What is the MoodleMoot DACH?
The MoodleMoot DACH is a conference for all Moodle users – users, administrators, teachers, developers and educators – in the higher education environment, particularly in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). As an official MoodleMoot event, it is supported by Moodle Headquarters (Moodle HQ) and is one of a series of MoodleMoots taking place around the world. The event takes place alternately in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and is organised by eight cooperating institutions. These include:
- University of Vienna
- TU Vienna
- ETH Zurich
- TH Lübeck
- Academic Moodle Cooperation
- eDaktik GmbH
- onCampus
- Moodle at Universities e.V.
The MoodleMoot DACH continues to be the only MoodleMoot worldwide that is held in an open format and does not consist of lectures. It combines two events in one conference: a two-day DevCamp followed by a two-day BarCamp.
Interest in the event is high. With 140 participants at the DevCamp (2019: 90 registrations) and 230 participants at the BarCamp (2019: 190 registrations), not only were there significantly more participants than 5 years ago, but the event has also developed into an international event.
DevCamp: Implementing ideas
The Moodle DevCamp is a 2-day hackathon in which ideas are presented at the beginning. After that, the participants form teams to implement selected ideas and produce functioning program code. This year, more than 25 ideas were presented, of which 18 were finally selected and implemented in teams.
At the end of the DevCamp, the results were presented and the 3 winning teams were awarded prizes. The winning projects included, among other things,
- automatic revision of the layout of Moodle courses
- display of live avatars, so-called Moodlenauts, to see if there is anyone in the Moodle course
- troubleshooting in the question bank when copying questions.
All the projects that have been implemented are extremely promising, so they could easily find their way into Moodle.
BarCamp: Discuss topics
The Moodle BarCamp is a two-day ‘unconference’. This means that the participants create and design the programme themselves, and only do so directly on site. Those present can suggest their own topics and present them to the audience in 30-second slots.
With over 50 submitted contributions, the plan for the two BarCamp days was quickly filled with interesting topics. The spectrum of contributions for the very heterogeneous target group was widely diversified. Up to 6 sessions ran in parallel, including the topics:
- Open Educational Resources Collection: Teaching by and with the community
- Moodle plug-in performance tips for developers
- Moodle fit for teachers
- Moodle and AI – what comes after the hype?
- Gamification in Moodle
Participants were able to join the sessions according to their interests, with the rule that there were no spectators, only participants. Everyone was invited to join in the discussions. Whether you were an expert or an absolute layperson, the aim was to exchange knowledge, ideas and opinions. A quick change during the lectures was not only possible, but also encouraged.
Special guests of honour: Moodle HQ developers
The special thing about this year's MoodleMoot DACH was the participation of the two Moodle HQ developers Amaia Anabitarte and Sara Arjona. Both were on hand at the DevCamp to support the development teams as mentors, providing advice and assistance in implementing ideas. At the BarCamp, both developers led their own sessions. They also used these to collect development requests and feedback on Moodle, which they took directly to Moodle HQ.
The MoodleMoot DACH 2024 was a great success, with several projects successfully completed at the DevCamp and a lively exchange of knowledge and enriching sessions at the BarCamp. The next MoodleMoot DACH will take place in September 2025 in Lübeck, Germany.
Further information and all the results of the MoodleMoot DACH 2024