Moodle at BETT

Had a fine time at BETT yesterday (full report over at EdTechUK), most especially working the Moodle stand in the afternoon with a load of other team HUGToB people, including Edublog Award Best Newcomer nominee Stuart Yeates.

My throat is sore this morning! There were thankfully a lot of volunteers, talking to the endless waves of interested people about Moodle, demonstrating the platform, talking about our experiences of using it in our own institutions, and sharing tips. There was a real party atmosphere over at the Moodle stand, and I strongly advise anyone going along to BETT today or tomorrow to head over there, either to ask questions, meet team HUGToB members, or just to deliver an appreciative thanks to the volunteers for igniting the open source, free education spirit at BETT.

I talked to people from all over Europe yesterday, from junior through to adult education providers, interested individual teachers and government agencies. Everyone was keen to get stuck in to making the most of Moodle. I was asked all kinds of questions, but particularly:

Where can I find evaluation studies/reports?

Try here - Miles Berry's Junior School evaluation (PDF), Mood-le for OSS, evaluation of open source platforms (PDF), The Open Polytechnic of New Zeland evaluation report (PDF), the Moodle.org comparisons and advocacy forum

Where can I find a technical starter guide?

Try here: Moodle Administrator Documentation, Instillation FAQ

Where can I find training for my staff?

Try here: Pteppic.net, your JISC Regional Support Center, How To Moodle.

Where can I find examples of strategic approaches to Moodle roll outs and use?

- Try here: Bromley College case study, Penwith College example, Adult and Community Learning example, my Wyggeston & Queen Elizabeth I/Leicestershire colleges example, University of Glasgow Pilot (PowerPoint)

And of course, don't forget to check out the Moodle Community Forums and the rest of Moodle.org, and all the great stuff over at HUGToB. I'm sure I've missed out many great resources - please do let me know via the comments!

Comments

[Darren]

Don't forget Moodle Partner and HUGToB sponsor www.howtomoodle.co.uk for training :-)

[Josie]

Put it in! & I recommended their services extensively yesterday!

[Dale]

Indeed, Ray Lawrence of HowToMoodle has put in a sterling effort supporting the HUGToB stand, attending BETT every day in addition to a donation to the Cause. He's a Moodle Partner and offers a range of training options.

[Miles Berry]

Thanks for these Josie, and all your help on the stand. FWIW, my own evaluation of Moodle in a primary context is online at http://www.worldecitizens.net/ftp/Primary%20VLE.pdf

[Josie]

Thanks Miles – I’ll put it in the post. Of all the enquiries I fielded, I took the most from the primary (5 - 11 years old) sector. In the UK, these are the institutions with the thinnest network infrastructure, and the least internal technical support.

They’re looking (rightly) to Moodle to provide them with a simple and effective way for both classroom activities and having an external school presence, so that parents can have contact and engagement via the internet. A lot of them wanted to know where to go for hosting.

I really don’t understand what is preventing the regional network consortia in the UK from offering Moodle hosting as a matter of course. In fact I feel a small campaign coming on!

[Leon Cych]

re: Primary Schools

I believe a few schools are beginning to federate under NCSL schemes and are bringing in Moodle in this way. This is definitely a grass roots phenomenon that the RBC's will "have" to consider. I think it is a question of scope. The larger organisations really can't quite get beyond the fact that the small scale, person to person, everyday pedagogy is what it is all about - not big schemes. They are very much involved with larger scale players and cannot scale down IMO. But I believe Sussex is leading the way again :)