Need experts' suggestions

Need experts' suggestions

by VIvek Singh -
Number of replies: 16

Hi All;

I am running a website aiming to connect students and tutors online. Students and tutors create their profiles and contact each other as per their tutoring needs. Looking at the increasing awareness, popularity and demand of online tutoring and LMS, I want to introduce Moodle powered LMS and online tutoring platform with essential tools for online tutoring like whiteboard, screen, share, face-to-face chatting.

I have these questions:

 1. Should I install Moodle in same website as :  www.mywebsite.com/onlinelearning or I should have moodle in separate domain and couple it with actual website so that logged-in users can easily navigate the separate LMS site.

2. Looking at my need of online tutoring what plugins will be most suitable? I need some solution that enables many tutors to have separate sessions with their students.  What plugins will be best for whiteboard, face-chat, online tutoring?

Thanks for looking at my post !!

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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by john Simpson -

I'm not sure if you will get a response from experts with such broad basic questions. Books have been written based on those questions.

Have you read the documentation guides? https://docs.moodle.org/28/en/Main_page

Are you an individual just starting up? or a school, college or university?

Do you have all the students ready and waiting to enrol? How many? size of groups?

Do you currently have your own website currently running? Have you downloaded moodle and tried it out to see if it meets your needs?

Do you really need an LMS (learning management system)? Or do you simply need a web conference centre, suitable for education with a whiteboard. If so try bigbluebutton as an example http://bigbluebutton.org/

There are other open source web conference links, and many are available on moodle under plugins. Quiz plugins might also be popular for your tutors and students.

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In reply to john Simpson

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by VIvek Singh -

Thanks for reply John.

As mentioned in my previous post, I am not running a college or school. I run a website which connects students and tutors. This platform connects in-home tutors as well as online tutors with students. Now, I want to provide them an online platform to manage their academic works (LMS) and whiteboard to accomplish online teaching.

Yes, I tried to install Moodle myself. I tried to install on Hostgator and got the error because of PhP version mismatch. I have another Hostgator account, I will try to install again with correct PhP version.

Once installed, I'll also play with Bigbluebutton plugin. 


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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by john Simpson -

I also have a hostgator website, and I did have a problem like you, so i contacted hostgator and explained the problem, and within a matter of days they informed me they had fixed the PHP error, and my moodle was now working.

Even so, ensure you do have the latest PHP, which can be sorted out in your control panel. Have you followed the the intructions properly to install moodle?



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In reply to john Simpson

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by john Simpson -
Another starter option is Gnomio. Simply register and you have your own moodle with bigbluebutton pre-installed to try out free of charge.There are adverts, but for a fee they can be removed.

https://www.gnomio.com/

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In reply to john Simpson

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by VIvek Singh -

Thanks for the message. 

I was able to install Moodle and BigBlueButton on my website BharatTutors.net.
I need a suggestion here.
I run a website BharatTutors.com. This is a website to connect students and tutors. Students search and hire in-home tutors as well as online tutors on this site.

I want to use the Moodle (BharatTutors.net) in such a way that any tutor can create courses and invite students from BharatTutors.com for online-tutoring. In sum, I require multiple teachers with multiple students on Moodle. 

Is it possibile with Moodle? 

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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by john Simpson -

First of all your BharatTutors.com site is showing a 404 page not found error, from where I am.

This is now where I believe you require assistance not only from a moodle expert, but also someone who is currently experienced in. a similar business. Something that I am also interested in for the near future. Would the teachers and students be paying for a service? would you need a credit merchant such as paypal? Do you need to advertise for the teachers and students, or do you already have them?

I'm not sure if moodle can do it all, it would be nice if it can. I would have a separate website to introduce your company, and this site would allow the student to browse through the courses. and where you would also advertise for teachers. The teachers and students would be registered to moodle from this site.

I'm sure we would both love to hear from other experienced moodlers and busnesss men on this topic.

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In reply to john Simpson

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by VIvek Singh -

Thanks again for message. I had blocked some countries accessing the site. You can try now here. So far I have 19,000 registered members including tutors and students.

As I mentioned, at BharatTutors.com students and tutors can create their profiles with their tutoring needs. Along with profiles students also create inquiries about their tutor requirements. Both members can browse each others profile but while contacting they pay me a fees. I use 2checkout as payment gateway. 

I want to use Moodle as a tool for them to accomplish online tutoring. Tutors should join as a teachers and invite students for the online teaching. A tutor should be able to teach many students.  

(I don't think that it should be a big problem, Moodle is being used in schools these days. The 'many teachers to many students' concept should be easily handled by Moodle/BBB)

I agree with your point that I should do some changes in my plan and I should have set of courses which I can advertise on the site BharatTutors.com and online-teaching will be done on BharatTutors.net. (e.g. I can have courses such as GRE, TOEFL. Now the system should be able to grant GRE, TOEFL tutors access to these courses, tutors should be able to change the course material as per their need and invite students from the website or by email invitation. Each tutor should have separate account).Tutors will pay me to avail this service of online teaching.  How students pay to tutors its up to them so far.

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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by john Simpson -

Yes good question. Whether to charge the teacher, or charge the students and pay the teacher. I'm planning on the latter. I'm also slightly interested in TOEFL, but more interested in the international preparation for Cambridge English KET, PET, FCE, CAE and IELTS.

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In reply to john Simpson

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by VIvek Singh -

I think this problem can be solved by creating new Role and using Groups.

I created a new Role as "Tutor". Tutor role is almost same as teacher with additional privileges of 'creating course' and 'invite student'. Next, I assign a group to this tutor. All set. Tutor and invited students will be limited to this group only. In Moodle, groups can be auto generated too. 

Now I need to test that a 'tutor' cannot interfere with other 'tutor's courses!

If it works, multiple teachers with multiple students problems should be solved.


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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by ganddy dy -

I don't think the issue could be solved by creating new Role and using Groups. Although this needs further testing though. 

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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by john Simpson -

In regards to using moodle in such a way that any tutor can create courses and invite students? No problem whatsoever. and there are plenty of tutorials available to help you do that. Would the teacher be teaching groups or one to one? Or both?

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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

#1) I think this choice is yours.  Functionally, I don't think it matters.  For example, I have my website at www.domain.com, and my Moodle at www.domain.com/moodle.  Your answer to this question might depend upon how important it is for you to give your two activities their own domain identity.

#2) I cannot help you with this question since I do not do this with my Moodle.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by VIvek Singh -

Thanks for reply Rick.
I have installed Moodle + BigBlueButton on different website: here.

Will use the dot com site for other purposes. 

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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Looks like you have Moodle 1.9 installed, from what I can see, and it looks fine.

Any thoughts about using the latest Moodle 2.8?

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by VIvek Singh -

Hi Rick,

From notification tab, I found this:

Moodle2.6.1+ (Build: 20140220)
Copyright (c) 1999 onwards, Martin Dougiamas

Looks like I have Moodle 2.6.1. 

Btw, looks like I found a bug. When filled the registration form and clicked on "Register site with Moodle.org" I got error page showing "error 403". Can you suggest me where should I report this?

Thanks.

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In reply to VIvek Singh

Re: Need experts' suggestions

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Okay, 2.6.1+ from notification, yep, I can believe this.  It's that standard moodle theme.  Good work!

Nope, can't help with the "Register" problem.  Try refreshing your browser.  This will be a minor problem, however, if you can't register.  I think that registration will get you emails and notifications about updates.  But updates occur nearly every week, so you will be able to decide when you want to update. I think that 2.6 is considered a legacy release, so it won't be as important to keep 2.6 updated.  Someday, when you feel more comfortable with Moodle, consider moving to a more current release, like 2.8.  I am still on 2.7, but plan to upgrade to 2.8 within a week or so.

You can consider posting the "registration" bug on the Tracker system, and very likely someone will be able to help.  You can also see if someone else might have some thoughts about this from your post above.

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