As institutions learn more about how to sustainably tweak (customise) their Moodle environments to better service their unique needs, we are starting to see some very interesting examples of practice emerge; one’s that will not necessarily be seen on the Moodle Docs, Tracker, or Forums. One of these is the advent of a new course format developed by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) called the Flexi Format. This new format allows both 'Week' sections and 'Topic' sections to appear in the same course. Included in this format is also two new ‘sections’ called ‘Getting Started’ and 'Assessment' aligned with a customized navigation block. Assessment, for example, has built-in smarts, providing the ability to draw in data via an abstraction layer from the Student Management System; 'People Soft', along with other automated features. However, this could be adapted to draw data from other system, such as Student One, Callista, etc. This presentation will demonstrate how this new course format looks and works, and will provide a rationale as to why it is been developed, but more importantly, why it has been seen as such a great way forward by many academics at USQ. In simple terms, it has given academic staff the ability to provide a more unique/customised experience for their students, while at the same time it allows the university to provide more consistency in how these courses will appear to students.

1. Implementing a new Flexi Format,
the how’s and whyfor’s
Associate Professor Michael Sankey
Director, Learning Environments and Media

2. Introduction
• As we learn more about how to
sustainably customise our Moodle’s
to meet our needs, we’re seeing very
interesting examples of practice emerge
• One is the advent of a new course format we
call Flexi Format
• It allows both 'Week' sections and 'Topic'
sections to appear in the same course
• But that’s not all, it also has ‘sections’ called
‘Getting Started’ and 'Assessment‘.
• all aligned with our adapted navigation block

3. • This presentation will demo
this new course format
• Explain why it has been done
• And why it’s seen as such a great way
forward by many academic staff
• Actually its quite simple, it provides them
with the ability to provide a more
customised experience for their students
• But allows the university to provide more
consistency in how the courses appear
• But first some context

4. Enrolled students USQ
• All students 28,100+
• On-campus 7,600
• External/online 20,500 (73%)
• International 6,000 (1,100 ONC)
All USQ students access their information online
Campuses in Toowoomba, Springfield, Ipswich,
Stanthorpe and Sydney
Most students and staff know what they’re getting
themselves in for when they come to USQ 

5. Some current strategies
• Every course has an online presence
• Every student has a named person to contact
• Minimum standards for all courses
• Threshold expectations – a common wireframe
• Significant media enhancement R available
• Strong focus on the Student Learning Journey
(SLJ) and personal learning environment (PLE)
• Increased emphasis on enabling staff

6. The context – our VLE
USQ StudyDesk
Student facing
USQ StaffDesk
Staff training and
playground
USQ OpenDesk
OERs and
Community
based courses
Repository (Equella)
eLOR and other collections
ePortfolio (Mahara)
Portal (Drupal)
USQ Website (Sitecore)

7. Accessing the Student Voice
Professor Geoff Scott in his report Accessing
the Student Voice (2005) concluded that ‘it is
the whole experience that matters to students.
Students are not concerned about whether or
not a particular interaction is academic or
administrative, but they are concerned about the
quality of the interaction. In this context, the quality
of interactions in the pre-enrolment phase is just as
important as the quality of face-to-face and/or virtual
interactions in academic study or in completing study
(including graduation ceremony and membership of
the Alumni Network)’.

8. Digital fluency
• Many students are not as digitally
literate as we would like to think
• The same goes for quite a few staff
• But we have told them they must do
everything online
• And the students tell us they want
consistency, consistency, consistency

9. Facilitating consistency
• Consistency is not sameness
• But if you want to make your materials
flexible there first needs to be a level of
consistency
• Students want to be able to go from
one course to the next and know where
to find stuff

11. Flexi Format

13. • Editing Off
• Hidden areas
seen only by the
lecturer

14. • But with editing on
• The lecturer can now
set up their course in a
logical format

16. • Assessments all
appear together
• Built-in smarts, to
draw in data via
an abstraction
layer from our
SMS; 'People Soft',
along with other
automated
features.
• This can be
adapted for other
systems, such as
Student One,
Callista, etc.

17. You are not alone
• We are all part of a global learning
community
• Others are very willing to help
• Either through the forums, but now
through the Moodle Users Association
• None-of-us can do it on our own
• ‘No man is an Island, entire of itself,
every man is a piece of the continent, a
part of the main’
• John Donne (1624) ‘Devotions upon Emergent Occasions’