Setup using Hosting or Contractor? Advice please:

Setup using Hosting or Contractor? Advice please:

by D Gottron -
Number of replies: 6

Hi,

Remote-Learner Level I or II  --- or --- Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and have a contractor come in. 

I have installed moodle many times and even used it for my Masters degree in Education (instructional technologies). I also have a background in CMS web development and video production though admittedly new to SCORM programming and packaging. I am currently working with a company that has three years of asynchronous online training mainly in the form of (ActionScript 2/SCORM/zipped) Flash embedded video modules (between 30mgs to 120mgs each) and Captivate modules (all using up about 18gigs of server space). They tell me they are about half way through the training modules that need to be created with more on the horizon. They are currently hosted at a organization called “inquisiq” (which looks like WebCT).
Anyhow, I updated them from CS2 to CS4 which should cut the module creation time in half and then they asked me to look into other LMS options. After showing them a quick moodle mock up they asked me to put together a proposal to securely set up and migrate the existing training over to moodle. The requirements are that it needs to:

  1. be extremely secure (as that the company is very concerned about trade secrets)
  2. be able to handle at least 500 learners (to start)
  3. to use the existing SCORM training
  4. handle asynchronous training modules with no set time line (schedule)


So far, with a test of only 10 modules I have found 4 out of 10 needs to be adjusted in Captivate to get the SCORM to report correctly in moodle.


There are two options in the company’s price range for hosting I have come up with

  1. Use the company’s existing VERIO Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and have a contractor come in that works for the State college system here in California. To set up a secure expandable installation that can handle the larger SCORM upload and unzip requirements. (but he has very little SCORM and Flash with Video experience).
  2. Go with Remote-Learner Level I or II, and have to use a work around to upload the modules; via ftp then unzip using their “cpanel” for each module. (though they do have a good deal of experience with customers using SCORM, non-class schedule based training, and web training video I could pull from).

So these are my options. Go with a contractor and have more control of the installation and upload but have to rely on finding solutions on the web to problems I run into. Or go with a hosting service that has more stringent requirements of uploading and configuration but has more training content support.
Has anyone else out there gone through a similar decision dilemma? Your experience and advice would be strongly appreciated! Thanks!!!

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In reply to D Gottron

Re: Setup using Hosting or Contractor? Advice please:

by Michael Penney -
Hi D, if you are uploading a number of large (>64 MB) files, you are almost certainly going to want to use ftp (regardless of the host you choose) - http is not really designed for large file uploads and is much slower than ftp*. However, I don't understand why you would need to use Cpanel to unzip the files - if you are going to unzip the files after uploading them, you can do that via Moodle whether you upload via ftp or http (why are you unzipping them?)**.

With ftp you ftp the file (or files) to the course files directory and choose the file you want when creating a new SCORM activity. While you can unzip the file first and link to the imsmanifest.xml file - you would have to unzip the file 'manually' either way to do that -and on our (remote-learner's) server you could unzip the file from Moodle or from Cpanel).


* When I worked at Cal State I had internal gigabit direct to my Moodle server, but I never used http upload for files more than ~20-30MB.

**AFAIK Main reason to unzip would be to update videos in the SCORM after uploading - otherwise the Moodle SCORM mod would handle the unzipping for you.


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In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Setup using Hosting or Contractor? Advice please:

by D Gottron -

Hi, good points...  thanks for the reply,

The reason is that the SCORM unzip packages we upload are too big  (oddly though moodle states only over 64MB in my tests I ran into problems between with 34-64MB files in the SCORM upload area only) for the php zip library to handle (used by the Moodle SCORM mod by default). The fix is use external (more robust) zip/unzip binaries by setting the zip and unzip system paths to the UNIX server unzip program in moodle:

http://docs.moodle.org/en/SCORM_FAQ#Large_SCORM_package_will_upload_to_Moodle.2C_but_will_not_display

Remote-Learner Level I and II do not let you set this to they’re server according to their pre-sales support. As well when testing on my personal Godaddy hosting account I found out for the above to work "slash arguments" need to be enabled on the UNIX server for the zip path to be recognized.  I was told not to expect this on the Level I and II plans.  As such  the work around in their own words:

"The maximum via moodle is 64mb, but via ftp and cpanel you can upload larger files.  With ftp you cannot unzip, but ok with cpanel bigger than 64mb, uploading via cpanel and unzipping there."

"....  and then just call the manifest file when placing the SCORM in Moodle. "

As for FTP after adjusting the php.ini, settings in moodle and the .conf file on my test Godaddy account  I didn’t see much of a differents in the upload speed but I will take your word for it.  The reason I am uploading a .zip file is that the Moodle SCORM mod uses it in such away that it seems like it is pulling directly from the .zip. Though I know it is unpacking elsewhere, so if/when I try to get the trainers to own their own course maintenance it would be nice if they didn’t need to know what it was doing.

So the reason for using the “Cpanel” according to Remote-Learner it that it uses the UNIX server more robust unzip program. Now yes, this is a pain, but I am concerned that getting the SCORM packages to report the way I need them to for asynchronous (open ended) online training modules maybe more of a time consumer without experienced help. On that point Remote-Learner said:

"I do want to mention that we actually have one of the SCORM maintainers at Moodle.org on our staff (Amy Groshek) if you ever develop a problem."

Still debating with my decision....

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In reply to D Gottron

Re: Setup using Hosting or Contractor? Advice please:

by E. L. Cooper -
I would question using a virtual private server. My thought is that you need to know how many simultaneous users.
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In reply to E. L. Cooper

Re: Setup using Hosting or Contractor? Advice please:

by ben reynolds -
I would follow Ms. Mary Cooch on this, but the ultimate answer is that you should seek to find an answer outside of this area.
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In reply to D Gottron

Re: Setup using Hosting or Contractor? Advice please:

by Michael Penney -
Hi D, if you end up going with our Level II, you can ftp your files unzipped, then link to the imsmanifest.xml file - that saves the step of zipping and 'manually' unzipping via cpanel. If you are going to unzip on the server after uploading and link to imsmanifest.xml file from the SCORM activity rather than the SCORM's zip file, then the only reason to zip the files prior to uploading would be to make them a bit smaller for the upload.

But that is (in my experience) only going to save ~10-20% with compressed video (since it is already compressedsmile and IMO not worth the time it takes to zip and unzip a large file.

I've done a number of projects with SCORM with a very large amount of video content embedded or linked (around 80GB for one) and generally found it better to avoid the zip/unzip stage if possible.

Anyway, Amy is definitely expert at making SCORM work (and having been the SCORM expert at several previous places I've worked, I'm quite happy to say she knows a good bit more about SCORM than I dowink)..
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In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Setup using Hosting or Contractor? Advice please:

by D Gottron -

Food for thought Michael, thanks. This is all really great information.  I am in contact with a couple of folks over there that have let me know similar feedback and very good about responding to my questions and to be honest RL seems to be the most flexible host I have researched. smile

Right now I am really just  fact finding to see what the up and downs that others have  experienced in setting up using both methods in my range; of number of students, my SCORM issues, and training (rather than class) reporting needs .  I am still putting a demo together and need to put a proposal together very soon. I don’t want to go in to my presentation without alternative options whether good or bad.
 

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