Moodle

Moodle is a free open-source course management system for online courses that includes discussion forums, quizzes and surveys. I facilitated a discussion in the Moodle discussion forums on Ted Talk, "Gaming Can Make a Better World" by Jane McGonigal. The talk was not specifically targeted at an educator audience but I saw important elements that could be applied to the classroom. For that reason, I wanted to have a discussion thinking more broadly on how gaming or elements of gaming, known as gamification, can contribute to learning. I think this discussion is important because we must first start to grasp the bigger picture before trying to drill down on specific elements. 
Here is a link to the discussion.


I also created a quiz on Moodle for a module on assessment. I asked students to read a short article from the Educause Learning Initiative, 7 Things You Should Know About Navigating the New Learning Ecosystem. These kind of quizzes are useful for checking students have read and understood important content. The model of Learning Ecosystems is also important to understand as a student of E-Learning because it removes the center of learning away from the institutional course management system to a much broader dynamic student-centered technological ecosystem. It shifts the focus away from the traditional content textbook to a more skills-based curriculum that helps students search and process information, and most importantly manage all the content they create in the many different platforms. Moodle is one of these many tools in our learning ecosystems.
Here is a link to the quiz.  Good luck!


Sources:
McGonigal, Jane, "Gaming Can Make a Better World" Ted Talk, March 2010.<http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_betteworld.html>
"7 Things You Should Know About Navigating the E-Learning Ecosystem" EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, May 2012. <http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7084.pdf>