Been away from Moodle for a very long time - Will it fit my needs? Advice please :)

Been away from Moodle for a very long time - Will it fit my needs? Advice please :)

by Sharyn Mayne -
Number of replies: 6

Hi all,

It's been about 5 years or more since I was involved in Moodle. I am sure it has come along in leaps and bounds since then. I am sorry if this is not the right forum to ask but I cannot think of where else to get a non-biased opinion:


Will Moodle fit my needs?

I will be providing some free or low-cost interactive, online training workshops for not-for-profit organisations. There is a slim possibility that down the track more than 1000 people might participate in these courses. 

  • I will need real time chat, real time video, desktop recording (e.g. webinar style), whiteboard features.
  • Grading and assessment is not required
  • I may need a way for enrolment fees to be collected (probably somewhere between $5 - $20 per person)
  • There will be a video and photo repository that may need to be limited to certain users
  • The user interface has to be quite modern, flexible and be useful on all kinds of devices
  • I want to create a lot of courses / workshops (e.g. more than 20 I think)

I have my own site to host it on and will likely install and maintain it myself using cPanel. 

So, I guess I am asking people who use Moodle - Does it do everything I need or do i need to find another solution?

Thank you

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In reply to Sharyn Mayne

Re: Been away from Moodle for a very long time - Will it fit my needs? Advice please :)

by ben reynolds -

I haven't actually used all these items. I can't speak to "desktop recording" at all. But most of them are doable, at least according to what I've been reading.

I work for an institution, so, for example, collecting money is not something I know about, although I see PayPal posts where it seems to work.

Glad to have you back!

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In reply to ben reynolds

Re: Been away from Moodle for a very long time - Will it fit my needs? Advice please :)

by Sharyn Mayne -

Thanks Ben smile

I've posted a further discussion below (just in case you have some time to contribute your thoughts) smile

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In reply to Sharyn Mayne

Re: Been away from Moodle for a very long time - Will it fit my needs? Advice please :)

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

This is indeed the right forum to ask.

surely moodle has come a LONG way, and you mentioning CPanel making me assume you are on shared host and all that wont be possible in terms of hosting on a shared host.

real time chat, desktop recording etc will be done by Big Blue Button, its plug-in to moodle, a free one but requires additional installation on server which a shared host wont do, so you''ll be looking at a VPS minimum or better off getting hosted on MoodleCloud (that is new moodle hosting offered by moodle, and started recently)

enrollment fee can be collected by PayPal (moodle comes equipped with it) or you can make use of plenty other plug-ins that make use of additional payment methods.

by limiting repository to certain users, what is meant by that? do you want to limit to students or additional teachers you may have?

user interfaces have started getting lot of attention since 2013 (or moodle 2.5+) so you should be least worried about a new and intuitive interface, you'll get more than you ask for in designing a modern moodle.

Finally, you mentioned LOT of courses, so again reminding shared host wont fit for the job, as last version of moodle you MAY have used may be 1.9, but now requirements in terms of web servers have changed, now least you would be looking at is pro level shared hosting, or alternatively like I mentioned above moodlecloud have Big Blue Button already installed and you wont be worrying about moodle upgrades or compatibility.

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In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Been away from Moodle for a very long time - Will it fit my needs? Advice please :)

by Sharyn Mayne -

Hi Usman,

Thanks for responding:

"mentioning CPanel making me assume you are on shared host and all that wont be possible in terms of hosting on a shared host."

- I am not sure what shared hosting means. I pay my hosting site (crazydomains.com.au) a yearly fee to have my own website and unlimited subdomains plus email hosting which I manage myself using cpanel. I have access to FTP on my hosts server to edit my site whichever way I wish.  I can install and edit Moodle or any other type of service at any time I wish on my server space. I have my own access to SQL databases to create and manage by myself.


"real time chat, desktop recording etc will be done by Big Blue Button, its plug-in to moodle, a free one but requires additional installation on server which a shared host wont do, so you''ll be looking at a VPS minimum or better off getting hosted on moodlecloud (that is new moodle hosting offered by moodle, and started recently)"

- I am going to assume that I can install Big Blue button myself on my server, but I will look into it shortly and contact my host to see if that is possible.


"enrolment fee can be collected by PayPal (moodle comes equipped with it) or you can make use of plenty other plug-ins that make use of additional payment methods".

 That is fantastic to know, I will research that.


"by limiting repository to certain users, what is meant by that? do you want to limit to students or additional teachers you may have? "

I think this will be answered in a further question I ask below but to clarify: I want to provide free stuff to some people and for people who want to do a particular course or get access to a certain type of material such as instructional videos or books or papers, they would need to subscribe or purchase that access"


"user interfaces have started getting lot of attention since 2013 (or moodle 2.5+) so you should be least worried about a new and intuitive interface, you'll get more than you ask for in designing a modern moodle".

Do the principles of templates still apply? Can one purchase or get for free a template that operates as both a website and a course site?


"Finally, you mentioned LOT of courses, so again reminding shared host wont fit for the job, as last version of moodle you MAY have used may be 1.9, but now requirements in terms of web servers have changed, now least you would be looking at is pro level shared hosting, or alternatively like I mentioned above moodlecloud have Big Blue Button already installed and you wont be worrying about moodle upgrades or compatibility."

 The version I have just installed on my website is 3.2 if I remember correctly. My host just updated the PHP so I could install it on my domain.

I imagine that I might be ok - I might be wrong (very possibly) but I am thinking that my hosting package might allow me to achieve what I am looking for. I guess I am just looking for someone who knows what they are doing to check my capabilities and confirm whether this is correct or not.



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In reply to Sharyn Mayne

Re: Been away from Moodle for a very long time - Will it fit my needs? Advice please :)

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Sharyn,

Now i am getting more of picture of your requirements, regarding your query

I envision my Moodle somehow manifests itself as a professional looking website. On that front page are blog articles, videos, documents, links to moodle courses, links to discussion topics, games or links to games, social media feeds showing on the home page, hyperlinks to external sites, articles, quizzes, etc. None of these things (perhaps apart from the courses) need to be assessed - they are just informational as per a typical website.

Yes all possible, you can design your front page as you like, there are templates/themes available, both free and paid, but the community inputs and feedback on free templates available is far more superior to those available for purchase, themes like Essential, elegance, Adaptable, Eguru, Academi, evolve-d etc. etc. can give you a combination of professional looking website. you can learn more about themes as per their download stats from plug-in section (https://moodle.org/plugins/stats.php?plugin_category=3) his link will provide you with themes as per their popularity. You can even have a look at moodle's own site, it's not even making use of any of the listed themes but those that comes bundled with moodle, and yet there are lots of things on main page.

I have had a look at your hosting provider and they indeed are shared hosts (with ability to provide dedicated hosting as well), by shared host I meant, one hardware hosts multiple user accounts/sites, so essentially you are sharing the resources with all those sharing the server, so customized installations (like Big Blue Button) wont be possible and even if some hosting providers can do it, the live sessions recorded are converted into accessible videos and that process requires a heavy punch in terms of processing power, that is why I recommend going with a VPS at least, or dedicated.

Regarding payments, I can link further plug-ins like classic pay (https://moodle.org/plugins/enrol_classicpay) that can take multiple forms of payments.

Members can access some content for free and register/pay to access other content with different membership structures. People can sign up for free to a weekly newsletter delivered via email. They can subscribe to my info via RSS feeds. They can be notified when new content is published on the site or subscribe to articles for the same reason.

Regarding limiting resources to users, YES, you can surely limit some resources to some users (like guests can access some parts of the course while paid students can access some or all)

and finally, you can post a job in Moodle jobs (https://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=54) listing all your requirements and I am sure someone will be willing to assist you in designing your site like the way you want it, though I'll recommending giving a try oneself before you look out for help, as you mentioned you are into IT yourself and community forum is here to help you fully.


and one final advice, as you have came back to moodle after sometime, teaching with moodle is currently going on, its a free course by moodle, and I took it last session and have learnt a lot. you may want to take part in it, you'll see big blue button working there. though enrollment started on January 2nd, but still you will be able to get most out of the course.

https://moodle.org/calendar/view.php?view=day&time=1483297200#event_118100230

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In reply to Sharyn Mayne

Re: Been away from Moodle for a very long time - Will it fit my needs? Advice please :)

by Sharyn Mayne -

So, following on from my previous question, and to clarify a bit more what I was asking:


 I have a dream (in the Australian vernacular that might be called "I've been thinking about stuff") smile

Is this possible to do this in Moodle?:

I envision my Moodle somehow manifests itself as a professional looking website. On that front page are blog articles, videos, documents, links to moodle courses, links to discussion topics, games or links to games, social media feeds showing on the home page, hyperlinks to external sites, articles, quizzes, etc. None of these things (perhaps apart from the courses) need to be assessed - they are just informational as per a typical website. Members can access some content for free and register/pay to access other content with different membership structures. People can sign up for free to a weekly newsletter delivered via email. They can subscribe to my info via RSS feeds. They can be notified when new content is published on the site or subscribe to articles for the same reason.

If this is possible, what in goodness' name do I do to get this happening? I have setup moodle on my host under its own domain name and it is now a blank canvas ready to go.

I just have no idea what is possible or where to start. Is there a person out there who would be willing to help me get this setup for free? Or, for little cost? or is willing to let me pay them off on a regular basis to get this set up? or that I can pay them in return services? (I am a professional IT Trainer in the IT area and have skills with using IT e.g. how to use it, how to set it up, how to choose the right service or product)

Any advice you could give would be so welcome.

Thanks

Sharyn

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