In the wake of all the closings, there is an increased interest from many people to learn about online learning.
It would be great to have a place to send them to for Moodle and other online teaching resources. That is being done in a lot of different places. I was just wondering whether anything like that was happening here.
Oh, and Thanks to all the organizers of the MOOT, the online conference was much much better than I expected.
Hello Kevin,
I agree it would be great to have a resource of online teaching materials. I think that may be a part of MoodleNet which is "coming soon", but not yet ready.
MoodleNet sounds awesome and it looks like it will help teachers solve problems like this. https://moodle.com/moodlenet/
I also enjoyed the online sessions of MoodleMoot and look forward to having a mixture of online and in-person presentations in the future too.
Doug
Hello Don,
That's right, the Moodle Association of Japan does have a course sharing site similar to MoodleNet (Open Courseware) for others to use and enhance. Thank you for the link. I will take a look as well.
So I set up an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) last night. It is PHP 7.3 and Moodle 3.8.1
I went through and set up the Moodle site ie ran the installation and installed Moodle in DB and set admin user and password.
You have to do that to make sure that you have installed all the bits and pieces that you need.
I am not sure if we want to deploy this image like that though. I think we should leave it ready to install as soon as user deploys the image.
So at that point they would run a command line script or just hit the install page of their site, and enter their Moodle URL , admin user and password and arrive at a totally blank default Moodle site (albeit with a select few plugins installed)
They would then need to get a domain name set up and pointing to their server, run a script on the server to generate an SSL certificate for it and make sure their config file contains that updated info. So whoever uses this image will need to be a server admin of some level.
The other way would be to make a script that sets them up with a default set of all that, but that they change later. In the server image that I set up that would look like this:
http://ec2-54-199-197-57.ap-northeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com/moodle
At least then they'd be up and running ...
Hello Jennifer and Don,
The requirements T. Saito listed on the Ministry website do indeed give us a clear focus for the project - the Ministry and teachers are looking for ready-made EdTech items that helps students learn. Before breaking into teams could we decide which sample course materials we have listed in the Courseware Showcase are most useful teaching materials for students and teachers (from experience) https://showcase.moodlejapan.org/
Perhaps we can have about three or four different "courses" listed on one Moodle site for JHS, HS, University....
If we decide on the course templates today and by Monday finalize this, will only take a few days to get the site arranged.
The MAJ Moodle 3.8.1 AMI image is ready.
What is that?
It means you can set up a Moodle server (EC2) in your own Amazon AWS account, by cloning off a ready made image.
Thats good because Chikamori san said earlier in this thread that AWS is prepared to give AWS credits to schools dealing with the shutdown from covid-19. And it will also fit on the smaller servers of the AWS free tier (though you might want to use a more powerful server ). You have access to the free tier when you first sign up for AWS.
Its also good because you do not need to install node or php or mysql or Moodle. Thats all done for you. Moodle was installed with git so you will be able to update Moodle via Git as new versions come up. It contains only one plugin, adminer, which is a tool for administering the Moodle database. But you can install from the Moodle plugins directory as normal.
This is a video walkthrough of getting set up with the image
And the PDF of the slides used in that video are attached.
A Japan Times article from yesterday titled "Coronavirus prompts Japan to reconsider long-hours office culture" says that many companies are now trying to implement work-from-home/remote work for their employees. Universities may be willing to try too, especially those of us in locations who are being hard hit by the virus, as we are in Hokkaido. I worry about how many parents will allow their 18-year-old sons and daughters to come to Hokkaido in April.
There may be some universities, high schools etc. who would be willing to try Moodle and have classes remotely, but we would need to present Moodle and the ideas of online classes somehow. I guess a presentation would be best, but a website with information in Japanese and English and/or a pdf would also be helpful. I will talk with colleagues at my uni and see what they think. What do you think?
Should we try to put something together with the goal of helping Japanese universities and schools to learn more about Moodle and consider using it in April? I'm willing to help with this. How did the Moot organizers get organized? Shall we self-organize a group to work on this? Anyone interested?
「Coronavirus prompts Japan to reconsider long-hours office culture 」と題した昨日の Japan Times の記事は、多くの企業が従業員のために在宅勤務/遠隔勤務を実施しようとしています。特に北海道にいるような、ウイルスにひどく打撃を受けている場所にある私たちの大学も試してみる気があります。 18歳の息子と娘が4月に北海道に来ることを許可する親の数が少なくなるのかと、心配です。
いくつかの大学、高校など、Moodleを試して遠隔授業を受けたいと思う人もいるかもしれませんが、Moodleとオンラインクラスのアイデアを何らかの形で提示する必要があると思います。プレゼンテーションが最適でしょうが、日本語と英語の情報やPDFを含むWebサイトも役立つと思います。私は、自分の大学での同僚と話をして、彼らがどう思うか確かめてみます。どう思いますか？
日本の大学や学校がMoodleについてさらに学び、4月に使用することを検討するのを支援する目的で、何かをまとめることを試みるべきだと思いますか？私は喜んで参加します。 Mootの主催者はどのように組織されましたか？これに取り組むためにグループを自ら組織しますか？誰か興味を持ってらっしゃる方いますか？
Hello Jennifer,
I've seen the requests as well for teachers seeking information and would love to help out this idea as well. The easiest and quickest way is to put up a free account MoodleCloud website but the plugins are restricted. We can probably have someone from MAJ create some space on the MAJ server or ? We can use some of the sample sites that are already created on the link Don sent too and get this going in a few days.
Hello Don,
My understanding is that Jennifer's suggestion is to put up a demo site to show how Moodle works before creating their own site, like the Moodle HQ site but in Japanese https://moodle.org/demo/ .
As you mention MoodleCloud is a great way to get started but I feel we need to guide the teachers a bit online first to attract inquiries.
Is this the idea you have as well Jennifer?
Hi,
We were talking about doing something like this in Hokkaido - maybe Moodle Mentors or setting up a team that could do local Moodle training workshops if the local folks provided a place and transportation.
Uni Moodlers might get support through Kaken as well.
Bob
Hi!
Actually, we were thinking of the workshop and mentor idea before COVID-19. More as sort of a long term plan.
Bob
すごい！良いアイデアだと思います。他の方々もこれに興味があれば参加をよろしくお願いします。
プロジェクトのタイトル：Moodle Online Courses：開始日2020年4月
授業が始まるときなので、4月を目標にしなければならないと思います。どうですか？
目標：管理者、教師、教授、対面クラスの実行可能な代替手段としてMoodleを見る関係者に紹介します。これは、特に授業活動が低下したときに役立ちます。少しずつ拡げていきますが、全体の目標は、日本の、Moodleについての情報を必要としているすべての方々に情報を提供することです。
計画：①興味のあるMoodlersを集めて、チームを作成します。何をすべきか、それをどのように行うかを決定します。ここでいくつかの提案が既に出されています。
②誰が何をするのかを決定します。
③対象となる管理者/教師などのために、Moodleを見ながら、Moodleについて調べられるオンラインスペースを作成します。日本語のテキスト（および可能であればビデオ）は非常に便利だと思います。 MoodleCloudスペースを取得するにはどうすればいいですか？
④フィードバックを提供できる少数の方々に情報を提供します。私たちは体制全体を調整し改善してから、より多くの人々に促進しようと思います。
質問：どこで共同作業できると思いますか？ここのMAJスペースにしますか？専用のスペースを作成する必要があると思いますか？
上記の計画にコメントし、追加してくださればと思います。これはあくまでも基盤となるアイデアです。多くの方々が協力してくだされば、絶対にいい計画が出来上がると思います！
これに協力していただける方々に感謝します。今こそ行動すべき時のようです。
Great! Adam, can people self-enroll in the new space? I didn't see a place to add people.
There is a Japanese Moodle website here that seems to have a similar goal to ours, it's a Japanese demo and support site. It started in 2010 and has many recent posts here about the 2020 moot made by Tatsuya Shirai.
This site may be useful in promoting the ideas we are having here. I wonder if Tatsuya Shirai would like to get involved.
We might even be able to use it? Update it, add to it?
Great enthusiasm from many of you, awesome!! I will keep posting here for the time being as many people are connecting here.
How about this plan:
1. We make a Moodle demo site, or modify an existing one (there is a Japanese Moodle.org website here that has many things we would want to include) to showcase what Moodle can do - but maybe keep it simple? We want people to be impressed but not overwhelmed as teachers will be making their own sites.
We could make a dummy demo (as shareable courseware) where a very basic Moodle site has been set up and teachers could use it as is and build on it.
2. We make an awesome video (in Japanese and English?), post it in YouTube, send an explanatory e-mail with the link to the teachers and admin we know, asking them to send it to teachers/admin they know too. The video goes viral and lots of people go to the demo site for more information.
3. Volunteers at the demo site answer questions in live chat? Like the Help section at the moot? That was really useful. Thanks again to Justin and Martin.
4. Moodle Mentors help people in their area get started, working together online (could use screen sharing) or in face-to-face in workshops.
5. Classes start in April 2020 as planned, but remotely! The spring semester of 2020 is the beginning of widespread online learning in Japan. Korea and China get online too.
Is Kakenhi available now? I thought they only give funds in April, after submission of a detailed proposal.
Please comment and post questions too. Maybe now is the time to ask who would like to do what.
How did the Moot organizing team decide this? You guys organized an international conference in 3 days, how the heck did you do that? How did you get organized? Decide who does what? Should people just volunteer for particular jobs? If so, we should make a list of jobs to get done?
The downloadable package would be a great idea but it would mean a syllabus that confirms to the MEXT syllabus for JHS and HS for domestic schools. For international schools, it would be harder to manage unless each part could be separated up and the school was able to pick and choose what they could show to students.
I just got a call from Mr. Tsuyoshi Matsuzaki, the president of the Moodle Premier Partner company "eLearning." His company is willing to offer 30-50 free ready-to-go Moodle instances to secondary schools in Hokkaido. If any teacher wants to start using Moodle, eLeaning can host courses for free, and he/she can maintain the course till the end of July. Yeah! He will contact Bob Gettings soon. And he expects the Japanese Moodle community to support these novice teachers.
I think the offer to host up to 30-50 fully functioning Moodle core sites from Matsuzaki-san of "elearning" is a great idea and much appreciated.
With the technology side is solved, teachers are probably going to need a sample "template" course to get started quickly. Would any of the courses in the MAJ Courseware Showcase be suitable?
No plans for Hokkaido at this time - so maybe we need to step back a bit and see what's needed.
Are there high school teachers on the list or has anyone talked to high school teachers yet?
Also, should this discussion be moved to the new course Adam made? I don't have access because I joined in late but if someone could add me it would be great!