#MoodlersMonday: We say hello to our new Open Source Coordinator, Sander Bangma

January 8, 2018

With over 120 million Moodle users globally, we know that there are many people within our amazing community, Partner network and internally within our own Moodle HQ team, who are key players, keeping our open source project strong!

Our Moodle HQ developers are some of our key players, responsible for maintaining the code of all our products – Core, Cloud, Mobile – with regular releases and performing major software development.

Our developers form part of our open source team, guided by our Open Source Coordinator, Sander Bangma, who started with Moodle HQ in November 2017.

We think because Sander’s role is pretty (ok, very) important to the Moodle project, we would like to introduce you to the person behind the role in this #MoodlersMonday post.

*Note: we will aim to feature a Moodler every Monday, from our global community, Partner network and of course Moodle HQ team so we can all get to know more the many people who are committed to our project, and our mission of “empowering educators to improve our world.”

But for now, let’s get to know Sander a bit more in this interview.

Moodle HQ: Thanks Sander for taking the time to chat to us. Can you let us know a little bit about yourself?

Sander: Yes, of course and thanks for the opportunity to say hi to the Moodle community! I was born and raised in the land of tulips, windmills and more bicycles than people: the Netherlands. I moved to Australia in 2005, and have called it home ever since. I have two beautiful children aged 7 and 10, whom I’m very proud of.

Moodle HQ: Where were you before joining Moodle HQ and how is your experience to date helping you as the open source coordinator?

Sander: Before joining Moodle I worked for a software medical device company which, like Moodle, was founded here in Perth and operating globally.

Over the years working for them I’ve been fortunate enough to experience all sides of the business, starting off as a developer in medical image processing, to overseeing the software development cycles, service delivery and ultimately General Manager of Operations.

This has given me a diverse range of skills with an understanding of development technicalities as well as broader and more strategic business operations. Experience which I draw upon every day in my new role at Moodle.

Moodle HQ: What attracted you to Moodle’s open source project and/or what is your experience to date with the learning platform and the movement itself?

Sander: While I am relatively new to Moodle, what immediately attracted me was the opportunity to work with a great team and have fun working together on Moodle’s mission; to empower educators and help them make this world a better place. Having two children I couldn’t agree more and I love working for a company that wants to make a positive difference.

My journey to date has consisted of getting to know the Moodle platform, the team, community and partners and it has been an amazing experience.

Working on a platform that is used in every country in the world and by millions of people is incredibly exciting and rewarding!

Moodle HQ: What does your role as open source coordinator for Moodle HQ mainly involve?

Sander: My role is focused on coordinating the development and establishing the roadmap for Moodle core; the open source product. This involves working with all the stakeholders; the Partners, the global Moodle community, the Moodle Users Association, Moodle Cloud and Mobile teams, the developers, and of course Martin Dougiamas. Collecting their input and then determining the priorities for the next releases of Moodle core. We want to take Moodle to the next level by working closely together!

Moodle HQ: What are some of the key projects that you and the open source team, together with our Partners and community members are focussing on for 2018?

Sander: At the moment we are focused on the development for Moodle 3.5. The EU data protection regulation (GDPR) which comes into effect later this year is a primary focus. In every release we also include the top-voted project from the Moodle Users Association, which in this case is around improving the management of questions in Moodle’s question bank. Our UX team has been working on designs to improve the Moodle user experience which we plan to introduce in 2018. Other areas of focus will be Moodle for Workplace and integration of standards

Moodle HQ: What is the best way for our community of developers, educators and other interested parties to get involved and keep in touch with the work of the open source team?

Sander: There are many ways to contribute and get in touch with the development of Moodle core. You can become a member of the Moodle Users Association to be able to vote on specific features you would like to see advanced in Moodle.

Or join the forums and Moodle community on Moodle.org to engage with Moodle HQ and other Moodle users.

Developers can contribute via the Moodle tracker at tracker.moodle.org, to contribute to the development of Moodle or to submit feature requests, improvement suggestions, plugins or bug fixes.

If you speak another language, we’d love your help to translate Moodle to make it more accessible globally.

There are so many ways to get involved and you can check out more possibilities on our community site.

I encourage everyone to get involved!


 

Thanks Sander for taking the time to chat to us!

We’re excited to be sharing more of our open source team’s work throughout the year. Stay tuned for new releases, updates and other important projects by subscribing to our newsletter or following us on our social channels below: