Moodle Offline

Moodle Offline

by Qurat Ulain -
Number of replies: 15

Hello Everyone,

I am from Pakistan and work for an NGO which has 1000 school units across the country. 

We are using Moodle as LMS and for letting our teachers and students use it, we need Moodle to be offline as our schools dont have reliable internet or have no connectivity at all.

We want our teachers to be able to use Moodle offline and when internet connection is available, we want new content to be downloaded on their offline version of Moodle. With this we also want the user activity logs, results quizzes, forums etc to syn back with our live Moodle server. 

Your help on this is highly appreciated. 


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Qurat Ulain

Re: Moodle Offline

by ben reynolds -

There is Poodle (not to be confused with PoodLL). http://www.maflt.org/products/poodle

I've never used it, so, this is not an endorsement.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to ben reynolds

Re: Moodle Offline

by Qurat Ulain -
Thanks Ben smile

But  does Poodle offers two way sync?

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Qurat Ulain

Re: Moodle Offline

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

I don't think anything offers Moodle two way sync.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Moodle Offline

by Just H -
I've had my fingers crossed for quite some time hoping the Catalyst solution for UNICEF eventuates. Although from what I can gather it doesn't cover all Moodle functionality, the work that Dan and his colleagues have done is a big step in the right direction.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Just H

Re: Moodle Offline

by Qurat Ulain -

Thanks Just, I am trying to contact the project owners and get involved in testing what has already been developed. 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Qurat Ulain

Re: Moodle Offline

by john attwood -

Qurat,

I have been experimenting with preemptive instances of Centos7/moodle in Google Cloud. Here's why, basically what you have is scalable, super cheap, extremely flexible on demand computing. There is a catch but I think with a little offline maneuvering it can be overcome. You only get 24 hours and sometimes less of contiguous online computing time. You can supplement it with a locally Centos7 rsynched with your cloud instance. Centos7 is not a "preferred" OS (less$$$) on Google Cloud  and I'm using Noip dynamic dns to manage the dynamic addressing issues. Right now my local server is multi core notebook running Centos 7 with Vm sitting on top running Moodle. I'm also starting to look at docker containers with Moodle bc they use less ram.

The other thing is with Google Cloud sdk you can manage the centos7/Moodle cloud instance from your local server to manage syncing. This allow you to run off local server and sync with Google Cloud on demand.  I've been testing this pretty extensively on Google Cloud the last month and have rung up a 3$ bill. The reason is because the 24 hour nature of preemptive instances make them 70% cheaper. With basic Linux skills only I have found the Google Cloud console significantly easier to use. Mainly because of browser based ssh and more intuitive console than AWS.You can scale cpu, disk and bandwidth basically on demand if the need arises
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Qurat Ulain

Re: Moodle Offline

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
There were many related discussions in the past. Try the Advanced search: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/search.php?id=5. Here are some examples:
- Moodle set-up across multi-site campuses https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=222646
- Offline Moodle https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=318565
- Moodle offline https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=281744
- working with Moodle Offline https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=260100

The fact is that, Moodle in its full functionality does not allow distributed operation. Well, there may be advanced approaches using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_networks, I doubt it is what you are looking for. Think of the problem as splitting a betting site, say https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/eBay, in to local servers per country or continent and then synchronizing the bets sporadically! (Don't forget: People are allowed to bet across countries and even continents!)

But not all is lost. Still there might be (limited) solutions to your particular application, like uploading or sending course _material_ to teachers every couple of weeks. First you need to understand the various possibilities of feeding Moodle with content.

Whatever, you should not forget that Moodle is not Computer based training https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_technology#Linear_learning. You need a so called LAMP stack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_%28software_bundle%29 per site for it to function. The tricky thing is, it doesn't always need a "server" but could be running in a teacher's computer, even as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_CD !

P.S. I wonder what the correct forum is. I can see discussions in Installation problems, General problems and Hardware and performance and now in General developer forum!

P.P.S. Qurat, please don't go to each of the discussions I've mentioned and revive them; they are discussions on other peoples' problems. If you request the moderator to move this discussion to the right forum, you will get answers tailored to your situation.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Moodle Offline

by Qurat Ulain -

Thanks a lot for your detailed response Visvanath.

I basically want this;

1. Live Moodle instance where we are uploading new scorm packages, questions, quizes, surveys etc

2. Offline instances of Moodle which are deployed in our 1000 school units. This instance allow our teachers to access all the features offline. 

3. When our schools gain connectivity we would want user logs, quiz responses and all other user activities data to be sent back to the live server and new content downloaded from the live server to all these offline instances. 

4. Also, maintaing securty in this process. 


This is what we want ideally. There is an app called ustad mobile http://ustadmobile.com/ which seems to be doing alot offline. But I still want to advocate for Moodle and come up with a solution which makes Moodle as user friendly as Ustad mobile is. 


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Qurat Ulain

Re: Moodle Offline

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi Qurat

My answer was too detailed, since I didn't know your Moodle background. Only now I went through your earlier discussions and saw that you joined moodle.org two years ago and tackling a related problem since July this year: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=263711.

Your requirements in the previous post are clear to me. Yes, the Catalyst project mentioned by Just H. https://www.catalyst-au.net/blog/introducing-moodle-and-totara-lms-line-player sounds very close.

I've noticed two major differences though:
1. Catalyst solution must work even if there is no bandwidth in the field, i.e. runs on sneaker net, whereas yours needs sporadic Internet connectivity.

2. Catalyst would send back statistics to the main server whereas you need full user data as if the users have been taking part in the central server.

Or, so I understood.

In any case, your organization is doing it at a national level. You need to contact Catalyst, ideally with a funding proposal. Read, "we are looking for other organisations to get involved to help us generalise the code and open source the player". If the product is FOSS you might be able to find other sponsors.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Moodle Offline

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
There may be a poor man's approach if a professional solution like the one mentioned in the previous post is unaffordable:

The complication in re-syncing field Moodles back to the main Moodle is the fact that the databases and moodledata directories grow uncoordinated in the filed Moodles. How about having a multi-tenant Moodle as the main Moodle and re-sync the field Moodles to seperate tenants? The main database must amalgamate the site databases in to one, playing with the table prefix, for example. moodledata need to be seperate, the hashing algorithm might spawn siamese twins, I fear.
sad

The distribution of course material to field Moodles, like uploading SCORMs, must happen outside Moodle to avoid real "two-way syncing".

As I already said, this is a quick, untested, unprofessional idea. I can't say whether it'll work for you nor provide support.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Moodle Offline

by Qurat Ulain -

Dear Visvanath,

Hope you  are doing well. 

I am extremely grateful for your time and consideration. We are using Moodle since 2013 and have customized it as per our needs (changing theme, adding plugins). We have made it as user friendly as was possible within Moodle's platform. Now we are trying to send this to our teachers on field, these teachers are located in places where there is no connectivity. What we ideally want is;

1. A medium of sending content to our teachers which works offline (this transfer can be via moving physical drives i.e.  Sneakernet or downloaded when the devices are brought to a learning hub with stable internet connection). 

2. We want to get the user logs such as login reports, quiz results, attempts made on a SCORM package. Is Catalyst project sending back this data as statistics? 


I have written to them and waiting for a response, so that we can begin working as partners. 

Thanks again for your feedback and constant support. 



Average of ratings: -
In reply to Qurat Ulain

Re: Moodle Offline

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi Qurat

Nothing to thank.

On 1) I understand that you want your system to work through both nets, the Internet and the sneakernet, both ways. Am I right? It was not so clear to me from your item 3. in the post I was referring to:

> 3. When our schools gain connectivity we would want user logs, quiz responses and all other user activities data to be sent back to the live server and new content downloaded from the live server to all these offline instances.

My point is you need to formulate your needs 100% clear. I am surprised that you type them anew in the discussion - they must be in the project proposal for you to cut-and-paste!

On 2) No, I don't know. It was how I understood the Catalyst page. Hope they'll reply to your request.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Moodle Offline

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
FYI - some basic details on how the sync works.

it uses the standard Moodle backup process to generate a backup of the local offline course, then to save bandwidth it pulls out some of the xml files within the backup file (and any other courses being synced) re-zips the specific files and sends those xml files to the main site.

The main site then uses some "magic" to handle conflicts and match the userid from offline player with the userid on the main site and imports the user data from scorm/feedback/certificate into the main site and triggers activity completion stuff on the main site. It also tries to maintain things like activity completion dates.

We don't currently import logs and we don't handle quiz sync yet either - quiz is likely to be a bit more complex than the other activities but I have a few ideas on how to tackle it if someone comes up with the funding to do the work.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Moodle Offline

by David Olson -

We are working as a group to develop a portable moodle platform that enables us to take the entire platform onto a flash drive which is connected to a localized wifi hub and in turn will allow small study groups to work in a collaborative fashion beyond the end of the internet with mobile devices. We have been successful with the reintegration of content with an occasional internet link back solution so the the portable system updates bi-directionally. Right now we are in beta testing and have, as I said, succeeded on a limited scale. What we hope for the future is to supply our devices to schools who work in remote areas with independent study groups. We also want to make these devices, eBridge edu - solutions available as a low cost, "every school can afford several", approach.

"Hoping the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train." 

Cheers,

David

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

This forum post has been removed

The content of this forum post has been removed and can no longer be accessed.