Impact of different Moodle Course Designs on Students' Performance

Authors

  • Gustavo R. Alves ISEP / IPP
  • Maria C. Viegas ISEP /IPP
  • Maria A. Marques ISEP / IPP
  • Maria C. Costa-Lobo UPT
  • Antonio A. Silva ESE / IPP
  • Francieli Formanski UFSC
  • Juarez B. da Silva UFSC

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v3iS2.2397

Keywords:

Moodle resources, studentsâ?? performance, remote laboratories

Abstract


This work describes the impact of different teachers’ approaches in using Moodle, for supporting their courses, at the Polytechnic of Porto - School of Engineering. The study covers five different courses, from different degrees and different years, and includes a number of Moodle resources especially supporting laboratory classes. These and other active resources are particularly analyzed in order to evaluate students’ adherence to them. One particular course includes a number of remote experiments, made available through VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) and directly accessible through links included in the Moodle course page. The collected data have been correlated with students’ classifications in the lab component and in the exam, each one weighting 50% of their final marks. This analysis benefited from the existence of different teachers’ approaches, which resulted in a diversity of Moodle-supported environments. Conclusions point to the existence of a positive correlation factor between the number of Moodle accesses and the final exam grade, although the quality of the resources made available by the teachers seems to be preponderant over its quantity. In addition, different students perspectives were found regarding active resources: while some seem to encourage students to participate (for instance online quiz or online reports), others, more demanding, are unable to stimulate the majority of them.

Author Biographies

Gustavo R. Alves, ISEP / IPP

Adjunct professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto

Maria C. Viegas, ISEP /IPP

Adjunct professor at the Department of Physics, School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto

Maria A. Marques, ISEP / IPP

Adjunct professor at the Department of Physics, School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto

Maria C. Costa-Lobo, UPT

Assistant professor at the Department of Educational Sciences and Heritage, University Portucalense

Antonio A. Silva, ESE / IPP

Coordinator professor at the School of Education, Polytechnic of Porto

Francieli Formanski, UFSC

Visiting student at the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto

Juarez B. da Silva, UFSC

Adjunct professor at the Department of Computer Science, Federal University of Santa Catarina.

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Published

2013-02-27

How to Cite

Alves, G. R., Viegas, M. C., Marques, M. A., Costa-Lobo, M. C., Silva, A. A., Formanski, F., & da Silva, J. B. (2013). Impact of different Moodle Course Designs on Students’ Performance. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 3(S2), pp. 18–22. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v3iS2.2397

Issue

Section

Special Focus Papers