Article Title:Implementing a Course Delivery System to Assist 9th Grade Students with English Research Projects by Stephen M. Dolney

The problem for this article was that the 9th grade students had to complete a research project based on the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. The students had to explain its significance to the text. The project required the students to do research on their own and in class, as well as work collaboratively. Even though the school subscribed to many online databases (much like many schools) the students tendent to ignore them because they were cumbersome to access from home because of necessary passwords. There were 19 special education students as well as students who did not test into any of the magnet schools and were from the Interdisciplinary studies program.

The variables being tested using the course management system Moodle were:

Knowledge or the historical context To Kill a Mocking Bird
Student fulfillment of the project requirements
students displaying a positive attitude towards Moodle

The variables were tested by student presentation for the historical context, self assessment for the requirements, and the final requirement would be met if "at least 70% of the students agreed with or agreed strongly with statements on the self assessment" (p. 58 of the reading)

The results indicated that the project was an overwhelming success. A large chunk of the students (97%) completed the project. The self assessment indicated that students did indeed complete the project early or on time. The results for the third requirement were what interest me most, "students overwhelmingly indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with all nine statements on the survey." (p. 62 of the reading)

I thought the study was done very well, I have only had minor interactions with Moodle myself but I found it to be very useful and interesting when I did use it. It was interesting to me to see that so many students in a high school setting found it useful. I have seen professors use it at a college level and I feel that after reading this study that it could easily be brought down to lower grade levels with success.

Moodle or other course delivery systems can be very useful in many fields, for me I feel that Moodle could be a great way for companies to train their staff on new software or hardware. It seems as if you could use this for a quick lesson or a whole project.

I would explain a course delivery system to my colleagues as a flexible learning system that allows educators to craft lessons and allows students to view and submit material as necessary. A course delivery system can also be used to monitor the progress of students.