Hello and welcome to the Moodle Podcast.

Hello everyone, and I'm super excited to meet you in today's episode of the Moodle podcast. I'm your host, Sonya Trivedi , communications manager here at I have with me my colleague as global head of product at Diving Deep into the global what makes Mood so awesome and why's the event you can't afford to miss and what we can expect this year. So whether you are an educator, a workplace trainer, administrator, a student, a developer, or just a make sure you are listening because we're about to uncover some truly interesting insights. Hello Marie , welcome.

Hi Sonya , and thank you for having me on the podcast today .

Thank you for joining me . So my question today , let's start with what can we expect from 2 23 in Spain? Can you please give us some insight of the event ?

Yeah , of course. So as you said , I'm the global head of products here at Mood hq and it is my team who has the honor of organizing this event for our Moodle community. I've been at Moodle for just under 18 months, so last year was my very first Moodle mood global. And if that event was anything to go by, I think we can expect great things for this year's event. Um , we have a jam packed schedule of activity plans for our attendees who will be there from all over the world to learn, collaborate, and promote lifelong learning with Moodle . The conference overall goes for four days and this year we are hosting it between the 18th and 20th of September in Barcelona. And it's not really four days, so there's three days of conference, but the very first day is an optional jam day. And I'll tell you a little bit more about what the jam day is, a little bit later on if you like. Um, but then we move to those three days of presentations that I was talking about. They're not just presentations. They might be panels, they might be workshops, they might be interactive sessions during which mood enthusiasts come together to share findings, brainstorm solutions to problems , and explore best practices to progress the future for education and an open education mo model that promotes lifelong learning . On the We Wednesday night , we host our infamous mood party, which is always so much fun and a great way to connect with each other in a less formal setting . The educative and fun and just like Moodle itself, it's really inclusive, open, and friendly.

Great, thank you very much. The venue, as you mentioned , uh, sounds pretty cool for me. Can you tell us a little bit more about it ? What would be the exact location , transportation, accommodation, all of these tips that you have would be helpful, but

It's a really great venue. It's got plenty of room for us all to mingle. We had about 800 people last year and , and it did get really busy , but there was plenty of room for chats and , and sidebar conversations . It's also got really fabulous presentation spaces that make attending the conference sessions really comfortable. There's an open space where you can meet with our sponsors for the event and Moodle HQ colleagues at dedicated booths . So it's a really great time to go and engage with the people who make the Moodle solutions , um, and products that everybody will be talking about at the event. And then there's some really good food options too . Uh , last time I think I came home a bit heavier than when I left . And then we're gonna be hosting this conference at the Barcelo Sands Hotel in Barcelona City . It's easy to access from anywhere in Barcelona because it's supported by so many public transport route . There's even a train station right next door and conference attendees can choose to stay at the hotel itself too. It's really nice accommodation and it's so easy to join the fun of the event when all you have to do is take an elevator down to the first floor to start mingling with other Moodle fans from around the world.

Very sure that our listeners are pretty curious to know more how they can register for this year's mode . Can you please tell me more about picket options available and so on ?

Yeah, and this is like the most important part . If you wanna come to the route , you've gotta register and get your tickets. Anyone interested in joining us can do so by registering via moodle moot.org . It's a dedicated website just for the conference and it holds all sorts of information. So go and visit the site , but the Register now button is right at the top of the page , so it's very easy to find Right now. We also have early bird tickets available for a reduced price. So getting now before the offer runs out, it expires on the 15th of July, so there's not a lot of time left . Your ticket price includes access to all of the event spaces, the sessions , the talks we were just talking about, lunches and refreshments, which includes morning tea lunch, afternoon tea, and social drinks. You'll never go hungry at a noodle moot global workshops and networking the Moodle party and , and I tell you the price of the ticket is worth paying just for the party for sure, and then also serve other little surprises. And then the ticket price also includes that optional jam day that I was talking to you about earlier. For those people who are interested in attending that day,

Sounds really exciting. I can't wait personally to go there. But now going back to our event, I was curious to know more about the main team . I know that this year it's lifelong learning. Can you tell us a bit more about it ? Why lifelong learning?

So mood is a platform that is dedicated to empowering educators, trainers, and learners from all around the world . Our goal is to create solutions that make learning accessible to everyone regardless of their location or financial situation . And we want to enable learners to receive personalized learning with creative educational content, easily collaborate with peers and teachers globally, and achieve outstanding learning outcomes With our platform, we aim to help people cultivate a love for learning because that will then create a community of lifelong learners who are equipped to succeed in our ever-changing world and our active participants in making our world a better place . At we envision a future where learning is truly a , it's something everyone has the opportunity to unlock their full potential throughout their entire life . So that's why our fourth Moodle Mood Global celebrates the importance of lifelong learning and the Moodle enthusiasts who facilitate it . We invite Moodles from any educational training and learning field to come together and learn from each other in beautiful Barcelona and think about how Moodle can be used for life and for learning and for good .

I'm sure that our listeners would be very interested to understand a little bit more about the presentations and what are the other topics included on our agenda

This year, we've decided to ensure that we have two key streams as part of the conference event . The first one is focus on schools and higher education. It will appeal to educators who might wanna explore the concepts of learner centered education, for example . And the second stream is going to be focused on workplace learning and training. This stream will include presentations for trainers and learning and development managers who work in a corporate or governmental context. Both streams will also contain presentations, panels and workshops that are of interest to administrators who want to learn more about site management, for example , and Moodle developers who want to explore the world of the possible in Moodle code development. Some of the key topics we can expect will be explored are mostly in keeping with our lifelong learning theme, but also they are incredibly hot topics in education technology right now. So things like augmented or virtual reality in education and training and how artificial intelligence is changing education and the workplace. But then there'll be some more fundamental topics such as building core competencies with Moodle , the soft skill revolution and how you can use Moodle to strengthen learners critical thinking, interpersonal and creative skills. Uh , addressing inclusivity in equity within Moodle courses, using Moodle to really support the world of stems. So science, technology, engineering, maths , and also a great avenue for sharing a wide range of different experiences, hoping that our community will come to the conference with some recents of implementations and some of the learnings from , and share that with our audience.

It seems like there will be many experience and skillful speakers. Can you please tell a little bit more how someone can apply to become a presenter and how someone can submit an abstract ? I know that , uh, the abstract deadline is coming really soon, right? 2nd of June.

Yes, it's right around the corner. And whether you're an educator, a workplace trainer, a mood administrator, or a developer, we would really love to hear from you . So please come and share your expertise with our mood community. It's really what makes the conference in the event . You can submit your abstract and application to speak via, again, the mood.org website. The same place you can register for the event . There are number of different formats you can choose from too . Uh , it starts from a five minute lightning Talk to a simple poster that you talk to if you wish to, to a 30 minute fully fledged presentation or workshop. You can advise which format you would prefer as part of your application , uh, and your app scope submission . And we'll take into that into account when you , when we evaluate your submission . It's really a great opportunity to present your ideas , examples of how you use Moodle case studies and showcase your work. It'll also really help to contribute to improve the quality of teaching and training with both Moodle LMS and Workplace , which is why it's so important that we get great submissions for the event . Now , as you said , the applications close on the 2nd of June , so you'll be , you'll need to be really quick to submit your request, but please don't think you have to have a fully fledged presentation to submit your abstract request. We just need to know a little bit about what you wanna present the title for your presentation and little bit have bit finish your presentation before the event itself.

Sounds exciting. I'm sure that our listeners would be applying if they didn't do it yet and uh , you gave them some great tips for that. But at the beginning you'll mention something about a jam day , and this sounds really interesting to me . Can you please tell a little bit more about it? What were the events that we should expect? Is it the first time we are having learning design gem ?

So traditionally we've always done developer focused jam days . So what's a jam day ? It's a day where we all muck in , uh, bring your laptop to a day cause you're gonna get hands on keyboard and you're gonna get working together with other fans and , um, to solving real mood problems . Um , and it really is a great day to collaborate with other people who are kind of in your profession. So for the developers, we have a developer jam day and we'll be solving technical challenges with Moodle . Um , for anybody who is in design or user experience , um, we have a UX jam day where we might be looking at the flow of a certain process or the look and feel of a screen or how something's explained in Moodle and trying to work together to improve that testing different ideas and concepts and testing prototypes . And then the Learning Design Jam is really designed , uh, to be attended by learning designers. So people who are professional designers of learning experiences where together you'll workshop different ways that you can leverage Moodles and its capabilities , uh, to create really engaging learning experiences. And those are the kinds of learning experiences that deliver real outcome for learners. And so again, that's a collaborative. Here's an example, something that might , how, how might we achieve this particular outcome with Moodle? So we're really excited about the the jam days because they're the day where everybody talks to each other . That conferences , you're often one person in front of the group . Um , but in jam days everybody chats together and learns from each other and it's really , uh, fosters great collaboration within our community.

And last but not least , Marie , everyone is expecting this year's party and I heard there is a team in place. I'm curious to know a little bit more about it. What should people expect?

Well be ready to bring your best eighties game to the middle party this year . Weren't born in the eighties as to what to wear . I wish that was the case for me. I'll just go and find an old t-shirt in my wardrobe somewhere. Um, but it should be a great event Last year. It was in a beautiful venue in Barcelona this year . I don't know if I'm allowed to tell the venue actually. Um , but it will be in a very, very cool venue and you can expect lots of food, lots of music, lots of drinking, lots of dancing, lots of socializing and lots of costumes. So if you do choose to join us for the party , you don't have to dress , but I can tell you it's more fun when you do and also you wanna come , come alone alone . Um , you can add an extra guest , so a friend or a partner, family member that you wanna invite to join in on the phone for a tiny little extra fee. I think it's a hundred euro. You can invite that person to join you at the party and make the fun even more fun for everyone involved.

I don't have my 80 dress , but sure. After this conversation I'll go for some shopping. <laugh>. Thank you very much, Marie . It's safe to say that our minds are buzzing with excitement for <inaudible> Global. After that conversation, I wanna extend a huge thank you to Marie for taking the time to chat with me. Remember, isn't just an event, it's a community, a place for you to engage and learn from the best in the ed tech field. So whether you have attended before or this will be your first time, I wholeheartedly recommend registering for Mu . And if you feel like you have something to share with this incredible community, don't hesitate to submit an abstract@moodmood.org. Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Mood Podcast. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing and see you soon.