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Happy Birthday Moodle

It’s Moodle’s birthday today! 

19 years ago on this very day, the first publicly available version of Moodle was released. 

In recognition of the platform that has had such a transformative impact on the lives of millions, we wanted to write this article to talk about the history of Moodle as well as a message on what Moodle means to the people who work at Titus.

01 A brief history of Moodle

Martin Dougiamas is the founder of Moodle, and how the idea for it came about revolves heavily around his upbringing. Born and raised in the Australian outback, education for him was heavily dependent on early distance learning tools, particularly around radio and School of the Air. 

Later in life, Martin began working at Curtin University. His belief in distance learning remained and it was here he was allowed to put this to action by trialling early prototypes of a new LMS in 1999. 

By 2002, the first version of Moodle was released, followed closely by Moodle.org and Moodle.com. 

Moodle’s growth from that point was rapid, with half a million users by 2008, over a million users by 2010 and then through to 2021, where Moodle passed the incredible milestone of 285 million users and 186,000 registered sites. 

In 2019, we saw the release of Moodle Workplace, which soon became one of the cornerstones of our operations at Titus. Built on the tried and tested success of the Moodle platform whilst adding a suite of new features geared towards the needs of businesses. 

Moodle continues to go from strength to strength, continuing to grow in the number of people it supports, and we’re so happy to be a part of its success. 

02 Messages from the team

Moodle has had a profound impact on the lives of the people that have used it. But a sometimes overlooked part of our writing is the effect it has had on the people of Titus. 

All of us here have been allowed to work, make friends and support others through Moodle, so we decided to sit down with a couple of people from the team and ask them what Moodle means to them. 

"Moodle is an amazing system and project that, like for many of us in the community, has come to define my own career and has been a core part of my working day for almost 15 years. Without Moodle, there would be no Titus! It's fantastic that the tool itself has grown so extensively over the years in both core functionality and all-round ecosystem, allowing Partners like ourselves to serve and interact with such a wide range of clients from education, training, public sector and corporate backgrounds. The Moodle open-source community is really special; nowhere else can such effort and enthusiasm for an LMS be seen, with immeasurable time and energy dedicated to supporting other users and developing new functionality through core code and plugins. Moodle supports millions of users worldwide and is directly responsible for the employment of thousands of staff members - we're proud to be a key part of that mission and thank all for their contributions and congratulate Moodle for being able to grow and sustain this community enthusiasm for nearly two decades!" - Mike Bennett, Co-founder and Director 

It was the quiz part of Moodle that first attracted me, and it is still my first Moodle love. If Moodle had no other features, it would still make it a world-dominating piece of software. The Moodle quiz engine is the most powerful available anywhere, free or paid for.  It has more features, question types and plugins than any other tool. If a user wants modifications or new features, they can be built for what is a modest price by comparison with other education costs. The community of support is startling; I frequently see questions from end-users answered by the person who wrote the software. It is hard to imagine that happening in the world of commercial software. Moodle is an educational lever, a small input results in a massive output" - Marcus Green, Senior Developer

Getting Started

From everyone here at Titus, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish to Moodle a very Happy Birthday!

We also release a monthly newsletter covering content like this and everything you need to know surrounding the world of Moodle. Click the link below to subscribe.

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Phuong Nguyen Hong

Digital Marketing Executive

Super talented, unflappable and very funny, Phuong supports the whole marketing team in her role as Digital Marketing Executive. Phuong holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and recently completed a master’s degree in Management and Marketing. Originally from Hanoi in Vietnam, Phuong is now based in the UK and climatising brilliantly to our weather and food.

Phuong owns a food review Instagram page as travelling and food are her passion. She also has a cute little french bulldog.

Ellie Sharkey

Head of Marketing

Ellie was the first woman to join Titus and has paved the way for many more since then. After studying for a degree in Fashion and Marketing, Ellie was lucky to find herself at fashion weeks and photoshoots.

Now she’s switched from talk of the front row to front end design and has brought loads of transferable knowledge to Titus. Ellie has also found a real passion for tech, especially in the learning sector, helping clients create positive change for their organisations.

Callum Barrett

Senior Brand Executive

As one of the youngest people at Titus but at the same time one of the oldest serving members of the team, Callum has graced Titus with his broad smile and positive attitude for over 5 years now. As a key member of the marketing team, Callum works across all areas, both on and offline, to ensure that all Titus brands and communication are on point.

After missing out on the opportunity to go to University the first time around, management encouraged him to enrol in our course alongside his work. He is now studying to achieve his Level 6 Diploma in Professional Digital Marketing.

Dec Connolly

Acquisition Marketing Manager

Always bringing innovation and new ideas, Dec studied a degree in Journalism but found his passion in digital marketing. Dec has also worked in marketing for one of the countries biggest retailers and within the property sector.

Outside work, Dec Co-founded a news publication where he collaborated with global brands like Uber, Amazon, BooHoo and countless SMEs.