Moodlemoot UK and Ireland hosted its annual conference online from 9 to 11 May. Justin Staunton of the Digital Learning Department represented Hibernia College. The College is part of the global Moodle community and uses Moodle, one of the leading learning management systems (LMSs) worldwide, to deliver online and blended learning courses.
MyHELMS Upgrade and Redesign
Hibernia College completely redesigned our virtual learning environment (VLE), including our Moodle LMS (‘MyHELMS’), to provide a richer and more intuitive experience for our users. The focus of the redesign included improving collaborative ways of teaching and learning, greater use of video and more personalised support for students. User-centred design methodologies were used to enhance our understanding of student interaction with MyHELMS and ways to improve students’ online learning experiences.
Moodle 4.0 Enhancements
Moodle also recently upgraded the platform with the release of Version 4.0. It boasts a new contemporary interface, an intuitively tabbed navigation and a redefined course experience that makes it easier for educators to create and edit courses and for learners to reduce distractions and prioritise course work. These enhancements will be translated to the Hibernia College VLE — further improving the experience for learners and educators.
MootIEUK Conference
The three-day online event, MootIEUK, brought together Moodle users, educators, workplace trainers, organisations’ personnel, government staff and leading edtech minds from across the world to collaborate and share e-learning ideas. MootIEUK used a combination of a Moodle site, Zoom meetings, Vimeo live streaming and social interaction to facilitate online access, live sessions and interactive networking.
Justin reported from the event:
‘A busy 3 days in Moodlemoot, lots of great discussions and insights. Gavin Henrick of Brickfield Education Labs gave a talk on the nine things to consider about your Moodle site for accessibility and inclusion. Just like “mobile first”, accessibility and inclusion need to have a “first” attached. It’s no longer an afterthought but a culture. We all need to adopt accessibility and inclusion first in the development of learning environments and learning content.’
Justin has return from the conference armed with knowledge of Moodle 4.0 and its applications. We are incorporating these learnings into our VLE development and are delighted to continue working with Moodle to provide students with an optimal online and blended learning education with the most user-friendly VLE available.
