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MOODLE, A KEY TOOL FOR TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE EHEA (EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA). IMPLEMENTATION OF LEARNING STRATEGIES IN THE EDUCATION DEGREE (E.U. SORIA)
Universidad de Valladolid (SPAIN)
About this paper:
Appears in: EDULEARN11 Proceedings
Publication year: 2011
Pages: 1995-2004
ISBN: 978-84-615-0441-1
ISSN: 2340-1117
Conference name: 3rd International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 4-6 July, 2011
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Abstract:
The arrival of the new EHEA has implied a deep change both for teachers and students inside and outside the classrooms. Teachers are not just lecturers anymore, and the student’s role has been deeply modified: they are now responsible for their own learning process. Students have to develop skills and competences and need to achieve objectives through lectures but also, and in some cases more importantly, by means of self learning. And this is where Moodle can play an essential role.
This Virtual Learning Environment can be used as a very helpful tool to implement blended learning in university degrees. And it is precisely this what our paper analyses: the role Moodle has had in the implementation of the subject English in the new Teaching Studies Degree, adapted to Bologna’s plan: Moodle as a space for carrying out collaborative work, monitoring students’ progresses, fulfilling self learning and self assessment, promoting autonomous learning and being the means of communication not only among peers but also in a bilateral communication between students and the teacher.
Moodle offers a wide choice of possibilities for English teaching, and this paper aims to explain different ways in which it has been used not only as a support for lessons but also as a working area for uploading materials, handing in assignments, establishing forums, proposing tests and quizzes, making glossaries, etc.
In short, this paper will describe the use of Moodle as a key piece in the design and implementation, through blended learning, of the subject English for Teaching Studies.
Keywords:
EFL, IT, Moodle, blended learning.