I attended MoodleMoot for the first time in my career as an educational technologist. I was unsure of what to expect (besides the hints from the program outline) and I wasn’t disappointed. It was a series of great presentations focused not only on the technical side of the platform but also on showcasing pedagogic use of different tools and plugins from institutions like Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Bath, and GAC Corporate Academy.
Key Takeaways and Trends
The enthusiasm and passion that people showed towards Moodle and their own Moodle sites was exceptional. Over the few past years Moodle has often been criticised for its limitations when it comes to fostering innovation in the ed tech community. It was very refreshing to listen and see how people overcome these limitations by creating great Moodle sites and even more exciting content.
My favourite presentation was from University of Vaasa who showed their My Moodle homepage. It displays student metrics including where they are in their modules and what is ahead of them, such as exam and assessment information, detailed timetable.
Delivering learning via mobile devices is a high priority and seems to be a key development initiative for Moodle to become more accessible and flexible. There were a few sessions on content design for mobile devices stimulating a great discussion around the use of mobile devices in the educational sector. We heard strong support for use of mobiles in teaching to stimulate interaction and social learning.
H5P was also winning the stage. H5P it’s a free content creation tool that allows you to build interactive content even if you don’t know how to code. The tool allows you to add interactive activities, quizzes and video resources.
As promised, here’s my presentation on #H5P and Bootstrap. Much better with the right slides! #MootIEUK17 https://t.co/FLf68aEsGC @poodllguy
— Dan Jeffries (@developwithdan) April 13, 2017
Our Work
The Moot was also a great opportunity to showcase some of the work we’ve been doing at City. We presented on what we discovered about Moodle through our evaluation of the system with staff and students, using focus groups and usability sessions in City’s Interaction Lab.
What we discovered about Moodle https://t.co/RfBMVi1qu3 via @SlideShare #MootIEUK17
— Olivia (@livvyfox) April 13, 2017
Hearing those in the know say positive things about what we’re doing was really encouraging and made it all even more worthwhile. Special thanks to Ben from Moodlefactsnd for featuring us on your blog post.
Last but not least, I came away from the MoodleMoot having met a whole bunch of great people and gaining a few practical insights on how to “moodle” better. I am looking forward to implementing these ideas in practice.
