USQ is ensuring it will stay at the forefront of digital education by upgrading its learning management system (LMS), Moodle 1.9, to Moodle 2.2, whilst also hosting many Australian and international educators in two major eLearning events this year.
USQ was the first university in Australia to use the Moodle LMS at a corporate level, proving to be a leader in the sector, with many other universities now adopting this system.
With the upgrade to Moodle 2.2 and with the proliferation of HTML5, USQ is taking a front-foot approach. USQ will be the joint host for the ‘2012 Moodlemoot’ on the Gold Coast in July and will also be hosting the first ever ‘HTML 5 in Higher Education Summit’ in November, in Toowoomba.
The implementation of Moodle 2.2 will bring many updates and enhancements to the current USQStudyDesk platform including integrating Moodle, the ePortfolio and digital repository systems into one integrated USQStudyDesk environment.
Dr Michael Sankey, the Program Manager (Learning Technologies and Environments) is leading the progression to Moodle 2.2 at USQ and explains that staff will receive many updates about the new system over the coming weeks.
‘We will have four information presentations coming out over the next five weeks, these will be sent from corporate email address,’ Dr Sankey said.
‘Additionally, we will have a series of road-shows to take the message to the faculties and campuses.’
On the surface students won’t see much difference between Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.2, But it’s what’s under the hood that makes this really exciting for the users – based on the many enhancements.
The back-end of the system will have some changes and staff will need to be aware of file management processes. These changes and other relevant information will be sent via email.
The first information email from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Learning) explaining the upgrade was sent out a couple of weeks back.
Coinciding with the Moodle 2.2 upgrade is this years Moodlemoot being held on 1-4 July at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. It is a conference for the users, developer and administrators of Moodle.
Later in the year, USQ will be hosting the first HTML5 Summit on November 19-20, Where it is expected that approximately 100 delegates, from university’s nationwide will attend.
‘We will have two strands to the summit – designing and programming,’ Dr Sankey said.
‘We will be looking at what affordances HTML5 can provide to for the higher education sector and will be having brainstorming sessions, as well as a key note address from Phil Whitehouse from DT Digital in Sydney.’
More information on Moodlemoot can be found here
Contact Details:
Sam Tickell, USQ Media, +61 7 46 31 2559
Tell a friend!
