Subscription based homepage - Moodle

Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Dan Pham -
Number of replies: 11

Hello dear community

I'm total new to Moodle and Homepage management, and I have currently been giving the task to explore the possibility for us to be able to make a subscription-based homepage that allows access to our E-learning content.

For this I have decided to use wordpress.com to host our homepage and work as a frontend, and Moodle as our LMS and as a backend.

Initially I thought I was able to install moodle on my wordpress.com homepage, but I recently found out that is not the case. Please correct me if I am wrong?

I have started to get a bit doubts now that I hope you guys can clarify and potentially give additional tips.

From what I understand is, I need to have a moodle site ( hosted ), as I do not possess coding competencies. 

I create some courses through an e-learning software, which converts it to SCORM format --> Easily integratable with Moodle. 

I use Edwisers Bridge to "import" the courses into the front end.


Now comes the questions:

1) If you access those courses, are you being redirected to the moodle site or are you staying on my wordpress.com site and doing the course there?

2) If the case is that you're redirected to moodle site - what possibilities do I have to make a subscription-based homepage then? 

    - Subscription-based homepage: A homepage where you either pay a montly, ½year or 1 yearly fee, and you will have access to all content (the E-learning content) for that duration. If you have not paid, you're not able to access anything OR have limited access to content.

3) Do any of you have any experiences with moodle hosted servers/companies? I am concerned about the accessabilities for our clients + the amount of enrollers you can have at the same time. Right now I just have to "display" it is possible, but when we launch this in January 2018, we are expecting to have a lot of enrollers and especially when we expand to abroad as well. (In the start 1-500 enrollers maybe. Later 1000+)

Any other tips would be highly appreciated!

Kind Regards

A confused and new moodle user



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In reply to Dan Pham

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

There are a few worries here... I'm not sure I can answer your questions entirely helpfully. But here are some things to think about

- I'm not sure what (you think) you mean by 'homepage'. In Moodle terms that's just the page that's displayed when you click the 'Home' link.

- Moodle isn't Wordpress and and Wordpress isn't Moodle. They are separate applications. If you run SCORM in Moodle then it lives in a Moodle 'course'. You can link to the Moodle course from Wordpress if you like. 

- Edwiser Bridge is an application for linking Wordpress and Moodle. I believe it costs money and comes with support. You may get more specific advice about how it works via it's own support pages. 

- You don't need developer skills to install and host Moodle (or Wordpress). You need need some basic system administrator skills. Even if you use a hosting company you need a vague idea of what you are doing or be willing to find out. Obviously somebody like a Moodle Partner can install and host Moodle for you but will charge you for their time and skills. Up to you really...   If you want to go it alone, there is plenty of documentation and help here. However, we don't support Wordpress and we don't support Edwiser Bridge which may complicate things a little in your case.

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In reply to Dan Pham

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Floyd Saner -

Dan Pham,

You need to have two installations - WordPress and Moodle. They can be on the same web server, but in separate folders. Your WordPress site will not take up much bandwidth, so it can easily coexist with Moodle.

In order to have paid subscriptions you need to have e-commerce software installed on your WordPress site. WooCommerce is a good reliable choice. Edwiser Bridge synchonizes Moodle course names with WordPress/WooCommerce. When I use Edwiser Bridge, I also use their Single Sign-on product which then automatically creates a Moodle user and enrolls the purchaser in the Moodle course.

The course content resides in Moodle - it does not reside in WordPress. When a person clicks on the link to a purchased course, that person is then taken to the Moodle course.

You might also investigate LearnDash, which is a an online course plugin for WordPress. It is more limited than Moodle, but if your courses are mainly SCORM modules, it should meet your requirements.  Also, everything (web site and course content) would then be in WordPress.

The main constraint on a web server (for WordPress, Moodle or LearnDash) is the number of concurrent (at the same time) users.  You can have thousands of registered users, but if they are not active on the system at the same time then the load on the server is minimal.  Moodle requires a lot of database activity. My experience has been that general hosting services (e.g. shared server space on places like BlueHost, GoDaddy, HostMonster, HostGator, etc.) are not the best for Moodle.  I have Moodle installed on one of those hosts for testing purposes only, but it gets very, very slow if more than 6 or so users are on the system at the same time.  I recommend talking with a Moodle Partner - they are very experienced with Moodle and can provide server at a level that meets your needs.  

I don't know how much load LearnDash places on a server. I expect it will be less than Moodle requires. A lot will depend on your SCORM package content - whether it is static text or has a lot of streamed videos.

Floyd

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Floyd Saner

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Dan Pham -

Thank you for your answer.

To clarify:
My homepage is atm. hosted on wordpress.com. (www.sprogklar.com)
Moodle is atm. being hosted by MoodleCloud temporary.

I have managed to use Edwiser Bridge plugin to sync them together.
I thought that plugin made it possible to do the courses on wordpress.com but you clarified that wasnt possible, which is completely fine.

LearnDash is sadly not a possibility, as I am on wordpress.com and not wordpress.org. There is currently no plugin to implement LearnDash within my website on Wordpress.com, or I have not been able to find this.

Now here is the tricky part:
1) Allegedly my course categories do not display any courses, but my courses are displayed under "courses". The courses are categorized after the two course categories, and in the admin-page it recognizes that in each course category that courses exist within them. Did I do something wrong?

2) When I click on one of the courses it directs me to an empty page on wordpress.com. All courses are set to free and permissions have been edited to self-enrollment. Is it supposed to direct itself to my moodle-site after clicking on one of the courses displayed on my wordpress.com ?

Kind Regards
Dan

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In reply to Dan Pham

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Floyd Saner -

Dan,

A few comments on your response:

1. As far as I know, wordpress.com is merely a hosting service for WordPress. Depending on your subscription level, you should be able to add any WordPress plugin to your site.  I believe you need the Business hosting level (~25USD/month) to install plugins. Since you installed Edwiser Bridge, you must have that level.  I don't know why LearnDash cannot be installed. It is a standard plugin.  LearnDash does not appear in the WordPress plugin search. You have to purchase and install it from the LearnDash site.  They have a 30 day money back guarantee. Their site also has a demo program you can try.

2. Edwiser Bridge should work, even without WooCommerce.  WooCommerce just provides the full functionality of an e-commerce site. As I mentioned, the courses will be in Moodle, but Edwiser Bridge should take you to the Moodle site.  

3. I suspect there is some incorrect setting with Edwiser either in Moodle or in WordPress. I created an account on your site and tried to access a free course. It appears something is not linked or enabled correctly. I am not able to offer suggestions about settings without having access to your site.  Have you read through the Edwiser Documentation, https://edwiser.org/bridge/documentation/ ?

Floyd


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In reply to Floyd Saner

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Dan Pham -

It may be that I have to research on LearnDash, however, I was unable to find anything in regards to stress test. Would you happen to know anything about it or sources? I assume it would be related to Wordpress.com's servers correct?

About Moodle:

It may be very well that I missed something and I will try to investigate my settings again in Edwiser Bridge.

The problem I see right now for me is that my boss wishes customers to pay a montly fee (subscription) to gain access to all courses. I was able to do so in Wordpress.com, but since Moodle does not share the functions, which wordpress.com have with its plugins, is it possible for me to make that subscription-based function work in my Moodle site? 
The hoped process would be the following:

1) Process:

-A user enters our Moodle site. 

-A user registers

-A user pays a fee which gives access for x days
-A user now have access to all the courses

OR

2) Process:
-A user enters my wordpress site.

-A user registers

-A user pays a fee which gains a certain user group

-That user group is linked with a specific group on Moodle which has access to all courses

-A user now have access to all the courses

Kind Regards
Dan Pham



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In reply to Dan Pham

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Floyd Saner -

Dan,

This addresses your Option 1:  There are two payment options which I use in Moodle, 1) PayPal, which is built in to Moodle core, and 2) Stripe, which has a plugin available.  Each of those payment methods has an enrollment duration setting. So a person could make a payment directly from Moodle and be enrolled in a course for a specified number of days.

The issue to work around is that enrollment is course-based, not site-based.  You cannot grant access to all courses in a site based on one payment. However, there are ways to get around this limitation. The following solutions are listed in my order of preference.

1. Enable "Course Meta Link" as an enrollment method on your site. Create a Moodle course that you will use for payment purposes and enrollment. In all your other actual courses, add "Course Meta Link" as an enrollment method and select the payment/enrollment course as the Link Course.  What happens in this case is that enrollments in the payment/enrollment course are passed to the other linked courses. So when the payment/enrollment course enrollment expires, enrollment in all the other linked courses expires.  Moodle uses the terms 'meta course' and 'child course'.  Read the meta course documentation.  

2. Place all of your "courses" into one Moodle course. For semantic purposes, let's call your individual "courses", "modules". You then create one Moodle course and each of your modules is placed in a Moodle course section /topic (e.g. as a SCORM package or other activities), or embedded in a Moodle Book or Lesson activity. Students will enroll in this one Moodle course and then have access to all your modules.

3. Use the Moodle Flexpage set of plugins so you can create tabbed pages in a Moodle course. Each page can then contain any Moodle activity or resource.

Regards,

Floyd

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Floyd Saner

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Dan Pham -

That is actually not a bad idea mr Floyd. 
I will definetely look into that alternative you suggested.


In regards to my courses on my homepage. I did follow https://edwiser.org/bridge/documentation/ and other guides on youtube.

I have no idea what I did wrong. 

I tested by making a new user on my moodle site to see if registered users could selfenroll and do the course, and they were able to.

My courses according to Edwiser Bridge Plugin (Admin section on WP) it says my courses are published. 

However, When I click on a Arbitrary course, is the permanent link supposed to be on my Wordpress site or should it direct to moodle?

Kind Regards
Pham

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In reply to Dan Pham

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Dan Pham -

Disregard the link thing.

Does Paypal have to be set up for it to properly work even though its for free? 

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In reply to Dan Pham

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Floyd Saner -
Dan, 

 Follow these instructions to configure Paypal and Moodle. 

https://docs.moodle.org/32/en/PayPal_enrolment

Also, a note about Moodle forums. When you read a forum post that you find helpful, please consider rating the post "Useful". It is not necessary to do so, but is helpful feedback for those who volunteer their help in the forums.

Thanks,

Floyd

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Floyd Saner

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Dan Pham -

Hello Floyd

Sorry I must have missed that feature "Useful". I am new in this community and so far I have found it amazing with the amount of help I can get.

I still dont know why the courses are not directed to its place and I am unable to find out what the fault could be. 
I have tried to resynch, check the settings for both edwiser bridge + the settings on the courses. 

Would you have any idea?
I have already contacted both wordpress.com staff + wordpress.org/Edwiser developers and awaiting answers

Kind Regards 
Dan Pham


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In reply to Dan Pham

Re: Subscription based homepage - Moodle

by Rahul Kumar -

Hi Dan,

Here are the answers to your questions:

1) Here is how Edwiser Bridge and its plug-ins works:

  •  Once you sync your courses as products, your courses could be bought as products through woo-commerce. 
  • Your user will have to go to WordPress website to buy the course from there. 
  • When he buys the course, he will have to register during the checkout. 
  • As soon as his payment is done, he will receive a mail with the link to the enrolled course.
  • That link will take him to the Moodle website where he can start with the purchased course.
  • There is a setting in woo-commerce, if you are using woo-commerce integration, using which you can redirect the user to the Moodle page directly after his payment is complete.

2) You cannot have a dedicated "subscription based Homepage" for your Moodle LMS.

However what you can do is, you can set dates for courses, where a student will have to pay for yearly or 1/2 yearly for the course to get access to the course. Once he stops paying, his access to the course will be automatically disabled till payment is complete.

(Please upgrade to latest version of Edwiser Bridge i.e v3.4.2 for this functionality.)

3) Regarding the hosting there are various hosting providers. Some of the best are:

  • Bluehost
  • Hostgator
  • Godaddy
  • Sitebuilder
  • Ipage
  • and many others.

all of them are pretty reliable and are best in the hosting domain.

Additionally, I saw in some of your comments that you are having troubles with your Edwiser Bridge settings.

I hope those issues have been resolved by now. If not, then please contact us at support@wisdmlabs.com.

Have a nice day.


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