On August 15, 2025, the Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement (CTLE) hosted a faculty webinar exploring strategies to help educators start their semester strong while leveraging enhanced e-learning tools. Led by Dr. Chris Fulton (CTLE), with valuable contributions from Miguel Costa (FST) and Dr. Alice Lee (FAH), the session presented “A Tale of Two Teachers” – contrasting traditional and participatory approaches to semester beginnings.

The webinar addressed how educators can effectively use the newly updated Moodle 4.5, Microsoft Forms, and the new GetMarked.ai tool to enhance their teaching practices, regardless of their pedagogical approach.

Two Paths to Starting Strong

Dr. Fulton framed the discussion around two teaching approaches:

  • Traditional clarity: Emphasizing clear structure and well-organized content delivery
  • Participatory design: Focusing on shared decision-making, student agency, and collaborative learning environments

Miguel Costa represented the traditional perspective, emphasizing the importance of clear expectations and structured learning, particularly for large classes and foundational courses. Dr. Alice Lee championed the participatory approach, sharing how giving students agency can lead to deeper engagement.

Key Strategies and Tools Discussed

The presenters demonstrated practical applications of several tools:

Moodle 4.5 Updates: The new TinyMCE editor makes copy-paste functionality much better, allowing teachers to create more accessible, mobile-friendly syllabi directly in Moodle pages rather than PDFs.

Microsoft Forms: Ideal for quick in-class polls with QR codes, though scores aren’t recorded directly in Moodle. The tool can be integrated directly into PowerPoint presentations for seamless interactive sessions.

GetMarked.ai: A new pilot service that converts documents with quiz questions into Moodle-compatible formats, significantly reducing the time needed to create and import quizzes, especially useful when incorporating student-generated questions.

Faculty Experiences

Dr. Alice Lee shared insights on letting students co-create grading criteria for assignments, noting that while colleagues worried students would set low standards, the opposite occurred when students worked in groups to define what makes good work.

Miguel Costa stressed the importance of aligning student and teacher expectations through surveys, providing concrete data like study hours typically needed for different grades, while maintaining essential foundational knowledge requirements.

Looking Forward

The session concluded with the recognition that most educators fall somewhere in the middle ground, combining structured flexibility with guided student choice. As participants noted, the key is finding the right balance for your students and context.

(Slides are available)

Visit ctle.um.edu.mo for more resources and upcoming professional development events.