Why UK universities need to rethink their online educational tool (by Ayman Jee)
Have you ever used Moodle forum to ask a question?
Don’t you get late replies and short answers when you ask questions by email?
Felt quite harsh to wait those long queues during office hours to ask a single question?
As an international student studying in the UK, who is afraid of asking questions in public due to lack of confidence and shyness, the only way I felt comfortable doing so was through emails and office hours. This, however, wasn’t an issue only related to me.
Other students with similar concerns were also constantly looking for professors during office hours. Especially during mid-terms, there was always a long queue. Even if you had a list of questions, you would end up walking on eggshells and asking just one.
Moreover, although emails can be a useful channel — since it saves time and allows you to ask several questions without waiting for those long queues — it often takes time to get a reply. Moreover, since it’s not instantaneous, you often don’t get a satisfying answer.
Generally, in the UK, mainly in England, most universities use Moodle as their primary LMS. If we look into most LMS’s original aim, it is to provide the utmost online learning environment by enabling active interaction and engagement between students and lecturers. Initially, it sounded like LMS s were a useful tool to be used as an alternative to solve the problems arising from emails and office hours. In our case, Moodle Forum is the main communication channel that allowed students to raise questions or start discussions.
The question is, have you ever used it?
Although its initial aim was to make a public forum where participants can actively interact and learn beyond lectures, it is barely identifiable to see a single post. There are three possible reasons for this.
Real-name system
Students might be afraid if they are posting a stupid question that might be mocked by the others due to the fact that online post has a permanent characteristic relative to asking question in-person. Therefore, it may deter students who feel uncomfortable posting with their names on it.
Administrator focused
LMS itself is an educational platform targeted at lecturers who manages all materials within the module page. Therefore, it is focused on their perspective, not students. The UI/UX needs to be friendly, and students need to be able to easily use the forum to enable interactive engagement.
Arbitrary posts
There are some modules like computer science where Moodle forum is quite active. However, a student often finds it hard to identify which post is related to a topic that he is curious about since it is not well organized. Repeated questions are the most common thing you can observe in the forum where the comments from lecturers will tend to be less friendly as it repeats.
The need for a practical and interactive online education system is vital in the current state. Engagement and communication between students and the lecturers are the fundamental keys that UK universities should be working on. Looking forward to the changes CLASSUM will bring to education, I’ve decided to join CLASSUM’s student ambassador program.
CLASSUM is a communication tool for education used by institutions around the world, including Samsung, Hyundai, LG CNS, Shiseido, and KAIST.
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