2020 UK & Ireland Moodlemoot - A Look Back
In the interest and safety of all of our Moodlers, the 2020 MootIEUK took place as an online event… with a twist! MoodleMoot UK & Ireland was hosted online from 28-30 Sept, 2020. The event took a flipped classroom approach with the aim to provide more interactive and active sessions compared to direct presentations. This new flipped classroom technique allowed attendees access to over 50 pre-recorded on-demand presentations which were then discussed live in Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s sessions.
Let's recap!
The event involved three types of presentations: recordings, live sessions, and workshops. Check out the following blog posts to see the schedule for:
A huge thank you!
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended the 2020 UK & Ireland MoodleMoot! Your engagement throughout it all was phenomenal and it was heart-warming to see the online community between everyone over the three days! Thank you for all of your support, in particular your patience in the switch to online. We hope you enjoyed the first online MootIEUK!
Master of Ceremonies
We would like to give a huge thank you to Dr. Mark Glynn, who was our master of ceremonies for the three-day event. Mark is the head of the teaching enhancement unit, part of the National Institute for Digital Learning in DCU. Mark helped us navigate the new format and thread together this new reality we are living in. In these crazy times, Mark helped to bring a focus to our physical and mental wellbeing, often asking attendees “Are you all stretching?”. He played a huge role in the running of the Moodlemoot, both on and off camera, and for that we are really appreciative.
Keynote Speakers
We would like to thank the 2020 UK & Ireland Moodlemoot keynote speakers, Dr. Sharon Flynn and Dr. Dara Cassidy.
Both speakers pre-recorded an interview with Moodlemoot organiser Gavin Henrick in the run up to the event. These interviews are available to watch and are linked below.
In Conversation with Dr. Sharon Flynn In Conversation with Dr. Dara Cassidy
Sponsors...
We were delighted to have such a wonderful group of sponsors for this year’s online Moodlemoot. We had 20 sponsors specializing in different areas in online learning.
Thank your to our platinum sponsors: Enovation, UNICAM, Brickfield Education Labs, and DCU National Institute of Digital Learning. Thank you to our gold sponsors: Ouriginal, Moodle HQ, eThink, Blindside Networks, Kaltura, Intelliboard, Turnitin, TITUS, Hubble Studios, Wooclap, WIRIS and Edufide. Thank you to our silver sponsors Watermark, Talis and UBICAST, and to our catering sponsor, Catalyst.
Click here to find the sponsor areas on the platform, where you can find contact forms, updates, and info about each of the sponsors.
Attendee Feedback
During the closing session at 5pm on Wednesday, Sept 30th, Gavin and Mark invited attendees to share their thoughts and their experience over the past three days. With the help of our gold sponsor Wooclap, attendees had the opportunity to share live feedback which was shown on screen
This was the response:
What surprised you the most during the Moodlemoot?
From the 54 responses, it was clear that attendees really enjoyed the on-demand sessions, congregate, easy navigation and the sense of community.
What aspect of the MoodleMoot did you like the most?
When asked what aspect did you like the most, there were 61 responses. Some of the main responses included the on-demand sessions, the workshops and the panels. As seen in the screenshot below, attendees wrote:
- “On-demand and recording sessions makes it so much easier to fit in between work”
- “Networking”
- “Being able to visit on demand sessions when I have the time…”
- “Accessibility workshop”
- “Liked the Keynote formats”.
What aspect of the Moot would you like to see improved?
The aim of this interactive section was to give attendees an opportunity to tell us what they liked, and what could be improved. For this question, what aspect of the Moot would you like to see improved, there were 44 responses.
These responses were valuable to us, and will be taken into consideration when planning the 2021 Moodlemoot.
The responses included:
- “Breaks in the workshop sessions, 90 minutes is a long session!”
- “Live keynotes instead of recorded interviews”
- “Get access to the on-demand a bit earlier”
- “Use of congregate more”
- Could do with a 5/10 min break between each session”
If you have feedback that you would like to share, send an email with your suggestions to marketing@moodlemoot.ie and let us know!
Choose one word to describe your key learning from the Moodlemoot.
There were 39 results for this poll, with some of the responses including “mind-blowing”, “accessibility”, “community”, “ideas” and “engagement”.
It was so lovely to receive such positive and helpful feedback.
Looking forward ...
We must admit this was not the Moodlemoot we planned to host in April in Dublin. We understand that the switch to online was the necessary step taken during these current times. We did our best to create a new format – a hybrid online Moodle conference, and while we know this wasn’t the original plan, we hope you enjoyed the three days. We are open to your feedback and constructive criticism, and as this is a new way forward, we hope to only improve in the future.
Looking forward, we are planning to run next year’s UK & Ireland Moodlemoot during the first week of May, 2021. Save the date! We plan to open registration and submissions next month, December 2020. Our aim is to run the event in the same way as this year, with some tweaks! We will incorporate heavily focused interactive panels, with pre-submitted questions. We also plan to give access to the on-demand presentations at least 1 month prior to the event, in April 2021. This emphasizes a flipped-classroom approach which has been effective so far!
From all of the MootIEUK Team,
Keep Safe!
Final note: If you have not received your 2020 MootIEUK Goodie Bag, fill out this form to be in the final batch!