Exhibited at MoodleMoot 2023

April 20, 2023

Exhibited at MoodleMoot 2023

1. What is MoodleMoot?

MoodleMoot is a conference where people using Moodle gather, and it is an event held by the Japan Moodle Association for three days every February. Many participants are university faculty, and vendors providing ICT services to companies and schools also participate. There are about 70 presentations and workshops, where universities share how they utilize Moodle.
Most speakers are university faculty, and about half of the explanations are in English. Due to the impact of COVID-19, it had been held online for a while, but this year it was held in person for the first time in four years.

Since the start of the event in 2016, it has been held in the following locations:
2016 Tokyo (Toyo University)
2017 Tochigi (Jichi Medical University)
2018 Tokyo (Musashi University)
2019 Shizuoka (Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology)
2020 Kumamoto (Online)
2021 Okinawa (Online)
2022 Nagasaki (Online)
2023 Ibaraki (Ibaraki Christian University)

2. MoodleMoot 2023 Held

This year, 2023, marks the first real event in four years. The event will be held from February 15 (Wednesday) to February 17 (Friday) at Ibaraki Christian University (Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture). It is located near Omiya Station on the Joban Line.

▼Ibaraki Christian University taken from the platform of Oomika Station

▼This is the campus layout published on the Moodle Association's website.
・Conference site: The building where the presentations were held.
・Cafeteria: The building where the sponsor booths were located.

We would like to introduce the sponsors who exhibited at the booth.
・Shinonome Research Institute LLC
　Presentation topics:
　Practice: Moodle Plugin Development (60 minutes)
　How to operate the e-learning system "safely from a security perspective" (60 minutes)
　Points to consider when running Moodle on cloud services (60 minutes)

・E-Learning Inc.
Presentation: The Future of Moodle in Japan (40 minutes)
・Resonant Solutions Inc.
・InfoZine Inc.
Presentation: Proposal for Online Assessment Utilizing CBT TAO Cloud JP (60 minutes)
・Poodll
Presentation: Introducing Poodll NET: A hosted Moodle + Poodll service (40 minutes)
・Class Technologies Inc.
・Human Science Inc.
Presentation: "Mastering This Will Allow You to Use Moodle 4! (Smooth Transition from Lower Versions)" (40 minutes)

▼Our booth situation ▼Our presentation situation

　

I was able to listen to the presentations online. A webinar system called BigBlueButton, which is integrated with Moodle, was used. You can register as a user on the Moodle Association's homepage and self-enroll in the MoodleMoot2023 course. By doing so, you can watch each presentation through the web conferencing system.
You will need a registration key for self-enrollment in the course. Please check with the Moodle Association or the participating sponsors mentioned above for information on how to obtain the registration key.

3. Visit to Moodle HQ
Max from Moodle HQ, who is responsible for the APAC region, came to Japan to attend MoodleMoot 2023. Therefore, he visited Human Science the day before.
As an official partner of Moodle, Human Science holds regular meetings (approximately every 2-3 months) to exchange information. Max provided updates on product information and development status, while Human Science shared sales status, customer usage, and requests.

We received the following information from Max.
When upgrading to Moodle 4.1, improvements made
Moodle product roadmap (product direction, priorities, progress)
Ideas for Moodle development
Things we are focusing on in development, etc.

From Human Science, we introduced our members and held a Q&A session regarding the points mentioned above. At the lunch meeting, we went to eat sukiyaki, and Mr. Max was very pleased. We received the comment, "it was great to try sukiyaki."

We have not been informed about the holding of MoodleMoot 2024 next year yet. I am looking forward to where it will be held in Japan. If you are nearby, please make sure to visit.