Recently we talked to MoodleMoot Australia attendee and presenter Brett McCroary from TAFE Illawara in NSW on creating an engaging and informative presentation.
Brett shared his tips for submitting a proposal and presenting at a MoodleMoot with the next Australian Moot to be held from 26 – 28 September at Sheraton on the Park in Sydney.
To date we have received many inspirational Moodle stories as presentation proposals and are looking forward to receiving more!
You can now submit your proposal online.
To further help with a perspective on what is involved in creating a submission proposal, and how to present them centre stage at MoodleMoot Australia, or any MoodleMoots for that matter, we talk to last year’s presenter, Dr Stephen Dann.
Dr Stephen Dann is from the College of Business and Economics at the Australian National University and last year at MoodleMoot Australia 2016 in Perth, enlightened us with his Moodle story titled, Teaching the Reluctant Teacher in Moodle!
In this post, Stephen took the time to share with us, on his personal experience of submitting a proposal and then how to turn that into a memorable presentation!
Moodle HQ: Stephen, thanks for taking the time to chat to us! We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us about all things MoodleMoots!
Firstly, let’s maybe start with a bit about you – what is your involvement in Moodle?
Stephen: I’m one of the front line staff who uses Moodle for teaching, and is the usual first point of call amongst my peers for solutions to the problem of “It doesn’t do what I want” or “It’s doing what it wants to do, how can we stop that?”
Moodle HQ: When did you first submit a proposal for MoodleMoot Australia and what are your top three tips for creating a successful proposal?
Stephen: I first pitched for MoodleMoot last year, and my three tips are – concise, precise and personal. Concise is keeping it to the single core idea – you only need to be telling the story of one thing, and one thing well to be making an impact. Precise is getting some meat on the bones of the story – my case study on a specific problem (reluctant users) came with a block of theory to explain the problem, and cases of how the problem didn’t know the theory well enough to play along to the script, and a solution that could be taken home by the audience. Personal – Moodlemoot is a great place to exchange experiences that can be drawn from what you’re doing in the day-to-day. Tell your story, and share it, and give people a take away from what you learned, and they’ve got a chance to either learn or feel validated that they’re not the only one that happened to (and that validation moment is often palpable in the room)
Moodle HQ: When your proposal is accepted, how do you turn your written submission into a presentation that is engaging and informative for the MoodleMoot?
What are your processes, if you can share?
Stephen: For Moodlemoot, I decided I wanted to go with a thematic “Alice in Wonderland” approach to match the content. I wanted a strong visual story that gave the viewer a context (confusion, acceptance, rabbit holes, talking playing cards) that supported the story and the experience of the reluctant adopters.
Moodle HQ: What are some considerations that you think are essential before hitting centre stage and delivering your presentation?
Stephen: Decide if you’re a scripted presentation and rehearse it to comfort, or if you’re an improve presenter, and then listen for the “Yes, and” moments in the other presentations. I had a page of notes that was basically the slide numbers, and anytime someone else before me in the presentations I saw had mentioned something that reinforced or cross referenced my presentation, I could give them a shout out. This way, even when one of my sections was pre-empted two speakers earlier, I could acknowledge and reinforce their message, so we all felt better about it.
Moodle HQ: Lastly, Stephen, what motivates you to attend and present at MoodleMoot and what do you think yourself and many others get from these conferences?
Stephen: Whilst I jokingly referred to MoodleMoot as the Temple of Moot, it is a communal and community experience. Those of us who care to look a little deeper into the platform, either as coders, users, or educators of fellow users do so from a sense of common purpose, and Moodlemoot was a good opportunity to share the discovery, and reaffirm the sense that this platform isn’t a faceless entity above reproach, but rather a gathering of friends and family who can swap notes, share a few stories, and help each other along the way.
Thank you again, Stephen, for taking the time to chat to us today about the process of proposals and presentations for MoodleMoots.
If you are now inspired and full of information to submit a proposal, you can do so on our website. While you are there you can also register for early bird tickets and find all the information about the upcoming MoodleMoot Australia 2017.
