We had some great comments following this week's Moodle Group Seminar, as ever the blend of varied speakers and attendees made the presentations and networking slots fascinating. There were representatives from global educational organisations, independant schools, content developers, higher and further education, the charity and business sectors.

Ross Midgley from People and Business Developement kicked off the evening with a presentation about the path taken to establish an elearning site to complement PBD's thriving eportfolio based business. A key issue was to ensure there was a clear distinction between the elearning site and the eportfolio site where activity is evidenced and assessed. Ross explained how he commissioned a specialist author to write content and how he was able to licence soon to be defunct content from Learn Direct and adapt it to meet the revised qualifications.

The title of Ross's presentation was "Moodle Minimalism" and he explained how he carefully pared down the functionality used on the site so that it precisely matched his specific business requirements - Ross estimated that he's only using 5% of Moodle's functionality to achieve his objectives. Choosing the right 5% was crucial! Careful consideration of user managment techniques and a custom theme from HowToMoodle mean that Ross can provision a new client with a customised look and feel from within the site in no time at all.

When you're working with Moodle all the time it's easy to take some things for granted when designing courses, in my presentation I shared some tips that keep coming up with clients. My slides are below - there are some comments in the notes when you click through to SlideShare.

Rounding off the evening was Ruth Adams, Global Head of Online Professional at the International Baccalaureate Organisation. Ruth shared a wide range of insights from recent research that provided food for thought about how technology is used today and how that use has developed over time. Interesting facts included:

• 1994 was the year: Mid-year 2,738 websites, over 10,000 by the year end.
• 82% of the UK population are internet users.
• Between 2000 and 2010 the number of internet users in Nigeria grew by 21,891.1% (yes the comma is in the correct position!).
• Average time spent online per month in the US by age:
  • 12 - 17 yrs: 22.3 hours
  • 45 - 54 yrs: 39.3 hours

We're looking forward to the next event in November 2011 and will be confirming speakers here soon.