Bloom's taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy is a system for categorising learning activities according to the type of thinking they involve. The scheme suggests that lower order knowledge is needed before higher order analysis can be undertaken. Each element of Moodle's diverse toolset can be used in a variety of ways, so here are some suggestions for what can be done for each level.

Remember

Resources

Provide any information you can, taking care to either avoid overwhelming them, or to provide specific instructions on what to do with it, e.g. what information to look for when watching a video on You tube. This could be as a label above the activity. SCORM and IMS content packages can present some text, animation or video and ask questions about what has just been learned. They are available from commercial providers, or you can make your own using packages such as eXe (open source) or Camtasia.

Glossary

Provides ways to get students to find definitions of key terms.

• Make a glossary and add some terms. Then get the students to find the definitions, either by assigning one or more words to each person, or asking them to fill them in as a group. Add a time limit if in a classroom for extra edge in encouraging cooperation.
• Make a glossary and show the students how it works, then leave them to fill it in themselves over time.

Understand

Quiz Module

• Create a quiz for your students to take demonstrating what they have learned during your course. The variety of question options in the quiz module can test for different levels of comprehension.

Apply

Glossary

• Provide a list of terms and ask students to define them based on course readings and activities.
• Ask students to work together to create their own glossary from terms found throughout the course.

Analyse

• Set up a forum with ratings on. Put the students into 2 groups and give them time to prepare arguments for a debate. Then, set them going on the forum and specify that they must make at least 2 posts each.

Evaluate

Blog

• Set a task for the students to do where they are to write a reflective piece of text about e.g. a painting or an article. For more motivation, and to make them interested in reading each other's work, allow them to choose from a selection, or give a broad topic e.g. 'impressionism' and send them off to find something.

Create

Wiki

• Set a group task to build a wiki page on a particular topic. It is good to set several groups different topics, with the second part of the activity being to use the information the other groups have collected to answer a series of questions, prepare a debate or similar.