Hello everybody,
I am in charge of studying the best approach to restructure the website of my school. Sooner or later we will indeed start developing a basic VLE next to our ordinary website, and I was considering the possibility to directly use Moodle as the content manager for the website at large.
I noticed, however, that many institutes preferred to continue managing the normal website with whatever CMS (like Drupal, Joomla or Wordpress) and use moodle for the VLE only.
What is your experience with this choice? Do you agree that the normal website cannot (or should not) be developed using Moodle?
Thanks for helping me in this choice.
Anette.
Well different people will tell you different stories according to their experience, but from my experience Moodle is fine to use as a website and VLE. I work in a high school and the front page of our Moodle is our website. You then log in to get to the courses on the VLE. We don't have any problems with using it this way.
My usual response is to ask what the "main website" is for - who is your target audience? If it's just existing staff/students/or parents of existing students then hosting it on your Moodle site is usually fine.
But - if you are trying to use your main website as a marketing tool to attract parents/new students then using Moodle to do this doesn't always work well and it's more appropriate to have a seperate site with targeted information to attract new students optimised to work well with Google etc.
I've found that a seperate "marketing" style site is particularly important to private schools or those with a large number of international students.
But - if you are trying to use your main website as a marketing tool to attract parents/new students then using Moodle to do this doesn't always work well and it's more appropriate to have a seperate site with targeted information to attract new students optimised to work well with Google etc.
I've found that a seperate "marketing" style site is particularly important to private schools or those with a large number of international students.
Indeed. And the complexity of the "main website" also plays a function (we don't know whether you talk about having a single public page upfront or whether you mean to run a second instance of Moodle to have a full-fledged site).
Keep in mind that while Moodle as technology can be used for many purposes, it is optimized to deliver VLE experience.
Keep in mind that while Moodle as technology can be used for many purposes, it is optimized to deliver VLE experience.
There is, according one one recent estimate I saw, 46million Moodle users world wide. I do not know how accurate that is, but I would suggest if so then there is at least 46million different opinions on this question..
..
To toss mine in, the questions are
(The term "owner" is the person or persons who actually own the site, the business, the school, the club, the individual, it is the person who is paying, the person who's logo appears.)
The developer, the person or team who actually write the site, will only need to answer one question:
"What is the best way I can meet the needs of the owner?"
(Note "needs", not wants, not demands.)
Lots of people will disagree with me, but I would suggest that it is the needs of the owner that must be met. Most would say, what are the needs of the site, but reality is the owner has identified their need and it should be met. A site can always be changed if the owner is wrong about their need.
My thought is that a site needs be as flexible as it can be, to be able to adapt to a changing need. For me, Moodle certainly can meet that need, but for someone else, a Moodle wrapped in a Drupal or a Joomla, that uses MediaWiki, Mahara and any other tools that the owners may need can be a far better option than just a Moodle. (I do not think there is any reason you cannot have a MediaWiki and a Mahara wrapped in your Moodle, btw.)
Think about this, anyone who has begun school this year, has up to 12 years of basic education, then perhaps two or more years of increasingly specialist education/training. They will then work until they retire, at say 65, that means they could retire in 2070. Here comes the kicker, we do not know what the needs of students will be in 5 years, we do not know what the demands of the workforce will be in 10 years - and we are educating them for the next 60 years.
I suggest, flexibility is going to be the key to successful education, so what is, for you, the best way of presenting something in such a flexible manner it can be adapted to a changing need?
<p class="apology">I am sorry if this is not really what you looking for, but you have identified your need, you are there on the spot. You should have an idea on what you really want. So what is the best way of achieving it - for you?</p>
.. To toss mine in, the questions are
"What is my site about?"
"What do I want to achieve for my site?"
"Where do I want my site to go?"
"Who are my users?"
"What do I want my users to do?"
"What do I want them to gain from my site?"
"How can I get them to come back again and again?"
These are the fundamental questions any good web site owner will ask. There are lots more, but for me these are the basics. "What do I want to achieve for my site?"
"Where do I want my site to go?"
"Who are my users?"
"What do I want my users to do?"
"What do I want them to gain from my site?"
"How can I get them to come back again and again?"
(The term "owner" is the person or persons who actually own the site, the business, the school, the club, the individual, it is the person who is paying, the person who's logo appears.)
The developer, the person or team who actually write the site, will only need to answer one question:
"What is the best way I can meet the needs of the owner?"
(Note "needs", not wants, not demands.)
Lots of people will disagree with me, but I would suggest that it is the needs of the owner that must be met. Most would say, what are the needs of the site, but reality is the owner has identified their need and it should be met. A site can always be changed if the owner is wrong about their need.
My thought is that a site needs be as flexible as it can be, to be able to adapt to a changing need. For me, Moodle certainly can meet that need, but for someone else, a Moodle wrapped in a Drupal or a Joomla, that uses MediaWiki, Mahara and any other tools that the owners may need can be a far better option than just a Moodle. (I do not think there is any reason you cannot have a MediaWiki and a Mahara wrapped in your Moodle, btw.)
Think about this, anyone who has begun school this year, has up to 12 years of basic education, then perhaps two or more years of increasingly specialist education/training. They will then work until they retire, at say 65, that means they could retire in 2070. Here comes the kicker, we do not know what the needs of students will be in 5 years, we do not know what the demands of the workforce will be in 10 years - and we are educating them for the next 60 years.
I suggest, flexibility is going to be the key to successful education, so what is, for you, the best way of presenting something in such a flexible manner it can be adapted to a changing need?
<p class="apology">I am sorry if this is not really what you looking for, but you have identified your need, you are there on the spot. You should have an idea on what you really want. So what is the best way of achieving it - for you?</p>
Our school follows this model (but it is up to your school as to what they need!):
Jon
- Website powered by cmsmadesimple which is a promotional / prospectus based tool for new parents and press information
- VLE powered by Moodle which has the staff, student and parental information and courses on it...
Jon
Hi Anette,
You might find some of these discussions regarding Drupal and Moodle interesting.
Drupal has a very active Drupal in Education user group.
hth
Frank
You might find some of these discussions regarding Drupal and Moodle interesting.
Drupal has a very active Drupal in Education user group.
hth
Frank
Well CMS and LMS are slightly different systems.
In fact there are many reasons to choose another LMS over Moodle based on your individual needs.
But to put it simply, a CMS is focused on publishing and editing general content. Say you are running a newspaper, but many CMS systems are also good for internal documents.
On the other hand a LMS is focused around students and teachers, with education at the core of the system. Content tools are also education focused. Plus a LMS can also do a lot of what a CMS can do, just usually not as well.
Also if you need both, find a LMS based on a CMS.
In fact there are many reasons to choose another LMS over Moodle based on your individual needs.
But to put it simply, a CMS is focused on publishing and editing general content. Say you are running a newspaper, but many CMS systems are also good for internal documents.
On the other hand a LMS is focused around students and teachers, with education at the core of the system. Content tools are also education focused. Plus a LMS can also do a lot of what a CMS can do, just usually not as well.
Also if you need both, find a LMS based on a CMS.
it's probably good to define "CMS" - it's occasionally used for "Course Management System" and "Content Management system" which can cause a lot of confusion! 
although as you're referring to Drupal we know you mean "Content" instead of "Course"
although as you're referring to Drupal we know you mean "Content" instead of "Course"