MoodleMoot 2017: The Dev Perspective

My highlight of the conference was being able to meet and network with developers from other institutions. The connections built at MoodleMoot are invaluable throughout the year when I am on chats and forums asking for help or advice. In addition, mixing with other devs keeps me up to date with trends and new tech.

Thanks to everyone participating with blocky @mootieuk #MootIEUK17 pic.twitter.com/FK3kgCQ5Gd

— Dan Poltawski (@dan_p) 11 April 2017

Hackfest

At the hackfest:

1. We learnt about new features in 3.2 and 3.3.
2. We wrote some recommendations for changes to core to aid course and category display.
3. I spent time with Tim Hunt (OU) in a group talking about testing. I found out about some new approaches and settings that will help my future development projects.
4. I heard lots of useful information about changes to the way Moodle produces output. This is something we will heavily rely on when designing our next theme.
5. I found out about a nice plugin which counts down maintenance periods with useful messages to users trying to access the system: auth/outage.

Post Hackfest drinks with Stuart Lamour (Moodlerooms), Naomi Wilce, David Aylmer (Tellit), David Scotson (Moodlerooms), Thomas Bell (Avado, formerly Floreum), and Bas Brands (Bootstrap Bas).

Moot Presentations

My favourite presentation was our one! I thought Natalia and Olivia were really enthusiastic and engaging. Those are the presentations I really enjoy. David Scotson & Stuart Lamour also did a high energy presentation on their theme Snap, and Davo Smith and Marcus Green were great fun with their Picos.

I learnt a lot about Learning Analytic standards. This will help inform me going forward when we start collecting data from Moodle. I found out about plugins such as Logstore xAPI which extracts LRS data from Moodle.

I also found the focus on Mobile very thought provoking. As Peter Dobinson said:’ We grew up with the Internet, the next generation are growing up with AI’. We do need to be reminded that our expectations are the not the same as the generations coming up behind us. And that a one size fits all approach is not appropriate when designing content.

Next Steps

Dan Poltawski talked about Global Search and the technicalities of setting it up and running it. I am currently working with Rob Caygill, our Platform Services Team Leader, on the test and design of our set up. So that was really helpful. I am going to share the recording with Rob.

So I have come away armed with useful tools and approaches to utilise in my work. I also have a few plugins to try out, most of which I have mentioned.

Finally, I’d like to express my deepest thanks to LEaD for sponsoring me to attend the conference. The opportunities, knowledge and motivation that I get from MoodleMoot is key to my development and a highlight of my working year.