PMC4648204_01
Landing page for students on the learning management systems.. (
a) Previous layout with week-by-week arrangement, typical of many courses; (
b) Menu buttons and themes positioned on the front page.
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The course had always had a 'Quick links' section at the top of the page (as seen in Figure 2b).
Example of front page of the learning management system, demonstrating how the content is organised into themes with arresting images.. Pictures from Creative Commons.
Image of scientists: Mars-discovery-district; Image of globe:
Kotomi.
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Each section in the new configuration has its own image and description to guide the students quickly to course material that they need ( Figure 3).
Science communication for the 21st Century..  Question of the week - a Moodle polling activity. Students view a short video or image and are asked to participate in a poll. Video:
Science communication for the 21st Century.
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Again, the information was organised in a consistent format, designed to fit on a single screen of a computer, (see Figure 4) incorporating a short introduction, a list of learning outcomes, and a list of things to do post-lecture, called ' Something to read' (content and further reading), 'Something to do' (a related activity) , 'Something to think about' (opportunity to reflect, extend and apply the learning.).
Schematic of layout of the page and logic connecting the various activities available through the learning management system.
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The learning pathway was designed to guide the learner through clearly sign-posted themes and topics in order to help the students understand the progressive and cumulative building of knowledge; and to help them synthesise and apply the key concepts ( Figure 5).
Example of a web page that accompanies one of the lectures.. The same structure every week to create expectations of learning activity. The students are directed to
the video BBC: Science and Islam - Part 1 in "Something to Do".
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A typical layout and introduction for each 'lecture' activity is shown in Figure 6.
Percentage of students who Agreed, Somewhat agreed, Somewhat Disagreed or Disagreed with ten statements about various aspects of the revised structure of the learning management system (N=68).. The full text of the questions is in
Supplementary Data. The complete dataset is available as a.csv file.
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Students were particularly positive to the questions about the navigation of the site, with 80.5% agreeing that the navigation was logical (Question 2), and the information easily accessible ( Figure 7).