Lambda Solutions e-Learning 2.0 Online Training and Moodle Experts

Continuing our roundup of the Canada Moodlemoot 2013 in Vancouver, we also talked with Moodle Founder and Director Martin Dougiamas about where Moodle has been and where it’s going. Coincidentally, that was the topic of his keynote presentation to us and our fellow Moodlers at the conference – but we got him to sum up the important bits.

What’s coming for Moodle?

·      better learning analytics capabilities

·      better tracking of competencies

·      open badges showing course completion;

·      last, but certainly not least, Moodle mobile.

(Note: we can’t say exactly when these will be included, but Moodle is definitely working on them, and Moodle 2.5 will come out in May …).

• Moodle Founder and Director Martin Dougiamas talks about where Moodle and eLearning are going

We were proud to take part in the Canada Moodlemoot 2013 that just took place in Vancouver. Along side the 60 sessions, we gave several presentations showcasing the latest features of Moodle, how the Moodle LMS has been implemented successfully by some of our clients, how to make your Moodle mobile. Feel free to click on the slideshares that are already up:

·      Totara - Moodle for Corporate Training

·      What Moodle 2 Can Do For You

·      Making Your Moodle Mobile

·      Moodle Show & Tell: Show Your Moodle!

While sharing our knowledge, we were grateful for the chance to spend time with friends, colleagues, partners and other Moodle experts and learn from their experiences. There’s a big Moodle community out there and these Moots are great for putting us all in one place to compare notes in person, not just through emails and conference calls. If you haven’t already, do check out this Storify of the Canada Moodlemoot conference created by our Moodle Evangelist Chad Leaman.

One particular highlight was spending quality time with Moodle Founder and Director Martin Dougiamas. Martin is an incredible guy – smart, funny and as engaging when he’s in front of an audience of 300 people as he is up close and personal. Before the conference we invited Martin on a trip around town and for some snow shoeing on Cypress Mountain, one of Vancouver’s 3 ski hills with tons of snow. Walking around between snow covered trees and fresh snow from the night before was a refreshing break for this Australian who just came from the heat of the desert!

Here’s the first part of our interview with Martin, recapping his thoughts overall on the conference and how Canadians in particular are using Moodle (apparently, quite well!). 

• Martin Dougiamas talking about Canada Moodlemoot 2013

We're excited to be at Canada Moodlemoot 2013 in Vancouver alongside our colleagues clients and new friends. Here's the latest news we'd like to share with the media as well as our partners, new and old.

Moodle Conference in Vancouver showcases revolution in eLearning capabilities

VANCOUVER – At CanadaMoot 13, one of Canada’s premier learning conferences of 2013 happening this week in Vancouver, eLearning solution providers Lambda Solutions and Totara will show how the corporate world can use technology to boost their businesses.

Corporate training through online learning management solutions has already helped millions of employees and executives train on the job and keep the economy humming – but until now, many of these systems have been expensive, inflexible and clunky. Taking a page out of the open source revolution in online learning that has already happened at the K-12 and university level, firms are going with solutions that build on the already-popular open source Moodle Learning Management Solution (LMS).

“Corporate leaders and IT departments are more and more interested in Moodle for delivering a wide range of training options, from teaching sales scripts and safety protocols to C-level executive project management,” says Jim Yupangco, Vancouver-based Lambda Solutions’ co-founder and VP of Research & Development. Yupangco will deliver a presentation on “Totara-Moodle for Corporate Training” at the conference alongside Totara VP Willem Boom. Lambda Solutions is the sole Canadian partner for Totara, which specializes in delivering the world's most popular learning management platform for the corporate sector.

“One of the biggest advantages we’ve seen for our clients is the great reduction in costs decrease in costs, by as much as 70-80 percent less than what they were paying with a proprietary LMS,” Boom says. Those kinds of savings mean corporate clients from small firms to Fortune 500 companies can provide more on the job training, making companies more effective – and competitive.

The cost savings are only one side of a phenomenon that may be spurring a new commitment by many companies to improving training options in unprecedented ways. “With large proprietary LMS systems, corporate clients might only use maybe half or less than half of all the features, but they’re paying for all of them,” Boom says. “If they turn to Totara and Lambda Solutions, any features they don't have right away, we can build on the product roadmap. The trade off has been very positive.”

The bi-annual Moodle user conference for Canada where Lambda Solutions and Totara are presenting brings together more than 100 speakers and an expected 375 attendees from across the country to discuss a wide variety of learning topics in 60 sessions over the 3 days. Topics include: teaching without textbooks, open textbooks and other learning resources, distance education for aboriginal communities, community plagiarism detection, integrating social media with education, and much more.

Moodle is one of the most popular learning management systems. It is being used in 227 countries by 75,000 customers to serve more than 65 million students. Because it is open source, Moodle generates user interest from educators, which makes the business model unique.

About Lambda Solutions
Lambda Solutions is an Authorized Moodle Partner and a Totara Partner. The company provides Moodle implementation services, managed hosting, systems integration and technical support. We believe in keeping Moodle open and providing our customers the flexibility and responsive expert support they deserve.

Lambda Solutions offers its Education and Corporate clients Moodle and Totara implementation, managed hosting, systems integration, and training services. The company provides a full range of services for the Open Source Moodle Learning Management System and Totara LMS. Lambda has been working with Moodle since 2003 and is an Authorized Moodle Partner. Lambda provides customization, hosting, and technical support to help schools, higher education, corporations, and government organizations deploy Moodle easily and cost effectively.

Media Contact Information
Lambda Solutions Inc.
Shevy Levy, CEO
Shevy.levy@lambdasolutions.net
www.lambdasolutions.net
1.877.700.1118
1.604-307-7411 (cell)

The corporate world needs online learning, too. While some automatically think of K-12 schools, colleges and universities when anyone mentions the Moodle LMS, there are millions of people taking training online: from warehouse forklift operators getting safety training to salespeople learning effective scripts and corporate executives learning the finer points of a company’s project management processes, it’s all happening now.

Lambda Solutions became LMS distributor Totara’s first and only Canadian partner in 2012 to facilitate successful corporate-sector enterprise deployment of Moodle-based learning solutions.

Normally, we’re a bit too modest to toot our own horn at Lambda Solutions, but we’ve been getting more comments about our customer support and response time like this, lately:

“We always receive prompt replies and solutions to our issues. Thank you!” -- Mount Sinai Hospital

The fact is that our customer support response time is better than average among our competitors and even better when benchmarked against the tech industry.

Maybe that’s why so many of our customers rank us ahead of some other Moodle support service providers they’ve dealt with. Our Moodle support response time and effectiveness has always been something that we pride ourselves on -- but since we switched to Zendesk customer support software, we’ve boosted that support level even more – and our clients love it.

“I've had no problem getting the help I need. Thank you!” -- Puget Sound Kidney Center

The Canada MoodleMoot is quickly approaching!  Hosted in our hometown of Vancouver BC from February 12 - 15, Lambda Solutions is excited to greet Moodlers from across Canada and around the world.

This month's free Lambda Solutions webinar will focus on the themes and speakers of the Canada MoodleMoot.   With more than 60 Moodle presentations and workshops over 4 days, this is a great opportunity to get you ready for the Moot.  Hear from some of the speakers about their sessions and the knowledge, experience and insights they are planning to share.  If you're coming to the Moot or attending online, this month's "half-hour how to Moodle" will ensure you'll make the most of the MoodleMoot.

Here is a recording of the webinar.

Canada MoodleMoot Preview from Lambda Solutions on Vimeo.

Moodle is the most popular LMS software solution according to Capterra’s latest research, whether you measure by total customers (68,000 of them!) or by total number of users. Indeed, with over 60 million users worldwide, it is nearly double the usage of its nearest competitor.

How do you tear down all of your school’s classroom walls and tell all of a school’s teachers to quit the lecture-style classroom teaching they’ve always done and turn them into on-the-spot tutors for computer-assisted learners without sparking a teacher’s strike?

Show them the data.

(We’ll tell you the full story in a bit. Patience!).

This is about doing a lot more than “tweaking” a classroom. Learning analytics combined with online learning can revolutionize how students learn, literally smashing down the walls that hold students back.

Moodle "Theming and Customization" - Apr 25, 2013

Moodle "Taming the Gradebook" – Mar 27, 2013

Canada MoodleMoot Preview – Jan 31, 2013

 

The Canada MoodleMoot is less than a month away, and we’re excited to greet Moodlers in our home town, Vancouver, from Feb 12 – 15. This month’s webinar will give you a feel for what to expect of this great annual event with more than 60 Moodle presentations and workshops over 3 days. Hear from some of the speakers about their sessions and the knowledge, experience and insights they are planning to share. If you’re coming to the Moot or attending online, this month’s ”half-hour how to Moodle” will get you ready to make the most of the MoodleMoot.

 

Moodle Workshop Module – Nov 29, 2012

Moodle 2.3 Repositories – Oct 25, 2012

Enable repositories to make the most of your files in Moodle. Repositories allow you to integrate files from many other online and cloud environments and bring them right into Moodle. YouTube, Wikimedia, Google Drive / Google Docs, Dropbox, Media Capture… the list goes on! And now in Moodle 2.3, if you update the external file, it updates in Moodle through the new aliasing feature. Learn how to get up and running with repositories to bring all your available resources into Moodle.

Moodle 2.3 Highlights – Sept 27, 2012

The release of Moodle 2.3 greatly increases the usability of Moodle for administrators and teachers.  Some of the notable improvements include the rewrite of the assignments module; topics can now be made conditional activities; and updating your courses is easier than ever.  Learn about these and many other significant improvements found in Moodle 2.3, in our first webinar of the Fall season.

Moodle 2.2 – Advanced Grading Methods – June 14, 2012

Moodle 2.2 – Make Your Moodle Mobile – May 3, 2012

Moodle 2.x – Completion Tracking – April 5, 2012

The next Canada MoodleMoot is scheduled! This time, it's taking place in Vancouver, February 12 - 15, 2013. The theme is "From Coding to Networking: Building Moodle on a Human Scale" and taking place at the Coast Plaza Hotel near English Bay. We look forward to welcoming Moodlers to Lambda Solutions’ hometown, Vancouver!

Canada MoodleMoot 2013 is being coordinated by KnowPlace and hosted by BCcampus, on behalf of the BCcampus Moodle Shared Services.  BCcampus Shared Services assists BC public-post secondary institutions in providing Moodle hosting through Lambda Solutions.  BCcampus also provides BC Moodle Users with a community space for ongoing professional support.

Registration and Participation

Registration is now open. Early bird rate of $355 is available until November 2^nd. With two and half days of conference sessions, plus a day-long pre-conference, it's the biggest Moodle event in Canada of the year. Keynote presentations will be given by Moodle creator Martin Dougiamas, Tony Bates will address quality in elearning, and host of Shaw TV's Connected Life Bradley Shende will close the conference with a focus on future trends in elearning.

Lambda Solutions is preparing a series of presentations for the Moot, and would be happy to hear from you for topics you'd like to hear at the MoodleMoot. You can also share your Moodle expertise at Canada MoodleMoot 2013. The Call for Proposals is open (word doc) until October 13, with a very simple and straight forward proposal submission form. They are actively looking for sessions in the following streams:

• Moodle Community
• Teaching and Learning
• Moodle Skills
• Enterprising Moodle
• Research and Trends

We look forward to reconnecting with many Moodlers and meeting new ones at the Canada MoodleMoot 2013 in our backyard!