Installation options with pre-existing Wordpress

Installation options with pre-existing Wordpress

by Tim Allen -
Number of replies: 5

Hi all,

I am advising someone who wants to put up some online courses. He is a newbie to online education and would only be putting up a single course with basic materials and perhaps a forum and a quiz to start off.


He has a basic WordPress site already for his business.

I have some questions about the best approach for his situation:

  1. I have worked with Moodle for many years and love it; thus, I am likely to recommend it, but I want to advise what is best for him. Moodle is a powerful and flexible application, but is it overkill for his situation I wonder...any thoughts?
  2. He installed WP to the root folder of his web directory. The question I have is whether he could install Moodle to a subfolder safely? I have done some reading and found conflicting opinions on this, e.g. https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=272098 and https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=313540. What is considered best practice at this time?
  3. What about the option of using a Moodle-WordPress plugin...are there any recommendations for good ones, and do they have advantages over simply installing a separate Moodle? I don't think users will be needing to have a login to his WordPress which is a static website, so things like SSO are not needed.

Thanks in advance for any advice or information you can share!

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In reply to Tim Allen

Re: Installation options with pre-existing Wordpress

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

2 cents ...

The two can be on same server ... and Word Press can be in front of Moodle ... (moodle in a directory).   One just has to be aware of the rewrite urls, .htaccess, or whatever is in place to protect/etc a wp and adjust.

As far as using the WP with SSO to the Moodle ... uhhh ... IF the WordPress is used for informational purposes, why would owner want to include users there?   Would just have to mange the users then in two places rather than in just one.  You've answered your own question with "WordPress which is a static website, so things like SSO are not needed".

'spirit of sharing', Ken


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In reply to Ken Task

Re: Installation options with pre-existing Wordpress

by Tim Allen -

Yes, I had a feeling a Wordpress plugin was mainly to do with SSO, but wasn't sure if there might be other advantages to be had from using a plugin.

Thanks a lot for the reply.

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In reply to Tim Allen

Re: Installation options with pre-existing Wordpress

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

Have you explored whether WordPress has plug-ins which do what your customer wants?
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Installation options with pre-existing Wordpress

by Tim Allen -

Hi Visvanath,

Yes I was also looking at some WordPress LMS plugins, one that was recommended to me is LearnDash. I'll definitely keep that in mind, although Moodle has the advantage of being free, something that is useful for someone just starting out.

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In reply to Tim Allen

Re: Installation options with pre-existing Wordpress

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Edwiser apparently is the Wordpress Moodle SSO plugin but I have not used it personally.  

There are many advantages to having logins for a Wordpress/frontend site.  I run Joomla and Moodle with SSO - Joomla handles all our event registration and users need to be logged in for that.  I also provide the links directly to the Moodle courses from Joomla site and they are only visible to the users that I want to see them.

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