CFDL launches Moodle User Group @ USP (MUGU) site

Professor Rajesh Chandra launching the MUGU
site.

Over 50 USP teaching staff gathered for the launch of the Moodle User Group @ USP (MUGU) site on Thursday, 4 December. The site which was launched by USP Vice Chancellor, Professor Rajesh Chandra, was set up to facilitate and support discussions and sharing of ideas and practices of online learning and teaching among USP teaching staff.

While launching the site, Professor Chandra said that although the launch marks the end of the AusAID funded Moodle project, it does not signal the end of USP’s commitment to eLearning. He expressed the University’s commitment to expanding access to eLearning and highlighted its potential in improving the learning experience of all students, especially those in the regional campuses and centres.

Moreover, he also emphasised that the University’s objective is to deliver flexible learning and that online technologies such as Moodle are tools to support pedagogical principles. To this end, he expressed the need for incentives and support structures at the University to motivate and assist academics with new pedagogical approaches – and the potential of Moodle to enable these new approaches.

Helen Lentell, Director of Centre for Flexible and Distance Learning (CFDL) commented on the establishment of a Moodle User Group as a key step in bringing together users to share their practices and their experiences, to support each other’s efforts and innovations in enhancing the quality of learning and teaching at USP.

The MUGU site which is accessible by all teaching staff that use Moodle, is user driven. Although initiated by CFDL, it was developed by users for users. Ms. Lentell urged all attendees to visit the site and take an active role in its ongoing development.

The occasion was also used to launch Getting started with Moodle: a student guide, a new publication by CFDL. Valentine Hazelman, the production team leader, said that introduction and adoption of eLearning at USP required provision of support not only for the teaching staff, but also for students. This publication, he added, was a quick and easy reference designed to introduce students to the basics of online learning and some basic Moodle tools. A getting started guide for instructors would follow shortly.