To start, Moodle (moodle.org) is a course management system that is free for you to download, modify, and use however best fits your needs. It will generally cost you something (time, resources, sanity) if you want to deliver a quality product your students can learn from.

Moodle can run on many different platforms and configurations - from a few users on a USB stick, to tens of thousands on a server cluster! You can chose to host your own install, or have it hosted for you.

And what is a Moot? It is simply what we call a conference revolving around Moodle. It is an old english word for gathering or meeting, so it makes sense.

Plus its just cool to say MoodleMoot. (Ooh! Prize to the attendee that can say 'MoodleMoot Oklahoma' 5 times in the shortest period of time!)

Alright, so why are we doing this? The only answer I have is that I've gone completely, utterly mad. I mean, jeez, I'm already stressing over the details and the Moot is months away!

Seriously, though, there are a number of reasons for us to hold a Moot:

• A MoodleMoot gives us a good opportunity to do some staff development, teaching & sharing some unique and innovative ways to use Moodle, while giving our instructors a diverse choice of the training they receive.
• Hosting a Moot lets a lot more of our staff attend than if we had to send them somewhere else.
• We've been using Moodle for a few years ow, and a Moot gives us a great opportunity to share our knowledge, collaborate with others on best practices, and get an insight on how other institutions are using Moodle - I can assure you that there are things you can do with Moodle that we've never even thought of! It's a great way to make new contacts in and out of our specialty.
• We may gain a partnership or two that we wouldn't have even thought to consider otherwise.