Being Successful in an Online Moodle Course

In order to be successful in an online Moodle course in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, several things should happen. First, you should always use your WSFCS email address when signing up for Moodle. This is the only way that you will receive updates to the Forum's; our Moodle does not recognize outside email addresses. Before taking one of our online Moodle courses, Atomic Learning has "Introduction to Moodle 1.9" videos in Atomic Learning. These videos aren't very long, but will show participants how to navigate around in Moodle.

If the online course you want to take is being offered by the Department of Instruction, you must register for the workshop online first. After registering online, you will receive an enrollment key at the beginning of the course. Most of the courses taught by the Department of Instruction run on a monthly basis and we try to send out the enrollment keys by the end of the first day of the month. Once you have received  the enrollment key by email, you can then enroll into the course and get started. After enrolling in the course, make sure to read everything. Start at the top of the course and read the Agenda and Course Orientation. The agenda and course orientation have the expectations of the course and what will be covered in the course. Most of the courses also have an introduction forum. This is where the participants of the course introduce themselves to the instructor and other participants. Also, this forum is a place where questions can be posted. A forum is only as successful as the participants make it; if participants will post to the forum and then reply back to other participants, it becomes a place to share ideas.

A lot of the course is reading information and/or viewing videos. Then there are activities to be completed. Please read all of the items within a topic before viewing the activity. Usually at the end of the topic is some type of activity; whether it is posting to a forum, taking a quiz, writing in a journal, etc. Make sure to read the activity completely before starting the activity. Also, put some thought and effort into the activity. After an activity is completed, look back over what you have done. Sometimes it is helpful to think, "Would I accept this from my students?" If the answer is yes, then move onto the next topic. If the answer is no, maybe the activity should be revisited. All activities are required to be completed as stated in the course. The more involved the participant is within the online Moodle course, the more satisfaction and learning can be gained from it.