AN EVALUATION STRATEGY FOR THE MOODLE LEARNING

ENVIRONMENT BASED ON BLOOMS TAXONOMY

Emily Bagarukayo, Theo P. van der Weide

Faculty of Computing & IT, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Jude Lubega

Department of IT, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

Keywords: Learning Environment, Blooms Digital Taxonomy, Moodle, Higher Order Cognitive Skills.

Abstract: Learning environments are based on core foundations, describing how knowledge is acquired and used, the

underlying pedagogical philosophy, the supported learning process, the role of technique and culture, and

related pragmatics. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy (BDT) describes the various thinking skills, ranging from

low to high order thinking skills. We relate the learning environment Moodle to BDT by relating the core

foundations with the thinking skills. We evaluate Moodle from different points of views: - methods,

effectiveness and comparison with the existing learning environments.

1 INTRODUCTION

A Learning Environment (LE) is the setting where

learning occurs, and maybe virtual or physical.

Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning

Environment (Moodle) is an open source e-learning

platform, using sound pedagogical principles, to

help educators create effective online learning

communities with a focus on interaction and

collaboration content construction (Dougiamas,

2004). The creator believes that a LE should be

created by an educator (Dougiamas and Taylor,

2002). Moodle presents a platform for resources and

communication tools with basic features of a

filtering system, tools for creating resources and

activities, which provide various options for the

tutor. It contains tools and techniques distilled from

the educators’ experiences to make the processes

easy, flexible and provide a variety of activity

modules like forums, chat rooms, assignments,

quizzes, surveys, workshops, lessons, glossary,

database, choice, SCORM, and the wiki.

In this paper we evaluate Moodle based on BDT.

This paper is organized as follows. In section 1 we

discuss the presentation of the information. Section

2 focuses on Blooms Taxonomy. In section 3 we

discuss the effect of ICTs on Higher Order

Cognitive Skills (HOCS) attainment. In section 4 we

discuss the effectiveness of Moodle in relation to

BDT. Finally, section 5 derives some conclusions

and future research.

2 BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

Bloom, (1956) developed the taxonomy of

Educational Objectives, a key tool in structuring and

understanding the learning process. The taxonomy is

a classification for different objectives and skills that

are necessary for learners in various curricula

(Bloom, 1956; Forehand, 2005). Bloom’s Taxonomy

identifies a hierarchical progression to categorize

lower to higher order levels of cognitive processing.

The main objective of the learning process is to

create a holistic learner. The elements of the original

domain cover many classroom activities and

objectives; however they do not make use of the new

objectives presented by the emergence and

integration of ICTs into the classroom and the lives

of students. Bloom identified three overlapping

domains, each with various levels to be addressed,

422

Bagarukayo E., P. van der Weide T. and Lubega J..

AN EVALUATION STRATEGY FOR THE MOODLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT BASED ON BLOOMS TAXONOMY.

DOI: 10.5220/0003342004220426

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2011), pages 422-426

ISBN: 978-989-8425-49-2

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

and proposed that learning fits into one of three

psychological domains.

• Cognitive domain: 'what we know ' –

processing information, knowledge and

mental skills (knowledge)

• Psychomotor domain: 'how we do' –

manipulative, manual or physical skills

(Skills)

• Affective domain: 'how we feel' – attitudes

and feelings, growth in feelings or emotional

areas.

3 IMPACT OF ICT ON HOCS

Ball and Garton, (2005) show the concept of Higher

Order Cognitive Skills (HOCS) was derived from

Blooms Taxonomy. Bagarukayo and Mbarika,

(2008) highlight the search by educators for new

approaches to enhance HOCS. The authors further

acknowledge the need to create active customized

LEs for learner motivation and continuous learning

desire. ICT provides better options to present

learning material and enables effective

communication between those involved in the

learning process, thereby promoting collaborative

learning.

3.1 Cognitive Domain: BDT

BDT is an update to BRT to account for the new

behaviors, actions and learning opportunities

emerging as technology advances and includes

digital technologies and digital cognitive objectives

(Anderson and Krathwol, 2001). BDT aims at

addressing the advances in technology, insights and

their applications in the field of academia. In order

to let the learning process benefit from modern

technology and new insights, BDT uses tools to

facilitate learning.

Table 1: Cognitive Domain in a Digital Context.

Cognitive Domain

Level Definition Digital Support

Creating

designing, constructing,

lanning, producing, inventing,

devising, making,

rogramming, filming,

animating, Blogging,

voicethread,

wikispaces

blogs,

mind maps,

podcasts

Evaluating

checking, hypothesising,

critiquing, experimenting,

judging, testing commenting,

reviewing, posting,

moderating, collaborating,

networking,

wikipedia, google

alerts,

forums, chat

rooms,blogs,

journals, vlog

Analysing

Comparing, organizing,

deconstructing, attributing,

outline, finding, structuring,

integrating,

google docs, CC

mindomo, remix,

blogs, glossary,

Application

implementing,u sing,

executing, running, loading,

laying, operating, hacking,

uploading, sharing, editing.

go2web2.0, voki,

picasa,

SCORM,video

odcasts, flash

games,

Understanding

Interpreting, Summarizing,

inferring, paraphrasing,

classifying, comparing,

explaining, exemplifying

Advanced searching,

Ted, skype,

twitter, journal,

log, glossary,

database, RSS

feeder

Remembering

Recognising, listing,

describing, identifying,

retrieving, naming, Bullet

ointing, highlighting,

bookmarking, social

networking, searching

youtube, yahoo,

google, blogs,

wikis, quizzes,

lesson (flash

card)

3.2 Affective Domain in a Digital

Context

The various skill levels of the affective domain may

also benefit from modern ICTs, as summarized in

table 2:

Table 2: Affective Domain in a Digital Context.

Affective Domain

Level Definition Digital Support

Receiving

The lowest level where

students

assively pay

attention.

presentation tools,

Notice boards,

Discussion boards

Responding

Attending to stimulus,

leading to some type of

reaction from them.

interactive

communication

tools- email chat

Valuing

Assign some value to an

object, phenomenon or piece

of information.

White boards,

editting tools

Organizing

putting together different

values, information, ideas

accommodating them with

own knowledge

Graphical tools /

figures, calenders

Characterizing

have a particular value or

belief that now influences

their behavior becomes a

characteristics.

Personalised content

presentation tools

AN EVALUATION STRATEGY FOR THE MOODLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT BASED ON BLOOMS

TAXONOMY

423

3.3 Psychomotor Domain in a Digital

Context

The digital techniques provide better options for

monitoring the acquiring of skills in the

psychomotor domain. ICT techniques as shown in

table 3 are less prominent, since skill development

requires specialized techniques to support the

training of the skill under consideration.

Table 3: Psychomotor Domain in a Digital Context.

Psychomotor Domain

Level Definition Digital support

1. Observing

Active mental

attending of a

physical event.

software agents

2. Imitating

Attempted copying of

a physical behavior.

Virtualization, simulation

3. Practicing

Trying a specific

hysical activity over

and over.

Multimedia, video games,

4. Adapting

Fine tuning. Making

minor adjustments in

the physical activity

in order to perfect it.

video games

4 MOODLE EVALUATION

4.1 Methodological Evaluation

An analysis of Moodle was conducted using a

framework developed by (Land and Hannafin,

2000), designed as a guide for developing

constructivist LEs. According to (Land and

Hannafin, 1997), “LEs, directed as well as

constructivist, are rooted in five core foundations:

psychological, pedagogical, technological, cultural,

and pragmatic”. We introduce a methodology

framework as systems of aspect for characterizing

and comparing methodologies (Proper, 1994), based

on a model of Seligmann (Figure 4.1). The figure

illustrates the aspects:

Figure 1: Matching Core Foundations to Methodology.

We interpret the core foundations of LEs within

this methodology framework. The psychological

foundations are all LEs, which explicitly or tacitly,

reflect underlying beliefs about how knowledge is

acquired and used. Psychological foundations reflect

views about how individuals acquire, organize, and

deploy knowledge and skills.

Figure 2: Core Foundations of Moodle.

The pedagogical foundation influences focus on the

activities, methods, and structures of the LE, and

emphasizes how an environment is designed. The

technological foundation is related to the way of

supporting and represents how the capabilities and

limitations of technologies can be optimized.

Technological capabilities suggest what is possible

through advances in technology. The cultural

foundation reflects prevailing beliefs about

education, values of a culture, and roles of

individuals in society. The pragmatic foundation

bridges the gap between theory and reality by

emphasizing the practical reasons an approach can

or cannot be used in a given LE. This foundation is

related to the way of conceiving and working. The

core foundations for LEs benefit by two extra core

foundations of the way of learning and controlling.

4.2 Moodle Effectiveness based on BRT

We discuss the effectiveness of the Moodle LE in

terms of BDT. If we focus at the way of supporting

aspect of Moodle, then we see that each skill level

has a number of techniques to allow effective

support for the activities at that level. The activities

highly supported by Web 2.0 applications available

in Moodle are summarized in table 4 (Dougiamas,

2004).

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424

Table 4: Moodle and BDT Relationship.

Cognitive Level

Moodle Support

Creating

Collaborative wikis, blogs, workshop,

assignment based uploads, mind maps,

upload video, pod casts, publish documents,

lesson plan

Evaluating

Discussion forums, collaborative wikis,

blogs, chat rooms, forum with peer

evaluation, assignment based uploads,

journal for reviewing own learning,

assessment viewing

Analysing

Survey & choices within moodle, database,

glossary creation, wikis, blogs, assignment

uploads (MS word, Excel)

Applying

Use of SCORM e.g. NLN, upload screen

capture, upload slide share, audio / video

podcasts, play embedded flash games,

collaborative moodle wikis (editing),

assignment upload

Understanding

blogs, journal, collaborative wiki, glossary,

database, RSS feeder (masgables e.g. voice

threads)

Remembering

Moodle glossary, blogs, wikis, moodle

quizzes, moodle lesson (flash card),

complete search activity

4.3 Evaluation of Moodle Functionality

Putting into perspective what Moodle can offer in

relation to the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (BRT),

an evaluation of Moodle functionality was done with

a randomly selected students’ group that accessed it.

The information was analyzed (figure 4) and

presents Moodle as the central technology that can

uphold the BRT levels through its functionality

associations. The six functionalities (Camilleri,

2009) Moodle presents in perspective of the BRT for

evaluating LEs include Tutor support, Peer Support,

Interpretation, Relevance, Reflection and

interactivity. The functionalities are embedded in

Moodle tools and closely linked to the BRT. From

the figure, we note that there is association between

the functionalities and BRT:

• Tutor Support looks at adequately supporting

the entire learning process by the tutors. It is

observed that there is an association between

creating, applying, remembering and evaluating

levels of BRT. The tools that are associated

with these levels aid in providing effective

Tutor Support.

• The Peer Support looks at how peers within the

learning technology support each other to

achieve learning objectives. It associates with

applying, remembering and evaluating levels of

BRT. Through the tools peers can effectively

evaluate what support to provide after

remembering, and then applying what they

know through peer support.

• Interpretation is closely linked to Moodle’s

ability to allow users interpret information

before using it. BRT levels that closely

associate with this functionality include

analyzing, understanding and applying. Users

first analyze information, understand and apply

what is relevant in different contexts.

• Relevance focuses on the ability to select a tool

that adheres to the appropriate learning style to

undertake an effective learning process.

Relevance associates with the analyzing,

understanding and evaluation BRT levels.

Being able to use the appropriate tool involves

the user analyzing what works best for them in

their state and having good understanding of

the learning process. If learning occurs the tool

can be evaluated for effectiveness. Moodle is

relevant coz it enables students to use critical

thinking, on the highest level of BRT

Figure 3: Moodle Functionality Benchmark in Relation to

BRT.

• Reflection addresses the users’ ability to think

and understand what is presented to them. After

reflection they can use their understanding to

carry out other learning activities. The BRT

levels associated with this functionality include

evaluation, understanding and remembering.

When a user interacts with the functionality,

they are interested in evaluating what will lead

to understanding and storing that knowledge.

• Interactivity allows the use of Moodle in

different ways depending on the different

learning styles. This contributes to the biggest

percentage of usage and is associated with the

creating and remembering BRT levels. Users

can utilize the available tools to create learning

activities through which they can have a good

understanding of the entire learning process.

AN EVALUATION STRATEGY FOR THE MOODLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT BASED ON BLOOMS

TAXONOMY

425

These skills are relevant to the students’

professional practices because they prepare

them for the work force where they are part of

discussions before problem solving, decision

making, and critical reflection for improving

their HOCS.

4.4 Moodle & Learning Environments

Moodle is free, can be modified anytime, designed

to take large numbers of students and has a vast

array of interactive tools (Camilleri, 2009). He

suggests that Moodle does not time out when not in

use, is not limited to a whiteboard tool, and has more

than one type of forum depending on particular

needs. With Blackboard, one is immediately notified

of any announcements and an icon, indicating what

new material is available. First Class Navigation is

simple to use, emails, features a Bulletin Board

System and online conferencing, and allows for

synchronous and asynchronous communication.

However, new content or mail have to be searched

for manually in the various folders on the home page

and it has a very outdated welcome screen which

contains a clutter of folders, not suitable to use with

large groups simultaneously. Moodle’s shortcoming

is that it lacks modern Synchronous e-learning

features like hosting virtual classrooms (Lalos et al.,

2009). The authors emphasize the need to provide

synchronous learning features for successful e-

learning program implementation. We conclude that

Moodle offers an impressive set of tools to support a

DPL environment as compared to other LEs.

5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE

WORK

We discussed Moodle in terms of the

methodological framework, and its effectiveness

based on BRT. Furthermore we discussed Moodle in

comparison to other LEs. Our main conclusion is

that a recursive approach can be beneficial, leading

to an unbounded depth in its approach. We would

expect and propose a two-dimensional support

approach in which the development of learning

material is seen as the creative process to disclose a

knowledge domain, that requires the core

dimensions to be offered as a basic part of the LE.

We acknowledge that the revised taxonomy is not a

cumulative hierarchy as the original. The revised

taxonomy also identifies four general types of

knowledge: factual, conceptual, procedural and meta

cognitve which make up knowledge dimension. We

shall integrate these into our evaluation for future

research.

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