How important are Forms in Moodle and Why?
Here’s an eye-opener for you. When learners move from the traditional style of classroom learning to the relatively modern e-Learning, Retention rates increase by as much as 6x!
You must be thinking I’m making up figures, right? Well, not really!
According to The Research Institute of America, eLearning increases retention rates 25% to 60% while retention rates of face-to-face training are very low in comparison: 8% to 10%.
Rising Popularity of e-Learning
Owing to these figures, and a lot more, e-Learning has picked up pace, in replacing traditional methods of learning. More and more educational institutes and businesses are switching to online learning.
In such a vast e-Learning domain, Moodle is definitely that one e-Learning Ecosystem which stands out.
Moodle has been expanding and growing in all domains, rapidly, increasing its usability and complexity to new levels…
But in such complexity and feature-richness, we somehow have failed to realize how learners miss out on certain important things…
The Red Flags
Unlike regular classrooms, learners are isolated, they don’t have access to simple things like face-to-face interactions with the teachers.
This inevitably means your students won’t feel a 2-way connect with you. If your learners ever face any issues while taking up the course, they might end up feeling stranded. The same applies even for scenarios like giving course feedback.
There needs to be an efficient system in place, that’ll open up the scope to learners, for giving feedback, asking for support and so on.
Goes without saying then, forms are the need of the hour in Moodle.
But, can Forms for Moodle solve all such problems?
Turns out they can, in the following ways:
Get Feedback from your Learners:
Keeping continual technical advancements in mind, you need to always keep your course content up to date. You should also be aware of any loopholes, and once found, you must correct these.
This analysis and correction can be made possible by a proper feedback system set in place.
With forms in Moodle, course creators, as well as teachers, will be able to get feedback from their learners.
Forms are ideal to collect feedback because they are unobtrusive. Students can fill up a form at their own convenience. You can decide the fields you need to get specific feedback.
Use-cases: Course Feedback Form, Website Feedback Form, Surveys, etc.
Collect User Data:
Data collection is absolutely necessary for any company or organization to function, analyze and improvise.
Without a proper data collection and storing system in place, a company is bound to face the wrath of a user-centric business world.
That being said, you can benefit from data collection as well. By collecting data and evaluating the user data set, you can work and improve your course quality in those specific departments.
This will consequently help in modifying course content according to the characteristics of the segment(s) majority of your learners belong to.
Since each trainer/course has different needs, forms can be customized to collect data based on the type of course content. For example, for courses specific to college students, a university name can be requested when enrolling for the course; this can help you analyse the popularity of your courses as per university, to further help you tailor your content accordingly.
Use-cases: Contact Us Form, Course Inquiry Form, Registration Form, etc.
Easing out the Support Process:
e-Learning courses need your constant attention. The curtains never really go down, when it’s about your involvement with the course and its learners.
You need to be in constant touch with your learners right till the very end. Your learners might end up getting stuck somewhere, or might even have a very basic concern. If not addressed, this could prove to be a major hindrance, leading to students losing interest and possibly dropping out.
Forms for Moodle can be effectively used, to counter this problem, and prove to be a game-changing solution. As opposed to forums, where a support query could get lost in the noise, forms can help you create a database of issues. These queries can then be analysed to better your course offering.
Use-Cases: Course support, Bug Reporting, Additional Feature Request, etc.
Simplifying Course Sales:
Looking to launch a course, but want it to be limited only to a fixed number of subscribers? Or maybe you want to release the beta version of your course only to the first 100 people.
The traditional way of “Pick and Choose” would be time-consuming as well as tedious. Forms for Moodle would open up another path to achieving the same.
You could include a form on your Moodle, and notify your learners to fill it. Once filled, you can then consider the first ‘x’ entries in the next stage of your new course’s sales funnel.
Use-Cases: Beta Course Versions. Early-bird offers for limited courses, etc.
Get subscribers for Newsletters:
There’s one marketing thumb rule that you must follow at all times. That, pertaining to student engagement.
“Always offer more value than what the client signed up for.”
Do that, and you’ll have your learners hooked to your courses, forever and beyond.
Sounds too poetic, right? I’ve got a fact for you! 😉
According to Macquarie’s 2015/16 Accounting and Financial Services Benchmarking Report, 79 percent of firms that earned above-average profits last year said “adding value” for existing clients was their main driver of profitability.
Newsletters are a tried and tested way of offering more value to your clients. And guess what? You can do the same with your learners. Offer them more value.
“But how will Forms for Moodle help me?!”
Let me answer that for you. You can create forms having one of the fields as “Fields of interest”. Once your learners are done filling the form, you can start sending them the newsletters they opted for.
Use-cases: Newsletter subscription form, Update notification form, New Course notification form
The Final Take
The number of roles Forms can take up in Moodle are far too many.
And that’s enough substance to understand how integral Forms for Moodle are, and could be, even in the near future. It’s all about improving a student’s experience on your site, and giving them the same opportunities they would have in a real classroom, and more!
What do you feel? Where all can forms be ideally implemented on Moodle? Let us know in the comments section below! 🙂
Psst… Feedback, good and bad, appreciated.
And you know the best part? I have a Forms for Moodle solution right here for you! Check it out now.
