Moodle Masters Sandy Day and Leone Knight

AN audit of Weston College's virtual learning environment has revealed a number of courses meeting its high new standards.

The Moodle learning platform is used by all College students and staff to upload work, share files, post video tutorials and link to other useful online resources.

Each course has their own Moodle platform, and Moodle itself is divided into four levels of standard, including the top level 'Moodle Master', which encourages staff to make the platform as effective and interactive as possible.

Now, a variety of courses have met or surpassed the criteria for Moodle Master, including Children's Learning and Development, Women's Hairdressing, Hair and Media Make-Up and Electrical, among others.

Amy Palmer, Weston College's Lead Learning Technologist, is responsible for overseeing the Moodle programme. She said: "At first we had Bronze, Silver and Gold standards but we found a lack of enthusiasm for it and so we changed it to 'Must Have', 'Marvellous', 'Mind Blowing' and 'Master' and we have seen a huge increase in competition among staff to achieve the highest levels.

"Moodle is an essential part of every Weston College student's course and it's great that staff have become so engaged in it because it represents the way education is going in terms of online development. The engagement the staff have with Moodle, as well as the buy in from the senior management team, is beyond anything we could have even hoped it would be."

To gain Moodle Master status, staff have to work through the 'Must Have', 'Marvellous' and 'Mind Blowing' levels before reaching 'Master'. To qualify for that, they need to show an employability section, social media links, online SCORM content, good course layout and statistics on the course, showing it is regularly used, plus two of the Mind-Blowing criteria, five of the Marvellous and all of the Must-Haves.

Hair and Beauty lecturer Sandy Day said: "The learning journey is the foundation of all student success. I am honoured to be a small part of my students' life path and love to excite and ignite the passion for their chosen career. To help me instill the love of learning for my students I am a keen believer in the continuation of learning outside the classroom. In order for me to provide my learners with the most captivating and exciting college platform to enhance this, I use Moodle for all these opportunities.

"I'm delighted that this resulted in achieving Moodle Master as it simply reflects the enjoyment and use my learners are getting from using the Weston College VLE system."

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Weston College courses meet virtual learning environments high standards