Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Eric Swanson -
Number of replies: 26

I've got a project where I think Moodle might work well as the base CMS for an intranet. There are ~100 staff(students) in 10 locations that report to a central location. Each location has a supervisor(teacher).

I envision 10 location courses (would like to change 'courses' to something else, how do I change that?) and several courses organization wide. I could use links to any other intranet programs such as a tech support ticket system, e-newsletter, etc...

So groupwide courses would list policies and forms that could be downloaded, used or filled in by staff, then re-uploaded as assignments.

Has anyone tried using moodle as an Intranet tool beyond online classes?

Comments or thoughts would be welcome.

Eric

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In reply to Eric Swanson

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Tom Murdock -
Hi Eric,

You can change words like "courses" by editing the language pack. Make sure that your language folder is writeable (with chmods), and change the languages from the admin/language menu.

Your site news forum could be your e-newsletter.

You could also have a tech support ticket system using Moodle, too. Just create two forums on the main menu of the site page (one for unresolved issues the other for resolved issues). After you answer tech questions, move them from one forum to the other.

I think you'll have an easy time of getting what you want. Best of luck!

-Tom
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In reply to Eric Swanson

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Art Lader -

Eric,

We have just begun using Moodle as our CMS at http://www.smhoc.info. We have renamed the courses mini-webs. So far, so good...

-- Art

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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Étienne Rozé -
I visited your : fine !
But where did you find the gallery module ?


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In reply to Eric Swanson

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Bob Boufford -

Eric,

I haven't used Moodle yet but have used and been involved in similar "courses" with another course management system (WebCT CE and Vista). As a groupware/content management system I find a course management system to often be a more effective system than a content management system (TikiWiki and Plone for example). Once the DMS (document management system) is up, particularly if WebDAV is supported, Moodle would make for a very nice groupware system.

Cheers,

Bob

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In reply to Eric Swanson

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Peter Jeans -
I am thinking of doing the same thing for a school of about 600 - the only feature that it seems to lack is an online booking system for resources like rooms, and equipment.
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In reply to Peter Jeans

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by kathy hooper -
We also are considering using Moodle as the base of the school intranet. As well as a booking feature, I believe that  the students need to be able to access a summary of all their course results on one sheet. I don't think either of the gradebook versions support this feature yet. 
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In reply to kathy hooper

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Michael Penney -
You might be interested in Centre, as it is an open sourced (GPL) Student Mangement System using PHP and one of Moodle's supported databases(Postgresql, but I can't fault them too much for thatsmile.

It would certainly be interesting to explore integrating Moodle with this sort of app for folks who don't already have an SMS (we use SCT Banner where I work, so SMS/room scheduling, etc. features aren't so important to us).

An easy interface to export course grades to various SIS's would be a nice feature to have in Moodle, IMO.

The Miller Group, Inc. announces the release of Centre, a free student information system for public and non-public schools. Centre is a web-based, open source, student management product with features that include scheduling, grade book, attendance, eligibility, transcripts, and more. And, of course, student and employee information screens are critical components of Centre... Learn More

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In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Max Zúñiga -
Mr.Penney:big grin
it looks that you know a bit about Centre,
after you mentioned above,
I really liked it ,a lot,
but......................................................?????????????????????
this people dont have an installation manual,.......or instructions
would you care to mention the installation steps.?shy
Also,I dont have postgressSQL databases in my server only
MYSQL,what would you suggest I do? ANy ideas,Anyone?blush
Thanks a lot,Sir.
If there anybody else "listening" I most certainly would
appreciate your help,cool
Thanks,
Maxevil
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In reply to Max Zúñiga

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by kathy hooper -

I spent virtually the entire night trying to set up postgress, and then didn't succeed. I am so pleased that a schedualing block is neally ready for moodle and will wait patiently as the "moodle masters" further develop the moodle gradebook. I really appreciate their efforts.

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In reply to Max Zúñiga

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Michael Penney -
  Hi Max, we don't use Centre here as we have SCT Banner.

But if you register on the Centre site, there are discussion forums there (similar to these here) with pretty detailed installation instructions as well as help from the developers for specific cases.

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In reply to Peter Jeans

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Audun Hauge -
There will be an optional block for reservations of rooms and equipment soon (1-2 weeks). Also a block for timetables (showing and editing)
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In reply to Audun Hauge

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Darren Smith -
tongueout tongueout tongueout tongueout tongueout tongueout tongueout tongueout

This will be fantastic. Our ICT tech support have been looking at various open source solutions with not much luck but one which is a part of our Moodle install would be the bees knees!!!
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In reply to Darren Smith

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Ger Tielemans -

..block for reservations of rooms and equipment? Would be great!!

Could this scenario fit in that?

Our students are working in learning gardens instead of classrooms.
When they think they are ready they can make a reservation for a chair in an exam-room and choose which subject they want to try.

(Would be nice if you could make a reservation in a French course - is there still a chair avalaible on friday? -  and that the teachers can in an overview screen for all the courses if and how many chairs are taken. (So they can organise a supervisor for that day.)

 

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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Audun Hauge -
This is a preliminary version of view for reservations (the table is styled with css, looks better in real life). This view shows some slots taken by courses (like 2itb5_3303) with fixed weekly schedule, the other slots are free and can be reserved. Admin can overwrite any other, teach can overwrite students, students can only make reservations if options for this room allows them.
I'm not quite certain how you would want to make reservations for a seat in an exam-room, perhaps you could post a mock-up?
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In reply to Audun Hauge

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Darren Smith -
This looks very interesting cool

Unfortunately we operate a two week timetable sad. Would it be easy(ish) for us to change it from one week to two?

Darren
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In reply to Darren Smith

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Audun Hauge -
Yes, each room has two properties, slots and days. If they are not set, then the script uses a default of 0..8 for slots and 0..4 for days. I might add a global default that's settable from a config page when installing the block. The only code that's week-based now is the action taken on the << prev and next >> buttons. I'll change it to use the days property for a room (if it is set). The days property is a list like 'Mo Tu We Th Fr', the values are used as headings for the table. Need to decide how to represent Non-school days (saturday,sunday).
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In reply to Audun Hauge

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Ger Tielemans -

Looks Good

  • Is it possible to have more then one (= with different content) inside one Moodle?
    (We have 9 schools using 9 differnet buildings, sometimes split in departments.)
  • Is it possible to have the same table for resources (but then with a count down counter?)
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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Audun Hauge -
I haven't quite settled on an interface. So far I have a sideblock with links to different scripts. Editing/creating items (rooms, equipment, building), scheduling fixed timetables and reservations.
This will end up being an admin-view of the system.
With the new blocks system it should be easy to make a version where you can add different instances of the sideblock with parameters that limit users to scheduling a specific room/item.
Thus if you create 9 buildings and populate each building with rooms, you can set up a block in a course that only shows rooms/items from one chosen building.

I'm testing code for your second point, but I'm a bit unsure about how you would have it work. Should the system show a list of users that want to participate in a group reservation?
The prelim version I have just shows a number (free space). I could add a popup showing names ...
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In reply to Audun Hauge

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Darren Smith -
Global block settings for slots and days would be great approve

Darren
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In reply to Audun Hauge

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Peter Jeans -

This looks really handy! Just what schools need to book rooms and resources. Are there arrows to scroll from week to week? Also many schools like to timtable in rooms that are in use every week, but only allow the blank ones to be booked up to two weeks in advance so that everyone can have access to the rooms and equipment. Is this possible with this module? Also how do we get this module?

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In reply to Peter Jeans

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Audun Hauge -
Yes the arrows are there, they look like this << and >>.
(I just pasted in the html, not everything came along)smile

I'll add support for limiting scheduling to N weeks ahead, a property that can be set for each room/item. Nice idea smile
The code works nicely on my system, but I'd like to work it over a bit to add support for different situations (other ways of doing scheduling). The current code supports my needs, but in a few more weeks I'll have a more general version.
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In reply to Audun Hauge

re: booking module scheduler

by Peter Jeans -
Sounds great. I run moodle for my own website www.forensicked.com but will shortly be rolling it out at my school (in Australia) as the basis for an intranet and course managment. The scheduler is the last important piece in the jigsaw puzzle. So as soon as you are happy with it I would be glad to beta test it over here...
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In reply to Audun Hauge

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Mark Pelling -
Hi, any progress that could share with us as I'm very interested. Mark
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Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Paula Hanger -
Anyone willing to share their url who have used moodle to create a website or intranet?
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In reply to Paula Hanger

Re: Thoughts on Moodle as the base for an Intranet

by Jennifer Foster -

I am currently developing an intranet site for my school using Moodle.  I decided to create our internet with Moodle because I thought it would give my teachers good exposure to Moodle and the possibilities for their useage in a classroom environment.  For compatability, I changed "Available Courses" to "Moodle Webs".  So far, I have:  enabled Active Directory authentication using multipe OU groups, applied a theme and made customization, changed authenticated login to automatically redirect to intranet.

I have lots more to do before I introduce my employees to this site, but I would definatley encourage anyone who is willing to do a little work to consider a "Moodle Intrantet."

You may view my site at:  http://www.nbschools.net/moodle

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