Moodle USA

In 2006 the Instructional Technology Council, an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges, said they would like for Martin Dougiamas, developer of the Moodle learning system, tod keynote their ITC Annual Conference. im+m’s Jon Allen and remote-Learner.net’s CEO Bryan Williams made that happen. They also wanted to bring the “MoodleMoot” to the U.S. Sean Keogh pioneered the Moots in the UK in 2004. He said “A MoodleMoot is, […] a conference dedicated to users, developers and administrators of the very popular open-source VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) called ‘Moodle.’”

In the subsequent two years there were Moots in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Italy, France, the UK and, in a somewhat different form, the U.S.

Jon scheduled the event for Friday and Saturday before the ITC Conference began on Sunday. He invited Jason Cole, author of “Using Moodle” and then Product Development Manager of The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, to deliver the Saturday keynote and to sign copies of his book. Approximately 100 educators attended the Moot. In addition some ITC participants attended.

In 2007 Jon organized a similar MoodleMoot before the ITC Conference in Albuquerque. Kevin Kelly, then Manager of Online Teaching and Learning at San Francisco State University, keynoted the Moot.  Also in 2007, Jon and Jason organized a UK Moot hosted by The Open University, with over 200 attending live and an additional 50 attending remotely.  Keynote presentations were delivered by Martin Dougiamas and Niall Sclater, President of The Open University.  DVDs of Martin and Jason’s keynote presentations, recorded and authored by im+m.  from 2006 were made available to all attendees.

In 2008 Jon and Jason organized a San Francisco MoodleMoot, with remote-Learner.net and MoodleRooms. John Sealy Brown and Martin Dougiamas keynoted. The focus turned “Toward an Enterprise System” — a presentation by Randy Timmons, Sigma Systems Inc.

Moodle has since become the most frequently installed learning system in the U.S.