognizing these challenges, I’ve decided that there is perhaps a better way to help people begin to use Moodle – a method that starts by helping new Moodlers identify and address the many questions that come ahead of what box to check while also supporting them with tools designed to reduce their time to launch. This program is just now being tested with pilot audiences so the data is limited, but I will share what I’ve learned so far so that we might discuss these ideas and others around the topic of how best to support new Moodlers.