Nominations for Moodle courses for the “Best Open Courseware Awards” are open until February 20, 11pm, 2019. To nominate, upload your course into the open course site, called the MAJ Hub. Your course will be shared with MAJ members and the public here: http://hub.moodlejapan.org
The purpose of the Hub is to collect and distribute free, open courseware for any school or teacher using the Moodle learning management system. The MAJ Hub is intended to focus on Japan-related courseware, produced in Japanese, English and other languages. (Note: samples of commercial content that are provided for free distribution, may also be available through the Hub)
A six-person courseware judging panel has been selected. They will start reviewing your courses on February 20th according to the following criteria:
- The course is taught in Japan, and would be useful for other teachers in Japan.
- The courseware is free and has no commercial licenses or fees.
- The media in the course is public domain to the best of your knowledge, or you have permission to distribute freely.
- The courseware is interesting, engaging, and innovative.
- The courseware contains well-designed assessment systems,
- The courseware is appropriate for the ages and levels of the students.
From February 20th, the judging panel will write reviews of the courses and meet at the Moot to decide the winners: First prize, Second prize, Honorable Mention (x2). A framed certificate with your name as the author and a web logo for display on your site will be awarded at a MoodleMoot plenary on Thursday, February 28. You may upload as many courses as you wish, but one author can win only one prize per year.
Special Bonus: Mug Cup for all contributors
Any one who contributes and uploads a course will receive an MAJ Moodle mug cup as a prize at the Moot. We are especially looking for courses in fields such as Math, Science, Computer skills, Music, Corporate training, and High school subjects.
How to send your course: You can follow the instructions on the MAJ Hub site to upload your course. However, you may also send your course as a backup file (.mbz or .zip) directly to Don Hinkelman (hinkel@sgu.ac.jp).
Procedures
Procedures for discussing and deciding voting results (agreed by six judges present, 2018.02.21):
First, a maximum of one course per submitter is possible for an award. If a member submits more than one course, the highest scoring course is considered. The non-winning course is then eligible for the following year:s competition.
Second, if there is a concern over too strict or too generous scoring, we can discuss the reasons and can adjust the scores if needed. If the course of concern is from a judge’s own university, it is best to defer and not join the discussion to keep fairness.
Third, an updated course that has already won in past years will only be considered eligible if very few courses are submitted.
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