Susan Smith - Moodle Course Design Best Practices

Susan Smith Nash , who has been involved in the design, development, and administration of e-Learning programs and courses since earning her Ph.D. in the late 1990s, has developed and administered online courses on many platforms, using many different learning management systems. She is responsible for developing degree and certificate programs delivered in online and hybrid formats and has worked on implementing e-Learning in universities, corporations, and associations.

The author of the award-winning e-Learning blog E-Learning Queen and several books on e-Learning, Susan Smith Nash has focused on developing courses that optimize user experience and enhance performance, outcomes, and course persistence/completion.

Her portfolio of publications includes peer-reviewed articles and books, including the following:

I would like to express my most profound appreciation to the reviewers of the chapters: Diana Benner, Rafael Reyna Camones, Anna Krassa, and Danny Wahl. They took the time to prepare careful, thoughtful, and thorough reviews that were always right on target and extremely helpful.

I would also like to thank Elaine Bontempi, Ph.D., whose expertise in instructional design and instructional psychology has been invaluable for coming up with the best ways to develop effective and motivating courses.

It has been a pleasure to work with the Packt Publishing editorial team: Aboli Ambardekar and Amey Varangaonkar. Their professionalism and promptness as well as their solution-centered orientation has made this project a great experience.

Michelle Moore , a former middle school math teacher, has been an advocate for Moodle since discovering it more than ten years ago during the writing of a review of learning management systems while completing her master's degree in Instructional Design and Technology. Enamored with Moodle's capabilities and its foundation in social constructionism, it wasn't long before Michelle's passion led her to a full-time position in training and providing support for educators and trainers in schools, universities, and businesses across North America. Since then, Michelle has helped thousands of Moodlers leverage Moodle's features to design quality online, blended, and mobile learning experiences.

Michelle is an energetic, award-winning speaker who presents regularly at MoodleMoots and educational technology conferences worldwide on the use of Moodle, with a strong emphasis on pedagogy and best practices. Michelle is pursuing a doctorate in Learning Technologies at the University of North Texas where she is actively researching online education and constructivist teaching methods. Follow Michelle on Twitter at @michelledmoore or visit her blog at http://moodleandmoore.com.

I would first like to thank the many Moodlers who have been so willing to share, experiment, and learn with me; without them, this book would not have been possible. I am also indebted to Bryan Williams who gave me the opportunity to turn my passion for Moodle into a career. To Susan, my co-author, thank you for being my personal cheerleader and going the extra mile to make this book a reality.

I would also like to thank Dr. Bill Elieson, my mentor at UNT, for his ongoing support and advice. Last, but definitely not least, I must thank my husband, Jonathan, for first exposing me to the concept of open source software so many years ago. We make a great team and I look forward to seeing what the future holds!

Diana Benner , an educator and technologist for over 15 years, is currently a technology administrator in the State of Texas. She regularly shares her knowledge of online learning through webinars and presentations at both national and state technology conferences.

She has administered Moodle for a large K-12 public school district as well as designed and facilitated many online professional learning courses for educators. She worked as an online learning specialist, where she would train educators in the use of Moodle as well as provide technical support. In addition, as an instructional designer for the State of Texas, she had the opportunity to create SCORM-based e-Learning courses in Moodle. She has a Master of Education degree in Educational Technology and has received her Online Course Instructors certification, which certifies her to teach online and develop online courses. She is an active member of the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) and the Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA).

She enjoys training others on the process of translating traditional content to the online environment. Diana currently resides in Austin, Texas and can be contacted for consultation at <.

I would like to thank my family and friends for their unconditional support. I would also like to thank Packt Publishing for giving me the opportunity to review this book. In addition, I am grateful to my colleague, Miguel Guhlin, for not only introducing me to Moodle but also continually inspiring me to learn more about educational technologies and most importantly, for making me realize the value of sharing what I'm learning.