PERTH, WA, Australia – Moodle is excited to announce the launch of Moodle Academy, the hub for learning everything about online education with Moodle. It will provide educators, administrators, designers or developers with a community of best practice, interaction and professional development.
Martin Dougiamas, Moodle CEO and Founder says, “We have always given our community ways to learn Moodle – not just educators, but also administrators and developers, whether through our Learn Moodle courses, our forums, documentation, videos or MoodleMoots – we have an incredibly active community and Moodle Academy will become the home for all these learning opportunities and more. Online learning has grown at exponential rates over the last decade, and the pandemic has only increased that. It is more important than ever that we support our community to develop the skills required to create and facilitate great online learning experiences.”
Moodle Academy is launching with a series of interactive webinars on key topics relating to making the most of Moodle and will complement Moodle’s existing Learn Moodle courses. Facilitated by the Moodle Academy team and leading guest presenters, the webinar series will expand in 2022 and will inform the development of a range of new courses through which attendees will earn badges or certificates. MoodleMoots will continue to be delivered via representatives of the Moodle community, while Moodle HQ will potentially facilitate one global MoodleMoot per year.
From left to right: Jessica Gramp, Moodle Academy Manager; Mary Cooch, Moodle Education Manager; Martin Dougiamas, Moodle CEO and Founder and Anna Krassa, Moodle Academy Education Advisor
“Creating best practice online learning is more than the software itself. Good teaching, whether in a classroom, fully online or in a hybrid model, must give learners a range of ways to access learning material, engage with it and exhibit the knowledge that they have acquired. Moodle is an incredibly rich, feature driven and customisable platform; it provides multiple ways to do all of those things and Moodle Academy will provide our community ways to constantly improve their understanding of, and ability to use, Moodle’s tools,” says Jessica Gramp Moodle Academy Manager.
Jessica has extensive professional experience in education technology, learning design and managing Moodle in both secondary and higher education settings across the United Kingdom and Australia. She holds a MSc Digital Education and Master of Project Management.
“I have been a Moodle advocate for many years and I’m really excited about joining Moodle HQ and Moodle Academy. We have a great team and it’s a privilege to work with long-time Moodlers such as Mary Cooch, who has such a deep understanding of Moodle and is well known to many in the Moodle community. Mary has created many of Moodle’s existing courses and the highly regarded Moodle Educator Certificate based on DigCompEdu. “She is an integral part of Moodle Academy,“ says Gramp.
Mary Cooch joined Moodle in 2013, has authored three books on Moodle and has created many of Moodle’s video tutorials, training materials and courses. She has a Masters degree in Blended and Online Education and decades of experience as a teacher prior to transferring her skills into online delivery.
“Moodle was designed from a social constructionist point of view, where knowledge develops as a result of social interaction and courses are communities of practice. When you set up a course in Moodle, you create and arrange a wide array of interactive resources and activities into a rich learning experience. Moodle goes beyond the basic content features of most learning platforms and I really enjoy helping people get the most out of Moodle. Moodle Academy will allow us to take that even further. Of course, Moodle Academy courses will be delivered on Moodle, in fact Moodle Workplace, and that in itself becomes part of the learning experience,” says Mary Cooch, Moodle Education Manager.
Moodle Academy’s webinars will also be facilitated by Anna Krassa, Moodle Academy Education Advisor. Anna has over 17 years experience in online education instructional design and course development and holds a Master’s of Education in Distance Education. Anna manages the Moodle Educator Certification Program based on the widely-used and accepted European Framework for the Digital Competence for Educators (DigCompEdu).
In addition to supporting educators, Moodle Academy will provide professional learning opportunities for systems administrators and developers in creating and maintaining secure Moodle installations, which is critical to ensuring equitable and accessible education globally .
“At its core, Moodle Academy is key to enacting our mission to empower educators to improve our world, and I know this is very important to like-minded educators and technologists in the Moodle community. Through improving the quality of teaching practice and the security of online learning infrastructure, we can increase our impact globally,” concludes Dougiamas.
Learn more about Moodle Academy on our dedicated moodle.academy website, register for our inaugural webinar on “Making the most of Moodle Forums,” and sign up to Moodle’s newsletter to keep up to date with Moodle Academy activities.
