VLE administration and maintenance
As mentioned in section 1b, I have expert knowledge of HTML, PHP and MySQL all three are required to run Moodle (on a Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP (LAMP) environment) alongside an operating system (however that is less exacting as almost any distro of Linux can effectively run Moodle).
My first interaction with the administration, development and maintenance of Moodle was when I joined Coleg Gwent, one of the largest Further Education colleges in the UK. All sites and development was ‘in house’ and shared between the ‘Internet Development Co-ordinator’ and myself. Between us we developed and managed all aspects of the external website, an intranet, Moodle and several smaller sites.
Coleg Gwents’ Intranet (left) and Website (right) home pages.
I gravitated towards the administration of Moodle while my line manager administered the website responsibilities (and we shared responsibilities on the Intranet). Moodle at the time was a very basic standard install (1.7.1), however, working with the eLearning manager and several key academics, I used my technical knowledge to update and improve the staff and student learning experience.
Left: Coleg Gwent Moodle 1.7.1 – default theme. When I joined Coleg Gwent this was my starting point.
Centre: Coleg Gwent Moodle 1.9.2 – default theme. I quickly updated the core version of Moodle and started to improve the theme.
Right: Coleg Gwent Moodle 1.9.8 – Fully custom theme (I liaised with students and academic staff to make sure I included the most relevant links as it was decided this page was to be the ‘home page’ of all students when they opened an internet browser. This theme was designed wholly by myself.
I attended many Moodle-Wales user groups and disseminated what I learned in my day-to-day duties and projects as good practice and liaised with many other developers on how to customise their own Moodle to the same extent as ours. Before I left to join Oxford Brookes as their Moodle Developer I had upgrade Moodle to 1.9.12 and had written a detailed plan for the upgrade of Moodle to Moodle 2 (at the time a huge change in Moodle architecture).
As OCSLDs Moodle developer I was the sole person responsible for the development and implementation of the OCSLD (stand alone) server which manages several different Technology Enhanced Learning sites, one of which was a platform for Oxford Brookes Open Online Courses based on the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS). This became the Virtual Learning Environment that would later house several MOOCs, FSLT and TOOC (mentioned previously in section 2a), as well as several other non accredited courses.
I liaised with subject experts and developed a number of pilot Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and facilitated user requirement analysis, system design, implementation, documentation, debugging, testing and support, with a focus on system customisation and integration (for example I created several custom Moodle blocks) and recommending the best practice for the administrative use of Moodle as a VLE.
My role now is a blended hybrid of a eLearning technologist (as a DMeLD) and a Moodle developer. I have continually needed to update and upskill my technical knowledge as (with all things) nothing stays relevant for long. As an example, I recently migrated OCSLD’s server from a ‘stand alone’ blade server to a mesh shared hosting on a Linux based server. This provided me the perfect opportunity to upskill my knowledge of the newest versions of PHP, as the architecture of the mesh shared hosting server was much newer / more powerful and allowed this option. Additionally, the transfer was needed in part, to facilitate Brookes Open Online Courses (an installation of Moodle) to be more secure (operating server security patches), have a greater processor power and more bandwidth. All of which enhance the student (and staff) experience of using Moodle.
I continue to learn and develop my skills in VLE / Moodle administration constantly by participating in conferences, user groups and in virtual communities. As an example, I subscribe to several JISC mailing lists relating to Moodle and eLearning. In which I have been able to keep up to date with problems and bugs that effect colleagues in other institutions and keep abreast of any eLearning discussions. These mailing lists alongside the Moodle forum also allow me the opportunity to contribute and share my knowledge and expertise where I can by answering any questions and ‘taking part’ in discussions.
I also regularly investigate new technologies for their use in Technology Enhanced Learning and provide feedback to my peers within Oxford Brookes (namely the Learning Technologies Forum). Most recently, I was involved with (and I am the administrator of) a project to purchase a number of Padlet licences for Brookes staff use. I have been involved in every facet of this project (from creation of policy and procedure, creating how-to guidance (see below) to the implementation of learning design) and we now have over 300 members of staff regularly using Padlets to assist in their teaching and learning design.
This video is part of a suite of materials I created for the Padlet at Brookes pages (screenshot of the intranet page) self directed guidance for academic staff.
My time using Moodle has been long and varied one, spanning over a decade of technological upheaval. Reflecting on where I started to where I am now, there has been huge amounts of change in VLE’s and in Technology Enhanced Learning. Moodle is a core piece of technology that I use, almost everything else I do revolves in someway around it and thinking of the past change makes me excited for the future of the platform.
In this time the use of Moodle has cemented in me the Open Source ‘ethos’ and from my experience of working with it (Moodle), working with peers and working with learning and technology, I have cultivated the importance of always being open to new concepts and ideas and never ‘staying still’ and constantly learning new things.
Most recently I am developing a University wide, staff development programme (mentioned in section 1a) using a fork of Moodle called Totara. This was chosen for many factors but primarily due to its CPD (continuing professional development) integration. My many years of administrating Moodle has allowed a easy and near seamless transition to this platform.