We learned a lot in this chapter about communicating online. If we are going to convert our courses to Moodle, then communicating and communicating well is more vital than ever. You won't be able to use the kinds of gestures, expressions, and verbal clues that you would normally use to talk to people in the real world. We saw how you could use forums and chat rooms as teaching tools, and Moodle messages as a course administration tool.
Specifically, we covered:
How to add a chat room to a Moodle course—using Moodle's very own built-in instant messaging system (like MSN). A Moodle chat room allows students to talk in real-time when they (or we) are out of the classroom. We explored the pros and the cons of using this activity.
You can announce when you are going to be available for a chat, and we learned how to add a mini calendar to our course front pages to make it easy for students to see what course-related events are about to happen.
How debates and discussions could be held online...