 The year is 2018. More than 130 million registered users, 100,000 sites, 200 countries, more than 100 languages. At this time, Moodle is the world's most popular learning management system. It's empowering educators to improve our world. But how did Moodle actually get to where it is today and where is it going? Let me share with you the Moodle story. Let's start from the beginning. In the late 1970s, a clever young kid by the name of Martin Dugyamats grows up in remote Western Australia. Australia is a vast continent, and the nearest school happens to be hundreds of kilometres away. The internet doesn't yet exist, so Martin attends School of the Air, that's learning delivered via Radio Wave. It gives him an early insight into distance learning. Fast forward to 1999, Martin plants a seed. He begins creating Moodle as part of his PhD research project at Curtin University. In 2001, he makes the first forum post via Moodle.com. This was before the days of Moodle.org. Naturally, he was using the Moodle software. In 2002, he releases Moodle Version 1 as an open software system. Within months, Moodle is being used all over the world. In that same year, he sets up Tracker. This is a bug tracking system. In his own words, so you can see what I'm working on. In 2004, the first Moodle Moots are being hosted in the United Kingdom and Germany. The first partner of Moodle partner applications are rolling in, and there are around 1,000 registered Moodle sites. In the next year, the Mojito establishes itself as the official Moodle drink. Incidentally, the Spanish Moodle Moot. 2006, Moodle Docks is launched. This is the online help documentation wiki for Moodle users or Moodlets. 2008, Martin graciously accepts the Google O'Reilly open source award in the Education Enabler category on behalf of Moodle. 2010, Moodle Version 2 is released. New features include repositories, portfolios, course completion tracking, conditional activities and cohorts. At this stage, there are around 1,000,000 registered Moodle users and 50 certified partners worldwide. 2011, the mobile app Version 1 is released. The app is called My Moodle. It's designed for tablet and mobile, freely available from the various stores. It hooks into mobile functions such as taking a picture, recording audio or video from your phone and uploading that directly to your Moodle course. In 2012, Moodle hosts its first research conference on the Greek island of Crete. I really wish I went to that particular conference. In 2013, Learn Moodle MOOC is launched. MOOC being a massive open online course. This particular MOOC is a four-week activity-based course for teachers who are new to Moodle and want to learn more. 2015 represented a watershed year for Moodle. It achieves a key milestone. It becomes the world's most popular learning management system. At this stage, we have around 18 million registered users. Moodle Cloud is launched. This is a low-cost hosting service managed by HQ. And the Moodle mobile app Version 2 is released. It's becoming a better metaphor for the desktop experience. Moodle Version 3, this is the standard core release. There's a big focus on usability improvements and the user interface. And we say hello to a new default text editor. It's called Ato, designed especially for Moodle. 2016 was another momentous year for Moodle. It reaches over 100 million registered users. And to be fair, that's probably the tip of the iceberg because most system admins won't register their site. They don't. Every country is or has a registered Moodle site. In the same year, the Moodle User Association has launched or the MUA. This is a not-for-profit incorporated association that helps drive the Moodle project. The idea is that members propose projects, define requirements. They vote on their preferred projects. And these are presented to HQ for development. And the development is funded by member fees. So you might have noticed some of these features in core Moodle. Recycle bin, the My Courses overview block that's on the dashboard, calendar improvements. And there's been an expanded question bank as well. The next theme, this is relatively new based on the Bistrak framework. So the idea here is it's modern, it's clean, it's web responsive. Easy to navigate. We can win back screen real estate as educators or as learners and it allows a unified experience with the mobile app. The Moodle mobile app version 3 is released. So it's now becoming an excellent metaphor for the desktop experience. The majority of standard features are now supported by the app. And we say hello to the branded Moodle mobile app. This is a service, a commercial service where organizations can have their branding applied to the standard app. So there's some additional benefits. Simplified login, automated updates, offline capability and push notification infrastructure. Moodle desktop is released. I did say that 2016 was a momentous year. So this is Moodle's solution for accessing the software and the courses either via your desktop or surface tablets. Just last year or 2017, Moodle announced an investment partnership with Education for the Many to accelerate its growth. So Education for the Many's mission is to invest in entrepreneurs who wish to change the world through education. And we now have a new office or Moodle has an office in Barcelona, Spain. Okay, so here we are again. The present day, as we said, 130 million registered users and around about 80 or so certified Moodle partners worldwide. Where to from here? Well, beyond 2018, Moodle is especially focused on five key growth projects. And we'll go through each of these in a moment. Improving Moodle Core, Learn Moodle, Moodle Net, Moodle Foundation, and the expansion of services and partnership programs. Okay, so we're improving core. So that's the standard software product we've known to love and adore. So look out for more of this. Useability, improve usability, simplicity and accessibility. Moodle site copy. So this will be a function that will make it easy or easier for us to copy. Transport our Moodle sites from one location to another. Look out for sector-specific improvements. So not just education, we could be talking workplace and beyond. This is sort of here already, but it's early days. Analytics-driven user assistance. So this is machine learning. If you like the machine or the platform, studies the Moodle system and it notifies. So it's like a neural network. We feed or Moodle feeds it data and we train the brain. It becomes more intelligent over time. So Moodle comes now, shipped with some idea of how the human brain works. In the form of learning analytics, you may have seen this. So the idea is, we assist educators to make more informed decisions about learning in a timely manner. Watch out as well for Moodle to support virtual reality and augmented reality standards. Okay, this is key focus area two. Learn Moodle. So this is Moodle's latest curriculum to teach or to learn to teach online. And that will be via the Moodle Education Certification Program. So educators will have the opportunity to demonstrate effectiveness in 22 key digital competencies. And these are aligned with UNESCO's digital standards for educators. MoodleNet, it's going to be revamped. It may in fact eventually replace what we know as Moodle.org. It's going to be a well-designed social media platform for us as educators. Integrated with every Moodle site. And it will support the creation and sharing of content and services. Moodle Foundation. This will be a not-for-profit to be launched somewhere in Europe, possibly Brussels. Focus on research driving open source. Deep involvement with the community and all sorts of partnerships. Fifthly, look out for an expansion of Moodle services and partnership programs. In summary, Moodle. It started as one man's vision. Martin. He planted a seed. We all nurtured it and helped it grow. The Moodle project highlights the great potential of humanity. When we cooperate and collaborate, we can achieve incredible things. Moodle. Empowering the educators to improve our world. Thank you.