Moodle, a central tool at Icam for educational and digital innovation

Icam
21 Aug 2024

Interview with David Fasani, Moodle 2024 Project Manager. Moodle is a “free online learning platform designed to provide teachers, administrators and learners with a single, robust, secure and integrated system for creating personalized learning environments” (moodle.org). Available at Icam for more than 10 years, the platform needed to undergo major changes to align it with the organization of the Icam collective, comply with current legislation and carry out the necessary updates to benefit from the latest functionalities while preventing cyber risk.
David Fasani, Moodle project manager, talks about the new version of Moodle that will be available to all teachers and learners from July 2024. He has worked with a project team made up of IPN referents (Pedagogical and Digital Innovation unit) as well as project referents, to bring this project to a successful conclusion.

What’s at stake in this project ?

Moodle is at the heart of our teaching and is a foundation for pedagogical and digital innovation. Over the years, the platform has become increasingly complex, both as a result of our growth and changes in our organization. The previous version was no longer adapted to our 600-odd teachers and 6,000-plus learners. In addition, it was becoming obsolete due to changes in teaching programs.
It is also important to note the complexity of our data, which is sometimes unstructured or unstructured. The old version had over 1,500 active courses and 5,000+ users/day, but was designed to accommodate 1,000.
In addition to these internal challenges, one facet of this project concerned regulatory compliance.

How was the project organized ?

We built the project with method and rigor, while mobilizing teams from all divisions and campuses. As a result, almost 60 people have been working together since August 2023. The “team training and support” phase was particularly important, with more than 1,000 hours of training given in face-to-face and online sessions to all Icam teams, as well as to all our part-time and occasional contributors, in 4 languages and on 5 continents.

What are the main developments ?

The interface and tree structure have been radically redesigned for easier navigation, in line with the current organization of programs for all Icam courses (engineering, masters, vocational training). Secondly, this new version saves time for teachers by automating previously time-consuming tasks such as student course registration. For learners, it’s a more inclusive and accessible Moodle. Finally, we were able to formalize the tool’s regulatory framework, such as RGPD for example.

What’s next for this project ?

We need to continue coordinating our network and international activities to prepare for future developments, such as further automating tasks and applying regulations, and ensuring that our systems remain in operational condition. I’m also thinking of the exchanges of experience that we can enrich with the other schools in the IAJES network, as well as with other higher education establishments. In this way, the IPN unit will contribute to Icam’s reputation.