Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Tim Wise -
Number of replies: 10

This may seem like a silly question considering your site, but I want to make sure before going thru the process on installation and implementation.

Can I use Moodle to Manage/Build out their Public Website as well as use it for their LMS, or, do I need another Web front End like Drupal?

If I need another web front end, is there a particular one that is more friendly / integrates better with Moodle than the others?

If So, What is it?

And last but not least.

Can Moodle handle the enrollment and payment process for the courses that students sign up for, during the enrollment process?

I would appreciate any information on the questions above.

Thanks.

Tim Wise

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Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers
Hi Tim. We are a regular high school and we use Moodle for our website as well as our LMS. We have our front page open access and in order to get to the courses you have to log in. It seems to work ok for us. http://www.olchs.lancs.sch.uk

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Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by DeWayne Demland -
Mary,

Do you use a mymoodle page as the page just behind this one that the public sees?
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Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers
Hi Dewayne. No we don't, because we tried it and it wasn't very popular with staff or students, so we just have Moodle open as normal for them.
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Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Tony Timms -
Hi, this thread seems to answer a question we have had for some time regarding using our Moodle site as our main project website, however we are not sure about how to make the front page open access or replace it with our own layout so that users have to login to access the courses.  Is there any information about this?
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Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Just to put the other side of the argument. I've looked at this quite a lot and while you can achieve quite a lot with Moodle as a CMS it is falling in to the trap of "the answer is Moodle, now what was the question".

It isn't helped by most of the open source CMSs being complete rubbish (IMO). Mostly, glorified blogging sites. There are some good ones around though (a good start is http://silverstripe.org/ - those smart Kiwis again!). With a bit of effort a good CMS will make presenting your web site a whole lot more pleasant and intuitive experience.
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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Tony Timms -
Hmm, thanks for that but the reason we are using Moodle is because it is open source and most of these CMS products are expensive, we do not have that much funding for our project
What we would like to do is have a main introductory page for our website with the usual information about the project etc which then allows users to login to Moodle from there.  Is this a big job, or even a possibility?
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Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers
Not a big job and very possible. In site admin>front page>front page>front page settings , click the box "include a topic section" and you will have a central area to add information about your project. And/or you can add information from the main menu block about various aspects of your project. All of this can be open access but to access the courses in Moodle users will then have to log in.
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Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Yep - well, that's why I suggested a good Open Source CMS wink

I would never suggest a commercial solution when there's OS that will do the job.
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In reply to Tim Wise

Re: Using Moodle as CMS as well as LMS

by Ryan Chadwick -
Yes, what you are proposing is possible (as previous comments have pointed out).

And I would actually recommend it in your situation. If you're main service is going to be provided via Moodle and the Public website is to be used mainly as a promotional tool (I'm making an assumption here, correct me if I'm wrong), then I think it would be beneficial to have them look and behave in a similar, consistent fashion. Done properly it would present very professionally.

I would even propose you use it to your advantage. Offer a free forum where current and potential students can join and ask advice from your teachers (or something similar). If you get a lot of potential students to create an account on your system then it is less effor later for them to enrol in your courses.

Another advantage is that you then only need to manage one system instead of two.
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