Moodle Learning Management System for Teacher Professional Development By Dr Michael N. Nkwenti Inspector of Pedagogy in Charge of Educational Technologies Ministry of Basic Education

Current Challenges in Teacher Professional Development (TPD) State contribution to education has been lower than the regional average; that is 18.3% of running costs (Education Sector Strategy, 2013,p.38). TPD is inadequately funded. The model of teacher professional development in practise in schools is the pedagogic day seminar holding once every term thus 24hrs a year is largely insufficient (IP-TE Annual Report, 2012;2013;2014) MINEDUB has teachers practising in classrooms nation-wide. Difficult to train 20% of this population in a face- to-face mode annually. Standards require that effective TPD programs should be held for a minimum of 60 to 80 hours annually (Guskey, 2000; Supovich & Turner, 2000)

Impact of Limited TPD on the Teaching and Learning Process Insufficient learning outcomes in most public schools due to teacher standards (School Achievement Report, 2012) Insufficient Teachers’ Standard (Regional Delegates Annual Reports, 2013; 2014; 2015)

Possible Strategy to Improve on Teachers’ Standards Explore the potential of various ICTs in the Teachers’ Professional Development and growth Some of these ICTs tools includes: E-Learning Management Systems (Moodle) Social Media ( Facebook, Whatsapp, Skype…) Benefits of various learning technologies includes continuous professional development: through online learning, discussion forums and group mail posting For the purpose of this workshop, we shall focus on Moodle

Moodle! Yes! Moodle! Moodle is an open source web application used to create interactive online learning sites.

“What” is Moodle? Moodle that is the acronym for Modular Object- Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment it's an online Learning Management System (LMS).

It runs on almost all platform, supporting a lot of useful function and customization, thanks to its modular structure. Why Moodle? It's free!

It is used all over the world by teachers and educators and it's probably the best E-Learning tool in the net! Why Moodle? Also,moodle is available in 78 languages!

Moodle was created by Martin Dougiamas, who wrote the entire code in PHP, as a research for his doctorate at Curtin University in Australia. Who is Moodle's Founder? In the beginning the “M” on Moodle acronym was the first letter of Dougiamas name, Martin. ITIS Corni – Modena, Italy

What teachers can do with Moodle... create online tests and examinations upload files and lessons create online courses divide students into classes open forums chat sessions

What students can do with Moodle... follow the lessons take part into forums chat sessions upload their homework and test

Features Forum: you can discuss with all other registered user about many issues.

Features Chat: you can talk about what you want in real time with fellow colleagues and lead supervisors.

Features Calendar: if you're a professor, you can program lessons, tests and more. Students can consult this section as a reminder for future commitments.

Features Lesson: Moodle provides teacher many ways to set up their own lessons and courses and to keep them under control.

Features Wiki and Glossary: collaboration is the key word of moodle, which has several functions to work in group.

Features Quizzes and Tests: there are many ways to evaluate the preparation of the students.. or to have fun with questions of any arguments!

Features...and more! Moodle has got really many functions! And they are all easily manageable, thanks to their modular structure!

Is it Possible to Use Moodle to Train Teachers? CAMEROON CM - 23,739,218 population (2015) - Country Area: 475,442 sq km Capital city: Yaoundé - population 2,440,462 (2012) 2,611,314 Internet users on Dec 31, 2014, 11.0% of the population, per ITU. 1,400,000 Facebook subscribers on Nov 15/15, 5.9% penetration rate. Yaoundé, Cameroon Source:

…the CEO of Telecom Regulatory Agency (ART), revealed that the rate of mobile phone penetration rose from 9.8% to 71% between 2004 and the first quarter of … to date, Cameroon officially has over 16 million mobile subscribers out of a population of 20 million inhabitants. Is it Possible to Use Moodle to Train Teachers on Mobile phones? Source: years/

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