The DLE has given us opportunities to expand and develop our teaching practices, and to change the way we interact with students. This first year of using the DLE has very much focused on providing a continuity of the service we previously offered our students. However, many have also taken the opportunity to try something new with their students, or to transfer an activity or practice to the DLE, where it can be facilitated more by the functions available in Moodle.

We would be interested in hearing from anyone who has examples of how they have used the DLE in a novel or unexpected way, or how it might be enabling processes that have previously been more difficult to do.
Knowing how you or a colleague are putting Moodle to good use would be a significant start, but we’d also like to follow up by collating some of those innovative uses into articles for this newsletter, and possibly for inclusion in a workshop session at the VC’s Teaching and Learning Conference (26th June).

The following examples may set you thinking, and represent just a couple of instances that we’re aware of, where the DLE has been applied in imaginative ways:
In a postgraduate course, students have been given the opportunity to peer review their project development proposals before submitting them for final marking. This was enabled by the peer review activity available in Moodle.
In terms of facilitating simpler, effective administration, the database activity has been used to enable students to self-select projects from an available list, which tutors can then view and approve as necessary.

Please contact us on asti@plymouth.ac.uk if you would like to share any further ideas/examples.