John, and by extension, Rick, Ken, Howard, and Visvanath,
First, thanks for providing all these informed perspectives. Not with moodle, but with other things, I have also been burned with tools that are designed to make things easy - until they mess up. Generally, I learn the same lesson over and over again . The close you are to the source and the command line, the better it is in the long run.
Like John, I have a moodle site on siteground. in the past, they would help me with upgrades from their service department, but they now no longer do this. That's okay, I should learn it anyways. The thing is that I'm a professor who happens to use moodle I host on my own dime because I don't like/trust the resources my institution provide. I have really loved using moodle, and I think it is worth all the learning required to use it. I want to learn how to manage my own upgrades, starting with my need to upgrade from 3.6 to 3.8.
I realize there are different ways to do it, and the more reliable way may be more complex. Unlike the advice from the siteground tech, I don't just want to "hire someone to do it for me.". Rather, I want to learn how to do this myself. As I read through these posts, it seems like there could be wisdom to having a workflow where it is installed in a risk-free environment, tested, then uploaded to the real place. I'm not an administrator, just a professor doing this just for myself (so my moodle setup is not for an entire institution, just my own work). Is there a way I can find help in having someone walk through this with me, so I can see how it is done, ask questions, and learn to do this on my own? I know this requires time, and I'd rather pay for that than pay for someone to just "do it for me."
While I would like to just self-teach by looking at posts from esteemed experts like you all, I get a bit confused since I think that different people have different setups - some are hosting on their own software, some on services like John and I (I am also on siteground). As a novice, I'm not sure what of the advice pertains to setup-specific cases, and which can be generalized. That makes it hard to learn. As fascinated as I am with all of this, I just can't invest weeks in figuring this out . . .
Could you recommend a path I can pursue to learn how to do this from an expert, so I can learn to do this routine maintenance on my own? I'm pretty tech savvy, but this is a different and higher-stake level . .
First, thanks for providing all these informed perspectives. Not with moodle, but with other things, I have also been burned with tools that are designed to make things easy - until they mess up. Generally, I learn the same lesson over and over again . The close you are to the source and the command line, the better it is in the long run.
Like John, I have a moodle site on siteground. in the past, they would help me with upgrades from their service department, but they now no longer do this. That's okay, I should learn it anyways. The thing is that I'm a professor who happens to use moodle I host on my own dime because I don't like/trust the resources my institution provide. I have really loved using moodle, and I think it is worth all the learning required to use it. I want to learn how to manage my own upgrades, starting with my need to upgrade from 3.6 to 3.8.
I realize there are different ways to do it, and the more reliable way may be more complex. Unlike the advice from the siteground tech, I don't just want to "hire someone to do it for me.". Rather, I want to learn how to do this myself. As I read through these posts, it seems like there could be wisdom to having a workflow where it is installed in a risk-free environment, tested, then uploaded to the real place. I'm not an administrator, just a professor doing this just for myself (so my moodle setup is not for an entire institution, just my own work). Is there a way I can find help in having someone walk through this with me, so I can see how it is done, ask questions, and learn to do this on my own? I know this requires time, and I'd rather pay for that than pay for someone to just "do it for me."
While I would like to just self-teach by looking at posts from esteemed experts like you all, I get a bit confused since I think that different people have different setups - some are hosting on their own software, some on services like John and I (I am also on siteground). As a novice, I'm not sure what of the advice pertains to setup-specific cases, and which can be generalized. That makes it hard to learn. As fascinated as I am with all of this, I just can't invest weeks in figuring this out . . .
Could you recommend a path I can pursue to learn how to do this from an expert, so I can learn to do this routine maintenance on my own? I'm pretty tech savvy, but this is a different and higher-stake level . .
