Development of a new MOODLE module for a basic course on computer architecture

This work describes a new Moodle module, CTpractices, developed to give support to the practical content of a basic computer organization course. Within a constructivist pedagocical aproach Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment)[1], a very popular Learning Management Systema (LMS), provides a highly configurable web-based interface that includes a wide range of activities which are, in general, sufficient for a standard course. Nevertheless, when dealing with specific subjects, some functional features are missed, as it is the case when teaching a basic course on computer architecture, an essential topic in the computer science curricula. It involves practical assignments consisting on the design and simulation of elementary processors by means of CAD tools making use of schematic or VHDL design entries.

Currently the University of Malaga is making an increasing effort oriented to the successfull implementation of the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) system. This involves changing the teaching practices carried out traditionally [2], looking towards the developing of assessment mechanisms in order to increase the student?s active effort. In our course, in order to better guide the students, teachers should perform a functional evaluation using a simulation tool to verify whether the students? designs work or not according to the specifications. This is a very time consuming task, becoming a common bottleneck when looking for a continuous assessment of students. One key element of the new CTpractices module is the automatic checking and verification engine that keeps information about the current state of students work, supplying automatic assessment features and feedback to the student. Teachers can modify the project description and define different testing benches. The module stores historical information concerning the results of the different evaluations, extracting statistics and metrics which are very useful when determining the student workload in the context of the ETS model. Additionally, this new module is oriented to promote a collaborative teamwork allowing to define student teams in a more operative way than built-in moodle groups. Other basic aspects supported are material repository, deadlines, hosting, etc.

The new module inherits a part of its functionality from a specific LMS previously developed by the authors, that has been in use from academic year 2004 [3], widely proving its usefulness. It has been re-designed according to the Moodle philosophy, making possible to easily extend its application to other similar subjects. The choice for Moodle is motivated by its modular organization based on free software like PHP and MySQL. From the developer point of view, this allows to add new modules using well-known interfaces. As Moodle is currently used by the Virtual Campus of our university, this new module breaks the isolation of the previous platform as refers to activities like forums, messages or event signaling.