I'm very happy with how my VLE looks. I think it has a very simplistic layout which I think is very important. I have used sites like Moodle and I think the layout can be very over complicated, and you often have to follow a long path before you can get to the resource you were looking for.
I also like that the students have had some input to the VLE. I think it looks very much like their site, and I think it should be! If you want students to log on and use something frequently then it should at least be appealing to them.
But in practice I don't see this being successful. I am not dismissing the Weebly Educational site I think it's fantastic. Nor am I dismissing all the work I have put into it. I just think that the students need consistency. The rest of the college use Moodle as the VLE, and I don't see any point in creating a separate one for one class. As a student I would find this very frustrating, I would rather everything just be on one site.
Previously I didn't have specific resources for topics on my VLE, and I had links to pinterest boards, video tutorials and handouts. But I realised that this isn't enough, I decided to create a section which contains various resources for certain topics.
On each topic there are various resources to help the students either revist the lesson or learn more.
Specfically on the Digital SLR section I have added another link to the Pinterest board I used during the lesson. I created a quiz using quizlet to try and get the students to remember the different pharses they learnt for this lesson. Finally I have also included 3 images from the workshop which the students liked.
I'm glad I went back and added these sections because I felt there was a lot missing. If I hadn't put these in I think I wouldn't be using the VLE to it's full potential. The extra resources available will help the students remember the work they did during the lesson as it was at the beginning of my placement.
Quizlet is a website that allows you to create learning tools for you students. You can create your own or search for the subject you would like. But creating your own is very straight forward. All you have to do is add your own topics and the explanations. The website then creates different ways for your students to learn these.
At the top are the different ways the information can be presented. Each one is different, the study subjects are more formal but there are game versions.
I have created two 'sets' and have embedded two games into my VLE. With the nature of the course I am on they don't need to learn facts and they don't have exams. I feel this website is more aimed at subjects where revision is needed.
But it is definitely a more interactive way of learning facts if they need to or refreshing their memories.
The website I used to create my VLE is Weebly. I tried a few different websites but I found them very limited with the design, and very limited with the amount of space. I used Weebly to build my photography website, and I find it extremely easy to use, it has plenty of space and it is well designed. So I was very happy to find out that Weebly had another website builder for education.
I hadn't seen this website builder before, so I had to do a bit of research to see if it would work as a VLE. With this version you can add a class to your website, each student gets a log in, and they each get there own basic web page. I'm not sure if I am going to get the students to use their own web page as part of the class because I don't think I will have enough time to go through it with them, as they have a lot of deadlines coming up. But I will encourage them to use it in their own time.
I kept the design for the website quite simple at the moment as the students are still getting used to it. But for the home page of the website I plan to have a gallery of the students work.
The builder has a two or three different ways of displaying images, I am hoping to have something like these two on the front page, but with the student's work. I haven't quite decided which one I prefer.
The website also allows for students to submit their work online and you get it in an email. I have recently tried this with my students. The only problem we encountered was that you could only upload one submission at a time. Since I was getting the students to upload between 4-6 photographs, this proved difficult. I have suggested from now on that the students create PDF files and upload them instead of each individual image.
I am looking forward to adding more resources to this website and to see how it develops!
