Vietnam neonatal programme powered by Moodle mobile
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Anne Moylan, Lecturer in School of Health & Social Care, was developing a new short course in neonatal nurse education to be delivered at one of Vietnam’s largest hospitals. The course was to run in conjunction with the charity Newborn Vietnam, and to be taught in Vietnamese through a translator by English speaking teachers. Anne needed an online learning platform to support the programme and approached her long time Learning Technology Advisor, Natalia McLaren, for advice and support. The key considerations were:
- materials needed to be available in both English and Vietnamese
- access to materials would be primarily via student’s mobile phone
- students would not be enrolled via the usual matriculation process.
Therefore the materials were delivered on the Moodle Community server to provide regulation of access for external students, and where the Vietnamese language plugin was made available. The official Moodle Mobile App was recommended as the best platform for accessing materials on mobile phones, hence content added to the course needed to be compatible with the app, and accessible on small screens.
The learning materials and activities
The introduction of an online learning environment to support learning was initially met with scepticism from Vietnam collaborates. However due to the positive feedback received from the first cohort of students, the decision was made to stop providing printed material for the second cohort of students. All the learning content was delivered in Moodle books in both English and Vietnamese.
Interactive quizzes were also included, and the recommendation of Padlet to create a gallery for students post photos of their time on course was positively received.
Working in partnership
This is great example of how academics and Learning Technology Advisors can work together in the delivery of accessible learning. Natalia designed mobile friendly content and activities in both English and Vietnamese, and provided general support such as creating videos to help students get orientated in the Moodle app, support with the use of tools such as Padlet, and managing of user accounts and enrolment on the Moodle Community site. This was appreciated by Anne;
“The Vietnamese Moodle is looking great! I don’t know what I would do without you; you are such an asset to the university”
Student Feedback
This mobile friendly approach was appreciated by the students as illustrated by the following feedback;
“For me, I like studying in Moodle. It has Vietnamese version so it is easy to find the documents and easy to interact. The English version gives me a chance to learn English words related to my profession. More importantly, I can study everywhere and every time without having to bring too many books with me. However, I wished that the lecturers had been updated sooner so that we could study them before coming to class, especially for some difficult lectures”
“This is the first time I have used the virtual learning platform Moodle and I feel that it is very effective. I do not even need to sit in front of a computer, but only with a smartphone, I can study everywhere and every time. I can send photos and express my feelings to the mentors”
“Allows the access everywhere and every time. Does not take too much time searching for the documents. Apart from reading, the platform also has a gallery which provides us photos and videos that helps us to record memorable moments together.”
“Provide the feedback section after each two weeks that helps the professors and students understand each other better and helps the professors to know what students want to learn and what they like and dislike about the course”
More details of Anne’s neonatal nurse education programme in Vietnam can be found on the University website.
About the Moodle mobile app
Increasingly students are accessing Moodle on their mobile phones and so it’s a good idea to install the app on your phone and check how well your Moodle course is optimised for the small screen.
The official mobile app is available to download from Google Play and Apple app stores, and the following video shows how students can add the official Moodle app to the iNapier app.
https://onlinevideo.napier.ac.uk/Play/15264.