Section 9.3. Effective Glossary Practices

9.3. Effective Glossary Practices

A glossary can be an important part of your course. As we discussed earlier, learning vocabulary in a new field can be one of the biggest challenges to new learners. As an expert in your field, you are comfortable using the important terms and concepts in your area of expertise. Your students, however, are not experts. They may be just starting to learn new words representing new ideas and concepts. More advanced students will need to refine their learned definitions with subtle improvements to make the definitions more useful.

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Tip: As an experiment, go to the library and randomly choose a journal article in an area outside your field. As you read the article, does it make sense to you? Notice the number of unfamiliar terms, or familiar terms that seem to be used in a different way than you are used to.

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9.3.1. Glossary Basics

At it's most basic, Moodle's glossary can be used like a regular word list for a class. You can develop a list of terms you know students find difficult or confusing and make the list and definitions available for your class.

If you want to get more in-depth, I recommend creating either a weekly or chapter-based word list. Students can use it as they do weekly readings and assignments. A weekly glossary can make it easier for students to organize their learning process.

9.3.2. Creative Glossary Strategies

While a basic glossary is important, creatively applying the glossary can really make an impact on your class.

9.3.2.1. Collaborative glossaries

Instead of creating a glossary on your own, why not have the students create them as they encounter unfamiliar terms? A collaborative glossary can serve as a focal point for collaboration in a course. Each member of the class could be assigned to contribute a term, a definition, or comments on submitted definitions. Multiple definitions can be rated by you and by the students, with the highest-rated definitions accepted for the final class glossary.

When students are responsible for creating the definitions, they are much more likely to remember the word and the correct definition. Engaging in the process of learning, debating, and refining a glossary can go a long way toward helping students begin using new terms.

You can also structure multiple glossaries over the course of a semester. Break them up by unit, chapter, week, or any other organizational structure.

If you have a large class, assign student teams to come up with definitions and answers. One strategy for managing large courses is to make each team responsible for one week's worth of definitions, while all the other teams must rate and comment. Alternatively, each team could be responsible for one definition per chapter and then rate and comment on the other teams' work.

To set up a collaborative glossary, create a new glossary for each unit with the following options:

• Glossary type: Secondary glossary.

• Students can add entries: Yes.

• Duplicate Entries Allowed: If you want teams to be able to submit multiple definitions for rating, select Yes.

• Allow comments on entries: Yes.

• Default approval status: Yes.

• Allow entries to be rated: Yes By Everyone.

The other options are up to you. Once you've selected the above options, students can add their own definitions, rate each other's, and add comments.

9.3.2.2. Credit for word use

This is a combination strategy using the forum and the autolink feature of the glossary. After you and your students have defined the glossary terms, it's important for students to begin practicing using the words in realistic contexts. Students, however, are usually reluctant to experiment with new terms. With the autolinking feature, it's easy to spot when a glossary word has been used in a forum or in a posting on the web site.

To encourage word use, assign a portion of the credit students receive for their forum postings for correct use of glossary terms. As you or other students rate posts, you can quickly scan for highlighted glossary words and award points for usage. You may even want to break the score down further. Perhaps award one point for using the word and two points for using it correctly.