I've been asked to investigate the pros and cons of hosting Moodle internally in our institution or externally through a host provider. Looking at a few different host packages my main concern is that Moodle customisation seems to be limited/restricted.
Can anyone recommend a host that allows full access to all elements of Moodle (i.e theme customisation, third party plugin installation).
The plan is to gradually move all the course content from our current VLE (Blackboard) to Moodle once we decide on a storage option.
Another query I have is about enrolling users automatically. Currently users are enrolled into Blackboard through Banner. Does Moodle support enrolling users from Banner?
Thanks.
Hi John,
I contacted my local Moodle Partners directly and found that they are willing to work with you in terms of having full access to Moodle. Of course, they won't support it if you make the changes yourself. And, if you are on a shared hosting plan, if your modification of Moodle impacts the performance of the server, then they will disable your site in the interest of the other hosted sites.
Another choice is to use a web hosting company that meets the server specs.
I am not familiar with Banner, but perhaps this discussion will answer your question Banner/Luminis Message Broker plugin update 0.6.2
I contacted my local Moodle Partners directly and found that they are willing to work with you in terms of having full access to Moodle. Of course, they won't support it if you make the changes yourself. And, if you are on a shared hosting plan, if your modification of Moodle impacts the performance of the server, then they will disable your site in the interest of the other hosted sites.
Another choice is to use a web hosting company that meets the server specs.
I am not familiar with Banner, but perhaps this discussion will answer your question Banner/Luminis Message Broker plugin update 0.6.2
I'm not familiar with Banner but I assume it sits on top of some sort of database. As long as you can get at the data you can either directly (or via a regular feed) use the Database Authentication plugin (and possibly the DB Enrollment plugin).
The problem you will have is that this will be problematic to do securely if you are using a hosted solution.
You don't say what hosted solutions you have looked at but I'm quite surprised at your findings. Most will give you direct access to the code part of Moodle so that you can change it if you want. How that might affect any support agreement you have as part of the hosting is another matter, of course.
The problem you will have is that this will be problematic to do securely if you are using a hosted solution.
You don't say what hosted solutions you have looked at but I'm quite surprised at your findings. Most will give you direct access to the code part of Moodle so that you can change it if you want. How that might affect any support agreement you have as part of the hosting is another matter, of course.
Some of us are wokring on documents to help answer such questions:
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Finding_and_Selecting_A_Web_Host
To the extent that this is helpdul, great, and to the extent it is not, please either add to the doc article or the talk page as far as your experiences, etc.
I am also surprised that your research suggests that vendors would bar you from manipulating the Moodle code...... are you talking about MPs or web hosts generally?
I don't know of any web host that bars you from fiddling Moodle to your hearts content....
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Finding_and_Selecting_A_Web_Host
To the extent that this is helpdul, great, and to the extent it is not, please either add to the doc article or the talk page as far as your experiences, etc.
I am also surprised that your research suggests that vendors would bar you from manipulating the Moodle code...... are you talking about MPs or web hosts generally?
I don't know of any web host that bars you from fiddling Moodle to your hearts content....
There are two different types of hosting we are talking about here:
Type 1: Here is (a share of a server) with LAMP, here is cpanal, do what you like.
Type 2: We will install Moodle for you, and keep it running smoothly, and provide support.
Most hosting packages of type 2 will not let you just hack around with the code. You could screw things up badly, which is not consistent with them providing a guaranteed level of service.
That is, of course, an over-simplification, there is really a broad spectrum of options between these two extremes.
Type 1: Here is (a share of a server) with LAMP, here is cpanal, do what you like.
Type 2: We will install Moodle for you, and keep it running smoothly, and provide support.
Most hosting packages of type 2 will not let you just hack around with the code. You could screw things up badly, which is not consistent with them providing a guaranteed level of service.
That is, of course, an over-simplification, there is really a broad spectrum of options between these two extremes.