(1) To enhance the research literacy of research students in Japan and China: An online intervention using Moodle and Mahara

 140,000
(2) Showcase Plugin Programming & MoodleNet Grant Proposal 2021-2023 240,000
(3) Include Student Nationalities in Forum Profiles & Continued Improvement to Student Engagement Dashboard 210,000

(4) Improve the Group Creation Function and Other Group functionality for forums

 210,000


(1) Project Title

To enhance the research literacy of research students in Japan and China: An online intervention using Moodle and Mahara

Applicant

Jingjing Lin

Funding Request

¥140,000

Project Description

Over years at multiple universities in Japan, Switzerland, China, and Hong Kong, I saw one common thing: there is little systemic research literacy training in universities for either the faculty or the students in education science. Research literacy is the ability to access, interpret, and critically evaluate primary literature (Senders et al., 2014). These skills allow researchers to interact with a larger scientific conversation about what studies are needed to best advance current research and practice and must be systematically taught, practiced, and polished so that researchers can make efficient and effective use of the available literature. My observation was unfortunately not a single case; globally there is a continuous informality of the whole researcher development process, which leaves the maturity of researchers to chance (Raddon, 2011). Researcher development, as an emergent discipline and a research field, is very much underexplored in higher education (Bromley & Warnock, 2021; Evans, 2011; Robbins & LePeau, 2018). 

Schedule of research and development

This project is action research that includes four stages of research and development activities as shown below. The main goal is to further test the effectiveness of the creation-based learning theory and its associated CLEAR instructional design model and produce a pilot online course for enhancing the research literacy of research students at the university education level in Japan and China. 

Stage 1: Course design and platform development

It will develop a fully online and free course that teaches literature review skills and academic literature reading skills to students using the CBL theory and the CLEAR instructional design model. The Moodle platform will be developed and networked with the Mahara platform. The platforms will be tested to ensure their usability and access of functionalities.

Stage 2: Participant recruitment and content placement

All course content will be placed on the Moodle platform. Students will be divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group will participate in the course of creation-based learning, while the control group will participate in a traditional lecturing course online.

Stage 3: Course delivery and facilitation

The two courses will run in parallel at the same time. All student activities will be logged on the Moodle platform and Mahara platform. 

Stage 4: Course evaluation

The course performance will be analyzed using both formative and summative assessment activities, learning logs, and survey data.


(2) Project Title

Showcase Plugin Programming & MoodleNet Grant Proposal 2021-2023

Applicant(s)

Martin Meadows and Don Hinkelman

Funding Request

¥240,000

Project Description

Background: The MAJ Showcase and Best Open Courseware awards are core services offered to MAJ members. They highlight content that makes effective use of Moodle features and which is shared with the MAJ community and beyond as open educational resources. At the same time, MoodleNet is reaching the stage at which shared content developed for Moodle can be shared with a global audience through linked, federated networks of local MoodleNet servers.

After discussion with Paul Hodgson, the lead developer of MoodleNet, it became apparent that MoodleNet can – not yet – serve as a full replacement for the MAJ Showcase. Thus, it is felt that, for the coming year at least, MAJ should continue to maintain the Showcase at the same time as we embrace MoodleNet and contribute to its further development.

Purpose:   The purpose of this grant submission is to secure funding for the continued functionality of the MAJ Showcase and the creation of a MAJ MoodleNet instance that will connect to the centralized MoodleNet server and make content shared with the MAJ community available to a global audience.

Problems addressed:

 a)   The Showcase

The Showcase is a customized Moodle (v. 3.11.6+ as of April 2022) instance on the MAJ website that depends on a suite of plugins developed specifically for it to facilitate easy sharing and presentation of open courseware. They are:

  1. Hub Course Info (block)
  2.  Showcase Course List (block)
  3. Hub Course Ranking (block)
  4. Showcase Course Upload (block)

The current grant proposal covers two stages of development and maintenance of the MAJ Showcase plugins. These two stages are as follows:

Stage 1: Improved functionality and compatibility with Moodle v. 3.11. Five functions will be added or improved in 2021.

1.   Rebuild Course Backup  (18 hours)

This feature resolves the problem of including revisions into a course backup. When contributors make changes or add new resources or activities, the Rebuild Course Backup feature incorporates the revision into the backup .mbz file that gets downloaded.

2.   Add Metadata Configuring page  (20 hours)

Metadata for each course is needed for searching and helping interested users find the course type and language they need. This configuration page is a flexible way to adjust metadata fields.

3.   Limit Course Deletion to Admins  (2 hours)

In the past, it was possible for any user to delete a course, sometimes inadvertently. This feature limits course deletion to admins only. 

4.  Download metadata into CSV (6 hours).

This feature allows metadata to be downloaded into a CSV file for searching and off-site analysis of course data.             

5.  Update Min/Max Option (6 hours)

This allows a course ranking block to have a minimum and maximum option in its configuration. 

Stage 2: Compatibility with Moodle v4.0+. With the release of Moodle 4.0 in April 2022, the compatibility of the above plugins needs to be tested and verified, and additional programming work may be required to retain functionality.

 b)   MoodleNet

As an organization that has long played a leading role in its commitment to the sharing of Moodle-specific, open education resources, it is important that MAJ play an active role in the development of the MoodleNet project. A MAJ MoodleNet server will give MAJ pioneering input into an expanding project, facilitate the development of MoodleNet federation, and give Japan-based, content creators a global audience.

Development Timeline/開発タイムライン:

The exact programming timeline will depend on available time in the programmer’s schedule. Ponlawat Weerapanpisit will do the programming in his free time as he works on his Master’s degree and post-graduate pursuits. Programming for the first stage is expected to be finished before the MoodleMoot 2022 to facilitate the Best Open Courseware Awards. Likewise, programming for stage 2 will be finished in time for the Best Open Courseware Awards of MoodleMoot 2023. In order to improve participation in these awards, it is hoped that programming work can be completed before the beginning of the Japanese fall semester, when many teachers may have spring-semester courses that could potentially be uploaded to the Showcase.

For the MoodleNet server, an instance can be set up almost immediately with Sakura Internet or other provider, after which development of the site will follow the development stages of MoodleNet itself. Paul Hodgson has offered his assistance and advice when needed. Ponlawat Weerapanpisit will be able to assist with customization.  

Chronology of past development:

Development of plugins for the Showcase has been reported on in previous MoodleMoots. Ponlawat Weerapanpisit has been developing these plugins for the past four years and is well acquainted with our needs and desires for Showcase functionality.

(3) Project Title

Include Student Nationalities in Forum Profiles & Continued Improvement to Student Engagement Dashboard

Applicant

Matt Cotter

Funding Request

210,000

Project Description

 Since 2016, almost 36,000 beginner level EFL students and some 700 teachers from 25 countries have participated in the International Virtual Exchange Project (IVEProject). They interact online using English as a lingua franca on a Moodle platform. There, they improve their intercultural sensitivity and understanding of their own and other cultures whilst improving their English communicative ability.

A number of innovations have been developed from this project and it has been the catalyst to change the interface of the core component of Moodle, the forum. This change, developed by the IVEProject team, was incorporated into Moodle core code. We continue to develop ideas to make the use of the Moodle forum useful for students, teachers and researchers.

For this project we wish to develop further the forum module to include students’ nationalities in the forum profile, develop the student dashboard – which details students’ participation in the forums – further, but adding active days, average engagement levels and maximum engagement levels to it. Refinement of the forum analytics report will also be a part of this project to improve its performance as presently it is very server intensive.


Development Timeline/開発タイムライン:

We have the basics developed but the refinements, particularly to Moodle 4.0 and above, should develop in the following way. July 2022, development and basic testing, Oct 2022 deployment to full scale Dec 2022 results published and any further refinements made.

(4) Project Title

Improve the Group Creation Function and Other Group functionality for forums

Applicant

Eric Hagley

Funding Request

210,000

Project Description

The IVEProject has had more than 37,000 students from 25 countries participate in Virtual Exchange (VE) over the last 6 years. Almost half of those students were/are from Japan. In the project using VE they improve their intercultural sensitivity and understanding of their own and other cultures whilst improving their English communicative ability. The project is very group oriented.

At present the group creation function of Moodle is very useful but if groups need to be changed there are many problems. Firstly, the changes need to be made one student at a time. There are also no metrics that are linked to groups in the native Moodle platform so it is difficult to determine whether a particular participant is appropriately grouped. The project we are planning with this grant will allow teachers and administrators to quickly and easily change groups based on different factors such as the amount of student activity.

A number of innovations have been developed from the IVEProject and it has been the catalyst to change the interface of the core component of Moodle, the forum. This change, developed by the IVEProject team, was incorporated into Moodle core code.

Development Timeline/開発タイムライン

Planning will begin as soon as the application is approved if we are so fortunate to be accepted. From July 2022, development and basic testing will take place. In Oct 2022 deployment to a full scale model will occur. In Dec 2022 results will be published and any further refinements made.