On 16 September, 2022 Martin Dougiamas, founder and CEO of Moodle received an Honorary Doctorate from the Department of Digital Systems of the School of Information Technology and Communications of the University of Piraeus, Greece.

The Rector of the University of Piraeus, Professor Angelos Kotios and Chairman of the Department of Digital Systems Professor Georgios Efthymoglou recognised Martin’s contribution and dedication to the field of education with the development of Moodle LMS, the open source learning platform used by hundreds of millions of learners worldwide.

“Moodle is a huge community now, with efforts from many people, and I really want to dedicate this honorary doctorate to everyone in the Moodle community, to recognise their efforts in building and supporting the ecosystem we now have,” said Martin Dougiamas.

Education as a human right to learn

In his acceptance speech, Martin explained the importance of receiving an honorary doctorate in Greece, the country of his heritage and the birthplace of the tradition of education for modern civilisation. His speech included a call to action to consider education as more than the academic tradition; rather as a human right to learn, grow, and evolve to our fullest potential.

Acknowledging his sense of responsibility to contribute to this vision, Martin described the importance of a future learning ecosystem characterised by openness.

He explained the importance of individual action and collaboration to progress open infrastructure in education and learning. In particular, to counteract profit-focussed organisations seeking to maximise financial returns rather than benefit society.

OpenEdTech Global, a non-profit association based in Europe founded by Martin Dougiamas, is designed to promote the open education infrastructure model and attract funding to the people who can design and build it. 

As well as thanking the Moodle community, Martin acknowledged the importance of his family and Professor Demetrios Sampson, an influential expert in the EdTech field and longtime Moodle supporter.

In addition to his latest honorary doctorate from the University of Piraeus, Martin has a Bachelor Science (Honours) in Computer Science, a Masters of Science and a PhD in Internet-Based education from Curtin University, Western Australia. He also holds honorary doctorates from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium and Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya, Spain.

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