This year’s national MoodleMoot is chockfull, with 180 delegates registered for the  educational technology conference at the Eastern Institute of Technology.

Moodle is an open source Learning Management System with an international community of developers and users and MoodleMoots are staged in countries all over  the world.

An opportunity for practitioners to share e-learning expertise, the conference is to be held on EIT’s Taradale campus from October 8-10.

A much anticipated keynote address will be delivered by Moodle founder and lead developer, Martin Dougiamas.  An Australian who is also well-known for both his computer science and education expertise, he will talk about the new Moodle 2.0 and also run a developers’ workshop.

Another highlight will be a group presentation on the use of Moodle at EIT where it is also known as EIT Online.  It will feature the institute’s online Bachelor’s degree of Viticulture and Wine Science and New Zealand Diploma of Business, the Master of Nursing programme which is going online and the Bachelor of Applied Social Science, which is moving towards blended learning.

“Moodle has become the ‘basecamp’ for EIT staff to explore and develop online innovations and incorporate that into their teaching practices,” says EIT eLearning Advisor and MoodleMoot venue coordinator Joyce Seitzinger.

The mixed group of delegates from New Zealand include university academics, programmers, secondary school teachers, corporates and government department employees.  Overseas attendees will include another keynote speaker, Dr Jenny Evans, Head of Distance and Flexible Learning at the University of the South Pacific.