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[old34]

I came across a promising looking online class management system today.  I signed up, and had a community set up for my classes next semester in less than an hour. The site:
http://www/edmodo.com

We've had a discussion on the Saloon before about the topic of online grade books; to wit, here:
http://raoulschinasaloon.com/index.php?topic=5551.0

which focussed primarily on a system called Engrade:
http://www.engrade.com/

I looked at that system at the time, and it was good. Excellent really. But for me, it didn't fit my own workflow. I didn't need a grade book as I am happy with the system I wrote myself in 1991 (in Lotus 1-2-3) updated through Windows Excel, and perfected with Apple's iWorks Numbers). For those without their own system/workflow and especially at a departmental level, Engrade is an excellent solution. (The main thing I didn't like about it was it required the teacher to input their entire class list in Engrade's format and assign each student with a unique ID number and each student would then have to register and include their own personal unique ID number for access. Da mafan for the teacher and student.

So here's how Edmodo works: The teacher registers and sets up the "community" for his/her class. That community has one single ID number. You give the number to your students and they log in and register and paste the ID number in the registration and they are added to the class. This is much, much easier to get students into the community cohort then assigning separate ID numbers for each student and asking them to remember them and then register.

Features of Edmodo I like and that are easy to implement (Engrade probably matches some/all of these):
1. Teacher can post a "note" to the class or privately to a student, or to all your classes.
2. Teacher can use the Calendar to post each weeks topics/lessons. If you're teaching more than one section of the same class each week, you can post it to all Class Calendars with a single click.
3. Students can post a "note" and send it to all classmates or to you privately. This will be a boon to students who won't asks questions in class or on;line for fear of "losing face."
4. Polls can be created for fun or function.
5. Assignments can be posted both on the community and on the Calendar and students can do the assignments and send them to Teacher privately through the system. Time limits can be applied.
6. Teacher can set up Quizzes for completion online and submission to Teacher.
7. BIGGEST BENEFIT: Materials can be uploaded to the Class Community such as PPTs, Articles, etc. which you want to share with your students. You can post it as a note with the attached file,which the students can download immediately, but it also gets sent to a section of your Class Community called "The Library" where it stays for future use. You can even set up folders within The Library to accumulate various materials for different topics.

I've been using Apple's iDisk for a few years for online access for my students to download stuff from my classes. But iDisk will be discontinued next June and I've been looking for alternatives which is how I stumbled across Edmodo today. This is even better than iDisk because it's got an educational interface and I can limit access to only my own students. As far as I can tell so far, Edmodo's limit is 100MB per FILE with no apparent max limit. That should be more than enough.

Anyway, it's super easy for students to register; just give them the website address and your class code and they are automatically added unlike Engrade. it's worth a look.

[The Local Dialect]

That's awesome 34, I need something like this for my AP US History class that I just started teaching. There is soooo much material that it is absolutely imperative that the students have access to. So far they've been bringing their flash drives and copying from my laptop, but this would be much more efficient.

Thanks for sharing!

[old34]

Mei guanxi.

I'm curious....you were an Engrade user in the original post. How does Edmodo stack up or down?

[xwarrior]

Thanks mate - just what I need!

 

[The Local Dialect]

Mei guanxi.

I'm curious....you were an Engrade user in the original post. How does Edmodo stack up or down?

So far I like this better. I liked Engrade because it would do the grade figuring for me and I'm hopeless with Excel spreadsheets. That said, my students didn't really seem to use it as much as I'd hoped. Probably they lost their login info or were just too lazy to keep up with it, or just plain didn't care. I'm at a different school now though (a key public school with a class that is headed to top American schools -- they've got their sights set on Yale, Brown, Princeton type schools -- rather than taking the gaokao) and the kids are super bright and motivated. I have no doubt if I give them the ID that there are quite a few that will be all over it. The grades aren't really as important to me this time around as they were before because the focus here is really on the AP exam in May.

But like you said the biggets benefit is the storage. Some of the PPTs I've made for this class are really large -- 20-30MB. There there are loads of primary sources for reading, practice tests for the AP exam, and even full on e-books (since they don't really have access to actual good history texts in the flesh). I can't carry all of that stuff around on a flash disk all semester. The storage is really brilliant.

[old34]

Yeah, I just wanted to double-check the free storage. Here's what it said:

You can add any type of file (photo, video, document, etc.), in any format, or add web links to your library.  Your library has unlimited storage space, however, each piece of content added must be under 100MB.

[old34]

Oh, and if you have an Android or iPad/iPhone/iPod, they have a free App to connect to your community, too for whatever that is worth.

[mlaeux]

Fantastic resource! Thanks for sharing. 

[Stil]

Nice one old34

[El Macho]

It looks nice and seems to have some really good features, but I'm skeptical of these sorts of resources.

Basically, students (and everyone else on the internet) already have a number of social networking sites that they already use: twitter, facebook, weibo, renren, qqzone, etc. My experience (both as a teacher and as a student) has been that most students aren't interested in adding an additional social site to their regular browsing habits if that site is for a single class.

I think the best tact for engaging students outside the classroom is to make use of those resources students already use. I have been using weibo to engage students outside of the classroom. I've found that students are more willing to use weibo to communicate than email, text messages, or phone calls. (When students don't want to mention something to me directly, they'll make a general comment with my handle in it, e.g. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to write for @elmacho's class".) Students also like to send things to me via QQ. Personally, I hate mucking about with QQ, but since the students like it, whatever.

I use and like engrade because it is straightforward for the students. I've previously used and liked moodle, but in the end just couldn't be assed with maintaining my own domain with an installation of it. (Also, students *claimed* to have problems with it.) Online submission of work is really nice, but my experience has been that for many students living on campus, internet infrastructure in the dormitories is so poor that submitting work online can be a problem.

[BrandeX]

QQ/Weibo are perhaps the best bet. Any online utility with no Chinese interface would be sure to be a flop with students at my school.

[old34]

I guess it all depends on your workflow. Of course I use QQ, QQ groups, Weibo, Tencent Weibo, Chinaren and 5467.com to stay in touch with students and classes, present and past. I do a lot of projects and I need to keep organized and to manage project groups. None of those solutions work for that.

Our uni has Blackboard and the interface can be switched between Chinese and English. But setting it up is onerous as it only takes the class list format the university uses which I don't like. Few teachers (Chinese or Foreign) and fewer students even know the system exists. Going on Blackboard, which they've had for more than 5 years, I can see that less than a half dozen classes have ever been attempted in 5 years.

As I mentioned in my original post, I need to circulate lots of extra material to classes. I've used Apple's MobileMe iDisk for that for the last 4 years. I give the address to the students and they can and do go there to download stuff. They can also drop stuff there for me to a private dropbox like homework assignments, papers, materials they think I'd like, etc. A side benefit (IMO) is that iDisk requires a non-IE browser like Firefox or Safari for Windows. Last semester I had a project which required every student in all my classes to download an XLS file, complete it, and upload or email their version to me. I had 100% success rate. That is every student was able to install a new browser, go to the site (with its English interface, download the file, complete it in Excel, re-upload or email it back to me. At least a half dozen students thanked me for weaning them off IE. They were amazed at the speed increase. That was an unintended consequence of the project.

But Apple is discontinuing MobileMe and iDisk in June and it was in my search for a new, free way to handle that main aspect of my workflow that I stumbled across Edmodo. That it is education/teaching-based was a bonus. In fact, I really like it's Library feature best. I can upload all the stuff I use for various classes and projects and it sets up like a bookshelf. I can then drag what's useful to whichever classes need it and stick it in their Library without, like in iDisk, having all lessons and materials publicly available to any student who knows the address. I can also post a rough syllabus in the Calendar so the students know what's coming up. I'm not going to use it so much for the chat feature-students do prefer QQ and the Weibos for that.

I've already set up the Calendar for all 17 weeks and I'm busy stocking the Library today.

I'm not asking them to come to my Edmodo to chat, but to get necessary materials and resources, check the calendar, occasionally poll them on things like what kind of project do they want to do this semester, etc. Nor will I use its Gradebook feature, as I mentioned.

I had 100% participation last semester in getting them to iDisk so I'm not worried about their Internet access, ability to handle a minimal English interface, or motivation. Your mileage may vary, but I put up the resource so folks could take a look at it and see if some or all of it features might make your class management easier or, even better, inspire some ideas on ways to supplement your lessons and classes. You don't have to uninstall QQ or quit using Weibo to use Edmodo.

[old34]

Update:

So at the end of week 3 of the semester, 123 of my 125 students have registered at my Edmodo class. The other two, I think, have dropped my class probably because the other teacher teaching the same section plays more games. The three new students who added my class will hopefully join this week.

So far most of the students seem to be into it. The "Badges" feature has been by far the most popular. I award them badges for doing certain things. When they first register and get their Profile, there are three questions in the Profile. I award one badge for joining and one  badge for each question that they answer.

The first question is "What's your favorite quote?" (and I think Edmodo supplies them with a laundry list of famous quotes-I'm just guessing this because those who have listed favorite quotes....well the English is perfect and it includes a citation of the originator-I haven't viewed it from the student side yet. Maybe I need to set up a dummy account ala Raoul and nolefan.) Anyway, for supplying that, they get a badge.

The second question in their Profile is "What's your favored Learning Style?" with three choices available: Visually//Listening/Hands-on.  Edmodo gives me a running tally on this. One of the three has garnered a 54% share while the two others are running at 24% and 20% .  Anyone care to speculate how those 3 choices shake-out in the group?  For answering this question, they get another badge.  This question is the important one to me as I've spent the first two weeks with them talking about Learning Theory, how people learn, Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and, last week, the MBTI AND how  Personality influences learning styles. (Kill me if I'm beginning to sound too much like old Calach before he went to the Business Dark Side.)  The three choices offered up by Edmodo roughly match up with Gardner's Visual/Spatial (Visually),  Verbal/Linguistic (Listening), and Body/Kinesthetic (Hands-on).  The data that Edmodo provided to me based on my students responses was very helpful in connecting my lesson to my student cohort.

The third question in their profile was about Career Goals. Edmodo gives them three generic areas to choose from, and then drills down to 4 or 5 choices within those areas. These are sophomore students (English majors). At the end of this semester, they have to choose a direction in which to pursue their English major and so this question forces them to focus on what choice they might make at the end of this semester. It also feeds me info on what kinds of lessons to provide later in the semester (once they get past the TEM4 in April. Again, a badge for providing an answer.

The Poll function of Edmodo has also been useful, and a lot of fun. I can give them a poll about certain topics. Answers are anonymous to me and them so there's little risk to them in voicing their preferences. I've put up about two polls a week so far (6 total) and the response rate has been excellent. And I've gotten a good sample of their opinions on various stuff. I can't award a participation badge for this because polls are anonymous, so I have no idea who did and didn't take a particular poll.

I wasn't going to use the Quiz function at all when I started the group. But I realized this weekend that this was a good way to review the previous week's work so today I added my first quiz, but made it non-graded, non-required. Because the Quiz function marks, records and reports to the teacher the results, I can know who took it and what was their score (and which questions they missed). I had under-estimated this function at first and wasn't planning to use it. I told the students that these weekly quizzes (5 questions) will not count towards their final grade, it is not required, their score is irrelevant, just take the damn thing. The reward: one badge for taking it whatever the score, and one badge for getting 100%. I made the quiz fairly basic with 2 or 3 semi-humorous choices per question to lower their quiz-affective filter. 

Within 10 minutes of posting the Quiz, I already had 7 submissions and the 2 best of the 7 students each missed one (different) question.  I did it kind of for fun today, but the initial results of the first 7 in gives me some feedback on what's getting through and what isn't.

Downsides:
1. Getting students to register was pretty easy. just give them the Class Code. Eighty percent registered after the first week and peer pressure took care of the rest. But getting those 20% to ween themselves off of their other social networking choices and at least check in once in awhile is still an ongoing issue. Peer pressure is helping with that.

2. There is an App for Edmodo for iPhone and Android. That should be a positive, but I'm finding that the ones who have download it are using it in their other classes. I have a few students who are doing My Edmodo stuff while they are in someone else's classroom. And when I post these polls or quizzes online and get these immediate results within 5 minutes, these guys are doing it through their smartphones.

3. Edmodo, by default, sends out emails to you whenever anything happens in the Group and this has annoyed quite a few of the students. They can tailor Notifications, but I had to point that out to them and how to do it.

4. I didn't set a protocol for them in signing up. I just told them go there, click "I'm a Student", and then register. The website uses, of course, the western protocol of First Name/Last Name. Among my 123 students, I've got all manner of registrations including 10 who registered their name entirely in Chinese characters with half of those using their Family Name first and half using their Family Name Last. Then I have a mix of Pinyin-some First/Last some Family/Given. Then I have some who use their English Frist Name and Chinese Family Name (in Pinyin). So my name list is a mess, but I'm getting to know my students names better. In retrospect, when I do this again, I'll have them use their English name as their First name and their FULL Chinese name (in Pinyin) as their "Last Name." Why? Because most students only know their fellow students by their real Chinese names. So "Kathy Wang" which is easy for me, may not be so easy for the class mates in a class where 5 girls are named Wang.

Well, this has gone on far too long, but since I started this thread on Edmodo, I thought I'd follow-up with how it's going. It's going well, despite some of the early naysayers' opinions.

[xwarrior]

old34, thanks for pointing me in the direction of Edmodo.

Edmodo is worth its weight in Marmite for the Library function alone. In my first semester at this college I struggled to provide my students with a limited range of photocopied material; Edmodo has allowed me to provide them with a full range of resource material.

Most of the material I have uploaded is in pdf format and that seems to work out ok - the 'View' function overcomes the need to have Adobe, or some other reader, installed.I upload my PowerPoint at the end of each unit so that has cut down on the number of requests to copy them off my computer. With all assignments and tests posted (and tied in with the Calendar) students have clear idea of their work schedule in the weeks ahead. Your latest posting has given me some other ideas to explore.

I am not sure at this stage, but it seems to me that one great feature of Edmodo is that it may cut down on my workload in future years - most of my resources will already be available and accessible in one place.

  

  

[Sam Smith]

Excellent post --- very informative!