How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

by Nicolas Ndalpe -
Number of replies: 10

Hi All,

I hope I am posting at the right place. I need advice on how to structure a Moodle project. Any help and advice are welcome.


Corporate structure:

The company is established in 3 countries (more to come). A country has in average 4 companies.


Courses:

There will be 5 manuals. Each manual will be divided into Days. Days into topics and activities. Also some manual will be country specific.


User hierarchy:

Super Admin

SA can view the content and the students of all countries. SA can also create “country admin” and assign them to a particular country.


Country Admin

CA can only view the students of their own country. CA can also create other CA.


Student

Have access to course available in their country


My questions are:

  • What can I use to make the countries and companies? Cohort or group or ...?

  • How to restrict access to Country Admin to only the student in their own country?
    (ie: Canadian admin can not see US students in the user list)

  • How do I make a course available to only specific country?



I hope I am explaining the situation clearly. Do not hesitate to ask any question you may have.

Thank you

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In reply to Nicolas Ndalpe

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

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

This is tricky to do in standard Moodle as it is not possible to restrict administration functions in this way. 

However, have a look at www.iomad.org. This is an extended version of Moodle with features for 'multi tenancy'. It might be just what you are looking for. 

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

by Ray Lawrence -

I agree with Howard regarding Moodle, however, I would suggest Totara Learn which will achieve your requirements (as far as we can understand them from your post) with ease.

http://www.howtomoodle.com/about-us/about-totara/

http://blog.howtomoodle.com/lms-research-key-questions-answered-about-totara-learn

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ray Lawrence

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

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

We both... as a well worn phrase goes... "would say that" cool

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In reply to Ray Lawrence

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

by Nicolas Ndalpe -

Hi Ray,

I looked at Totara. It seems like a solid platform. Do you know if Totara is subscription based only or they have a public repo somewhere? My client insists on hosting the platform in house for confidentiality/security reason.

Thank you for your answer

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In reply to Nicolas Ndalpe

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

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

It is important to be aware that Totara is a fork of Moodle, so it has diverged from Moodle itself. This means that if you ask questions here about it, people like me (14 years  of posting in these forums) will probably not respond as from my point of view "it is not Moodle", and you would need to contact the people who develop Totara.  The same goes for your question about hosting. Be aware that  "Moodle plugins have never been officially supported in Totara"

That is not to say it is not a good product or that it will not suit your needs, just  be aware what it is, and what it is not.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Marcus Green

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

by Ray Lawrence -

Yes, Totara Learn is a Moodle based solution. As Marcus states, Moodle plugins are not officially supported, however, the additional standard features in Totara Learn mean they are often not required. ;)

To access the code and updates you or your client will require a current subscription. You can self-host if you wish.

If you use a Totara Partner who is also a Moodle Partner e.g. HowToMoodle you are still supporting Moodle as we pay Moodle royalties (to Moodle) on Totara Learn support services too as part of our Moodle Partner agreement. So win-win.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ray Lawrence

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

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

And Ray hangs out here regularly and has done since 2003 smile

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In reply to Ray Lawrence

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

by Nicolas Ndalpe -

Hi Ray,

Luckily, we don't use too many plugins. A few question about Totara - you seems to know a thing or two about it ;)

Does the subscription give you access to future upgrades and security patches?

What is the migration process? We have to migrate a currently running website to Totara containing 11 courses and 1,000 students (450 of them have completed the 11 courses) so it would be nice to keep their grades and logs and everything...


Thank you for your help

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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

by Nicolas Ndalpe -

Hi Marcus,

Thank you for your reply. This is important information. I did know that Totara is a fork of Moodle but I didn't think about the plugins.

I would ideally stick to Moodle but unfortunately I don't see how I could achieve my project with a plain Moodle+plugin.

Moodle is very strong on the "education" side but, as I understand it, it lacks the corporate structure that I need. I am still doing research though, I will keep this thread updated as I find more.


Thank you

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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: How to structure Moodle to host countries and companies - Moodle design

by Nicolas Ndalpe -

Hi Howard,

Thank you for your answer. Do you have any experience working with iomad? I look at the github page and there are still 109 issues pending. There seems to have frequent commit though, that is usually a good sign.  Thx

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