STEM BURSARY FINAL REPORT

Developing a School VLE

Dawn McMaster

MarkethillHigh School

During the 2009/2010 school year, some staff approached me to try to find new ways of supplying pupils with work and receiving work from pupils using an electronic means. Having talked to staff from other schools, we decided to set up a school VLE. We hoped that this would be a positive experience for both staff and pupils.

I underwent a day’s training with one of our SELB ICT advisers. He set up the initial structure of the VLE for me and then he showed me how to create courses and how to add items to the courses. I found that, as with many things, the more I used the VLE to add pupil work etc. the easier the tasks became. I was fortunate enough to go to Austria last year to visit a group of teachers who are very keen on e-learning and while there, one of the teachers introduced me to the package Hot Potatoes. I found a manual on the web and have taught myself how to create a variety of quiz structures. I have also used the quiz facility on the Moodle VLE.

Pupils enjoy the idea of a quiz and perhaps do not really notice as much as usual that they are actually being assessed. The fact that there is instant feedback also makes a difference to some pupils-some have forgotten that they sat the test by the time a paper copy is marked and given back. In one class I saw a few pupils discussing their wrong answers immediately, something again which they seldom do several days after having sat the test. From this point of view I would see the use of the VLE as a very positive experience for the pupil (and of course in some cases the computer does the marking for the staff.) Being able to access the information outside of school means that pupils can complete homework activities when it suits them and parents can see the type of activities we are completing in school.

At the end of this first year I hope to ask both pupils and staff the following:

  • have they found using the VLE easy?
  • has it been a positive experience ?
  • what have been the difficulties in using the VLE?
  • is the structure easy enough to use?
  • has it been useful to pupils who have been off sick for a time?

Having started staff training with teachers from STEM subjects, I would hope to expand this to other subject areas. I hope to do this by having some or all of the initial staff to be a mentor for another member of staff from a different department. If this system works then we should be able to train all the staff in the use of the VLE within a 3 year period.

The whole experience of setting up the VLE has been a very valuable experience for me in many ways :

  • I have been able to work with staff from Austria and also from other schools in the SELB area – some of these staff have been involved in e-leaning for a long time and were very willing to share ideas.
  • I have had to research ways of putting work on to the VLE when staff have approached with an initial idea eg. the English department wanted ideas of how to collect Book Reviews. I was then able to use this same idea to set up a homework assignment for my GCSE ICT class.
  • It has been a pleasure to introduce staff to something which they actually want to work on – all the initial staff from the STEM subjects volunteered to become involved!

I would hope that the school VLE would go from strength to strength, getting more and more departments involved. My biggest concern would be that it would be used as a repository for notes rather than a truly interactive experience for the pupils. This aspect will have to be monitored closely and staff guided away from this use of the VLE if it appears to be the sole purpose of a department’s courses.

Dawn McMaster

MarkethillHigh School

January 2011