Interview: Mary Cooch, Author of Moodle 1.9 For Teaching 7-14 Year Olds: Beginners Guide

Mary Cooch is the author of Moodle 1.9 For Teaching 7-14 Year Olds: Beginners Guide which focuses on enhancing the learning and teaching of children using Moodle.

Currently based at Our Lady’s Catholic High School in Preston UK, Mary has taught Languages and Geography in the UK for over 20 years. A Moodle Certified Course Creator, she now spends part of her working week travelling the country as a VLE trainer specializing in Moodle. She regularly promotes its benefits in Junior and High schools and has a deep understanding of what works best for younger students. Known online as the moodlefairy, Mary is a frequent contributor to the help forums of Moodle.org where she aims to enthuse others with her passion for this open source Virtual Learning Environment. She also manages several geography web sites and even more Moodles.

Mary’s Moodle blog is at:http://www.moodleblog.org and she can be contacted for training or consultancy at training@olchs.lancs.sch.uk

Packt: How did you find the overall experience of writing your book for Packt?
Mary: Writing for Packt was ultimately very satisfying as it made me focus very clearly on the needs of my reader and tested my own teaching skills in trying to explain in simple steps how to approach the Moodle tasks covered. It was hard work at the time – but I feel I have learned a lot from the experience!

Packt: During the writing process, did you come across any issues/ difficulties that affected your writing and how did you overcome these?
Mary: I always knew what I wanted to say so there were no particular issues in that respect; however, sometimes I had to rewrite sections in order to get the balance right between moving the reader forward and ensuring the material was thoroughly covered.

Packt: Whilst writing your book, did you find that it overshadowed personal life in any way? How did you deal with this?
Mary: It DID take up a lot of my time. I admit – I had to produce 5000 words every fortnight and for someone who works full time, this meant I could only really work at the weekends. I discovered I wasn’t happy doing a half an hour here or there during the week, so I devoted my Saturday evenings and Sundays for months to writing the chapters. Fortunately, my children are now 20 and 18 and don’t need – or want – their mum’s attention, so that was fine!

Packt: Was there anything interesting that happened during the writing of the book?
Mary: Part of my job is to train teachers to use Moodle. As I was writing the first few chapters and going around other schools I would often get asked, “Do you know of any good books on Moodle for ordinary teachers?” I didn’t know quite how to phrase my answers at the time! However, I did find that writing the book helped my training –I’d expected it to work the other way round. A choice phrase or technique I used in the book would then find itself as part of my course the following week.

Packt: How did our Acquisition Editors help you - what kind of things did they help you with and how did they support you throughout the writing process?
Mary: My Acquisition Editor was extremely helpful in his practical advice. He suggested we use the Beginners’ Guide format for the book, and when I struggled to get the focus right, he helped me pitch it directly to the needs of teachers, whilst at the same time keeping to the specific format agreed.

Packt: Our authors usually have full-time jobs whilst writing for us. Was this the case for you and how did you approach managing your time?
Mary: Yes. I teach at Our Lady’s High School, Preston, Lancashire UK and I also train teachers in using Moodle. As mentioned before, I had to be rigorously disciplined in managing my time in order to meet the deadlines for each chapter.

Packt: What benefits did writing a book bring to your specialist area?
Mary: It taught me a lot! It has helped me develop my skills as a teacher and trainer. It has made me reflect on how best to phrase my explanations and it has also made me aware of how much more there is to learn about Moodle. The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.

Packt: Do you have any tips for other authors, or tricks that you learnt whilst writing, that you'd like to share?
Mary: Keep it simple! Don’t use a paragraph when a sentence will suffice. Try to inject some humor into your writing every now and then and use frequent examples to illustrate what you mean. Clear screenshots are vitally important as is a sense of achievement at the end of each chapter.

Packt: Do you have any advice for other authors who may be interested in writing for Packt, but are still unsure?
Mary: If you feel you have an idea for a book that hasn’t yet been written, and if you actually enjoy writing, then go for it! It IS an awful lot of work but the satisfaction you will get at the end knowing that your efforts are helping others new to your field of expertise makes it all worthwhile.

Packt: What projects, if any, are you working on at the moment?
Mary:At the moment, I am writing another Moodle book for Packt!