At the Moodlemoot in Melbourne last year, Martin introduced us to the notion that there was no room within the Moodle ecosystem for a new entity to help guide the future development of Moodle; the Moodle Users Association (MUA). A few months later, after a reasonably short gestation period, the MUA was born. Now 10 months on, much to the parents delight, it is now out of nappies and fully potty trained. This presentation will first provide a brief history of how the MUA got started and how it has quickly transitioned from being bottle­fed, to now eating solid food. However, this is just the start of what is to be a long productive life. As the news spreads the association is steadily growing, currently with some 185 members from 29 countries. So as the MUA gradually moves from kinder to preschool, this presentation will then look at the types of projects that have been proposed thus far by the members and how the MUA has decided on which of these projects should go forward for development. Finally, as the MUA looks to see what it wants to be when it grows­up, this presentation it will provide a view of what is on the radar for the MUA.

1. Design the next Moodle
#MoodleUA @moodleassoc
moodleassociation.org

2. Coming together to design the next Moodle
Used with permission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_Wade,_a_10-month-
old_baby,_crawls.jpg
Reflections on the first 10
months of a newborn:
The Moodle Users
Association
A/Prof Michael Sankey
University of Southern Queensland
&
Vice-Chair
Moodle Users Association
#MoodleUA @moodleassoc

3. Coming together to design the next Moodle

4. Coming together to design the next Moodle
The Moodle Users Association (MUA) is a not-for-profit
incorporated association to help drive the Moodle project.
It is a separate entity from Moodle Pty Ltd, or any other
entity involved in the Moodle open source project.
It extends the global community to complement the Moodle
Partner network, the developments by Moodle HQ, and
other existing community engagement forums, including
individual developments for non-core installations.

5. Coming together to design the next Moodle
What is Moodle Users Association Activity?
The activities are to help decide on development
projects for Moodle core, through developing project
proposals that include detailed requirements for those
enhancements.
This is done through two project development cycles
per year.

6. Coming together to design the next Moodle
Six-month cycles, matching Moodle releases
month 1 month 2 month 3 month 6month 4 month 5
PROPOSE PROJECTS
Propose & describe something want/need in Moodle
Early vote for feasibility
Develop detailed REQUIREMENTS
FINALISE
Cost estimates from HQ
Clarify project
requirements
VOTE
(top voted projects for
membership funding
go to HQ)
Timeline of a project development cycle

7. Coming together to design the next Moodle
MUA
How it works
collects
membership
fees fees become
development
funds
members decide
development
priorities
Moodle
develops
projects in core
(paid by fees)

8. Coming together to design the next Moodle
Membership Levels

9. Coming together to design the next Moodle
164 – Members
Individual 131
Bronze 15
Silver 10
Gold 8
The Membership so far
From 31 countries
Australia, Bosnia & Herzegovina,
Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada,
China, Colombia, Germany,
Dominican Republic, Fiji, France,
Greece, Ireland, India, Israel,
Italy, Japan, Mexico,
Netherlands, New Zealand,
Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK,
USA

10. Coming together to design the next Moodle
The Committee
• Manages the Association
• Elected at AGM
• Nominated by members
• Voted by members
FIRST committee
has been selected for startup
https://moodleassociation.org/committee/
CHAIR
Nick Thompson
VICE-CHAIR
Michael Sankey
TREASURER
Fritz Vandover
SECRETARY
Emma
RichardsonGENERAL MEMBERS

11. Coming together to design the next Moodle
3rd Project Development Cycle: July- December 2016
Phase 1: Project Proposals
• Suggest Project (Closed Sep 1st)
• Preliminary Voting (Closed Sep 14th)
• Finalize project requirements (Closes November 1st)
Phase 2: Committee Review (Closes Dec 1st)
• Moodle HQ gives cost estimates
Phase 3: Final Voting Cycle (Closes Dec 31st)

12. Coming together to design the next Moodle

13. Coming together to design the next Moodle
Develop detailed requirement use:
• cases,
• info about known plugins, external developments,
• workflow diagrams, or pictorial explanations,
• any other influencing info, and how you want to work.
• If you can, seek input from other in the wider Moodle
community.
• The more detail you can be the more accurate the estimate
can be.
• Members need the details too, so their voting is informed.

14. Coming together to design the next Moodle
Cycle 3 top projects:
1. Review Moodle User Experience - 640
2. Improve the Calendar Interface - 600
3. Ability to set activity due dates relative to enrolment date -
205
4. Re Propose previous Project - Add custom course fields
(extend metadata) - 50
5. Send Scheduled Messages - 40
6. Add chapter level restrict access to the Book activity - 40
7. Combine "Enrolled Users" and "Participants" list - 40
8. Exclude Restricted Activities From Grades - 25

15. Coming together to design the next Moodle
From the 3 Cycles so far:
1. Integrate Recycle Bin into Moodle core
This project is to take the recycle bin plugin and add to core, so that
users can restore items previously deleted.
Proposer: Nick Thompson, UCLA, USA
2. My course - dashboard
This project suggest a review/revamp of the "old" My course
overview on the Dashboard pages in order to create a better and
more visual overview for students on the course progress.
Proposer: Gemma Lesterhuis, Netherlands
3. Still in progress

16. Coming together to design the next Moodle

17. Coming together to design the next Moodle
Strategies for institutional engagement
• Be, or extend your advocacy within your institution
• Most of us are like the rest of us – we have tight
budgets
• Your Boss will not necessarily see the immediate
benefit
• Could pay from own budget (the easy way), but better
to engage them in the decision
• Silver for Bronze – Gold for Silver
• Most institutions have customisations that they would
like to see in core

18. Coming together to design the next Moodle
• Last night we held the first AGM
• Good attendance here, not great time for many OS
• 4 small rule changes
• Good budget position for the number of members
• Each project can cost in the order of $50K
• Some great ideas emerged
• It’s not about Moodle Plugins it’s about extending
Moodle core with items the community have said they
want through a unified voice.

19. Coming together to design the next Moodle
The New Committee
• Hideto Harashima
• Mark McKay
• Nick Thompson
• Richard Samson
• Emma Richardson
• Jeff Webster
• Steve Powell
• Michael Sankey
• Joseph Thibault
• Jean-Mar Doucet

20. Coming together to design the next Moodle
#MoodleUA
@moodleassoc

21. Coming together to design the next Moodle
The more members we have
in the MUA the more we can
do to grow Moodle the way
we would like to see it grow.
Join us and together we can
keep Moodle on the cutting
edge of LMS innovation.
Used with permission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday