大学ICT推進協議会
2011年度年次大会 論文集

C10-1
Using Moodle for sairishu
Joseph Tomei and Akira Sakai
熊本学園大学jtomei@kumagaku.ac.jp/ a.t.sakai@gmail.com
Abstract: The Moodle system for e-learning has some formidable strengths and is generally
promoted as an all encompassing tool for CALL interaction related to coursework, but thosecome hand in hand with some high entry barriers. In this presentation, we will discuss utilizing
Moodle as an adjunct to a course in order to deal with the growing problem in Japanese tertiary
education of sairishu (students who are taking a course for a second time) in order to promoteregular study and participation in class goals. The specific module used was the Moodlereader
module and the course was a 2nd year writing class, but the more general lessons suggest apath to introducing moodle as a course component.

1. Introduction

earlier teaching and acquisition of basic

It is useful to step back for a moment andprocedures and better classroom management,

consider how the utilization of computers often

but also thru improvements in the software‘raises the bar’ for classroom requirements. Thisutilized and improved integration between

paper arose through work with a required

various software programs.

writing course for 2nd year students taught in a

But even as those expectations havedepartment of British and American studies atincreased, university education in Japana small private university taught in a blended

continues to face a number of challenges. While

CALL environment. When the course wasthere is insufficient space to detail all of these

initiated, regular posting to a blog was required

challenges, it is obvious that a larger and larger

and initially set at a minimum of 2500 wordsminority of students are unwilling or perhaps

per term. As entry barriers have decreased andunable to complete this amount of coursework.

various aspects of the the course have become

This presents the problem of how to deal withmore efficient, that word total has increased, so

these students in the framework of thethat currently students now are asked to write

university curriculum and in this paper, we will

10,000 words in the first term and 15,000 words

suggest that this offers an opportunity to utilize

in the second term or ten times that figure, ansome of the unique strengths of Moodle, either

increase that has taken place over the course of

as a class adjunct or with an eye to using it as aapproximately 5 years. (For a summary of thefull course requirement.

course, please see [1] and [2]) These numbers

2. Course Specifics

are not ceilings and students in the course

At this point, it is necessary to give someoccasionally greatly exceed these totals. This

specifics of the course in question. The 2nd year

has been accomplished not only by better andwriting curriculum is required for all students,― 228 ―大学ICT推進協議会
2011年度年次大会 論文集

who are streamed on the basis of an initial essay,requirements. (an overview of the use of blogs inalso taking into account the opinion of 1st year

this manner can be found in [4]) The course

teachers, and are required to make use of thedoes this for a number of reasons, some of which

Google suite of apps, which includes Blogger,

include reducing the management load on

the Google owned blogging portal. These blogs

teachers conducting the class, increasing

are the location to collect the student’s writingstudent computer literacy and responsibility,

so that it can be evaluated by class teacher.

allowing off campus access to assignments

Staffing restrictions have 4 of the sections

without security concerns, encouraging

taught by 2 part time teachers who are full time

students to deal with concerns over e-etiquetteteachers at another local university, while a fulland privacy and to allow student work to betime teacher teaches two of the sections. The

accessible after graduation. However, in thefull time teacher teaches two of the sections,case of repeating students, it is often the caseand in principal, students who have failed thethat they need more support and monitoring incourse the first time are assigned to the fullorder to complete course requirements. With

time teacher. However, as the requirements ofthat in mind, we have adopted moodle to act as

the class expand, the number of students who

a class portal for these repeating students,

fail the class increases, despite the fact that(sairishu).

other students are able to go over and above the2. Incorporating Moodle

course requirements. This presents a dilemma,

While this program has been progressing inin that by maintaining the requirements with

the Faculty of Foreign Languages, a separate

no added support may eventually overwhelm

approach to CALL was initiated in thethe system, making it impossible to teach the

Economics Department 10 years previously toclass because the number of so called ‘sairishu’create a distribution and materials

becomes unmanageable, but reducing themanagement system, and this effort led to therequirements for upper class students creates ause of a Moodle installation (currently version

situation where students may be encouraged to1.9.4) in 2007. Both of these efforts are notgame the system, and choose to fail in 2nd year

department wide, but only among interested

in the hope of reduced requirements in the 3rd orteachers, which led to this project.
While it would have been option to move the4th year. While this may not be a conscious
decision on the part of the student, anentire class to the moodle, this would haveunconscious choice on the part of a even a larger

entailed not only a reworking of all theminority than usual can overwhelm the system.

supplementary support materials for class, but

The writing course depends on a ‘small

would have increased the administrator load. Inthings loosely joined’ philosophy[3], relying on

addition, moving to a new software platformpublically available software platforms thatentails a potentially steep learning curve, so it

have no administrative management

is preferable to phase in such a move. While it is― 229 ―大学ICT推進協議会
2011年度年次大会 論文集

not planned to move completely to a moodle

only seen by sairishu students.

environment, this process allows teachers withless familiarity to moodle to become acquainted
with the software, which was the case for one of
the two authors.
Joining the moodle was made a requirement
for all students repeating the writing course. In
this way, the moodle course page could function
as a bulletin board to pass messages on toIn order to have students view the message

students without embarrassing them on aboard weekly, the Moodlereader module waspublic bulletin board. In order to make sureinstalled. These students are required tothat students checked the board, a requirement

complete one quiz each week, though, as

to take one quiz per week using thementioned earlier, the purpose of the quiz

MoodleReader module[5] (more details about themodule is being subverted, because no level ormodule available at moodlereader.org). The

minimum score is required.

MoodleReader module is designed to support anextensive reading component in the curriculum(see [6] and [7] for an introduction to Extensivereading) and is an effort to “offer teachers or
entire school systems a practical way to test
whether students have actually done thereading they claim to have done.”
While the system is geared to provide a way
to test students, in this case, the testing wasincidental to the primary function, which was to

3. Conclusion

require students to make a weekly check of theWhile this is the first term for this, use of

Moodle page associated with the class in case

Moodle in this way provides a framework to aid

they had failed to complete assignments or had

students who may require additional support

fallen behind. In this sense, using Moodle inand encouragement. Keeping this use in mind,

this way is delegated subversion[8], where thefurther work might be to create Moodle modules

software is used of a purpose outside of what itthat provide graphic representations of student

was originally designed for in order to better fillaccess to all teachers and students, or provide

needs that arise within the group.

scaffolding support for class material, or giveOne of the great virtues of a Moodle set up isthat it is a closed system, and this point makes

students access to other students who are also
in a similar situation.

it so the message board, as can be seen below, is― 230 ―Equally important, introduction in this way大学ICT推進協議会
2011年度年次大会 論文集

provides an adoption path for faculty members[7] Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top Ten

who may not want to move their course

Principles for Teaching Extensive

completely to Moodle, but want to work with theReading. Reading in a Foreign Language. 14 (2).

system. In this sense, this adoption path for

Retrieved fromMoodle could be the stone that takes care of two

http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/october2002/day/day.

birds.

html[8] Squires, David. (1999) Educational Softwareand Learning: Subversive Use and VolatileReferences

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