As part of an increased emphasis on online learning at UCLA, the Common Collaboration and Learning Environment ““ commonly known as CCLE ““ staff recently upgraded the shared course management system’s features and capabilities.
The system for the UCLA campus ““ housed on an openly available website called Moodle ““ now offers students and faculty the option to drag files directly onto the website, comment on the course applications and track their assignments throughout the quarter.
CCLE was first launched in 2007.Until this summer, CCLE was based on an older version of Moodle that was set to expire. The CCLE staff prepared for the switch to a newer version throughout the past year. The changes to the system went into effect in June, which allowed the CCLE team to work out kinks before the school year started, said CCLE Coordinator Curtis Fornadley.
“We knew this was coming,” Fornadley said. “Our customizations to CCLE had to be redone or improved to go with the new program.”
The site’s updates are part of a larger trend of instruction moving online, he added. –
“Since 2007, the whole concept of online instruction and hybrid instruction is coming into its own,” Fornadley said. “It’s the new normal for learning. … It’s motivation for staying current.”
Additional new features include a web design that is compatible with smartphones and tablets and an updated overall aesthetic.
Course instructors must enable many of the new features for students to use them, such as creating a checklist of their assignments and commenting on the course webpages.
Wendie Robbins, a professor in the UCLA School of Nursing, said she and her colleagues have used a few of the new features, including the option to drag and drop files, like documents, directly onto the website.
“I (also) like the new way it looks,” Robbins said. “We have always loved Moodle (in the nursing department), and have embraced it as a teaching tool.”
The nursing school is planning to hold a training session to teach professors and staff how to use and navigate the upgraded website, she added. The department also sometimes uses the calendar feature on the site to synchronize course and exam deadlines, she said.
Michael Cohen, a psychology graduate student, said he was fine with the way the forums worked last year, and has not noticed many changes.
As a teaching assistant, Cohen has access to administrative privileges for the site, but said he has not used them to offer additional features for students.
“We create this shell for an instructor to build their course ““ if they don’t put it in their course, then it’s not going to get used,” Fornadley said.
The new features can be particularly useful for smaller courses, said Michael Alfaro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
“I can tell that (the new CCLE) is a bit easier to use,” Alfaro said. “It seems easier to move material around and get it to the students … but I haven’t taken advantage of any of the interactive features yet.”
The staff at CCLE is also currently working on a project to preview course syllabi on the sites before students enroll in their respective classes, Fornadley said. He added that the staff hopes to launch the new capability for students and faculty by winter quarter.
“Technology moves forward and you have to move with it ““ in that sense (we’re) never quite done,” he said.
Contributing reports by Alexia Boyarsky, Bruin staff.