Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Marouane Ghoulami -
Number of replies: 20

Hello all, i hope you're all doing fine.

We're new to Moodle, and we wish build an E-learning platform on top of Moodle.

And we've been wondering what is the estimated time to do it.

We've searched everywhere, and we found some of the known platform Moodle-Based like : eLucid learning, Blackboard, Totara.

So the question is : What is the estimated time to build an e-learning platform on top of Moodle ?

Greetings.

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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Mary Cooch -
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Hello. I am not a developer but I would like to ask you first why you want to build an elearning plaform based on Moodle and not just use Moodle? ( I don't believe Blackboard is based on Moodle by the way.) From what I do know, I would suggest it would take several years to get something really workable.
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Marouane Ghoulami -

Hello Mary, thank you for your response.

According to this https://elearningindustry.com/moodle-based-systems-best-proving-time-upgrade-corporate-training-lms they mentionned Blackboard is built on top of Moodle (They could be wrong).

Anyway, we dont want to build an e-learning platform from scratch, but based on an open source solution like Moodle or such we want to extend that but not necessarily extend our solution using plugins, if that make any sense.


Greetings.

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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Rick Jerz -
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I think that's an outdated web page that you are referencing, going back to Feb 2019. I think at that point in time, Blackboard still owned MoodleRooms, a Moodle integrator. No longer the case.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Howard Miller -
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Moodle *is* an eLearning platform.

What is it you want to do that Moodle currently does not?

Non of those applications you mention is built "on top of" Moodle. The only one that gets close is Totara which was forked from Moodle some years ago.
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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Marouane Ghoulami -
As i mentionned above, i found those 3 are supposed to be built on top of Moodle.

Anyway, thanks for your response. we dont want to build an e-learning platform from scratch, but based on an open source solution like Moodle or such we want to extend that but not necessarily extend our solution using plugins, if that make any sense.

Or maybe provide some of the services, certified partners provides.

Greetings.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Melissa M -
As Howard said, Moodle *IS* an e-learning platform. Are you wanting to offer courses that people will pay to take? Please try to explain - in a different way than you already have - what you want to do.

(I'm just a Moodle user, not a developer. People pay to access my course material.)
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In reply to Melissa M

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Marouane Ghoulami -

What we want to build, is a platform for web and mobile, that has the same Moodle's features.

But maybe contained in our custom web design and data managelment, and tjhings like this.

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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Melissa M -
I am not a web developer and not even a post-secondary trained teacher and I figured out how to write courses in Moodle quickly. I haven't heard any feedback from my course participants that they couldn't figure out how to navigate/complete my courses, except for one 9 year old who I think had more issues with finding the time to do it than anything else and "blamed" my course.

I would recommend you look at the resources provided by Moodle include Teaching Basics here: https://learn.moodle.org/

But what it sounds like you're asking is how long will it take to develop a "competitor" to Moodle and not only do I not understand why you'd want to do that, but you'd probably need to ask Martin Dougiamas since he wrote the first version of Moodle. Now it's supported by 50 developers with the financial support of dozens of companies so to build something that ends up working like Moodle by yourself would probably take 5 years. And again, why would you want to, when Moodle already exists, is free, and open source??
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Rick Jerz -
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You might want to speak with some Moodle partners for your eLearning needs.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Howard Miller -
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They're not (for the third time wink )

Perhaps if you step back and tell us what outcome you are trying to achieve we would be able to help. At the moment you are basically saying "I want to write some code".
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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Marouane Ghoulami -
Hi Howard!

Thanks for your reply.

To put it in diffrent words, we want to build a platform implemented or build on top of Moodle but make it easir for our users, because as you know Moodle is extremly overwhelming for new users.

So again my question is only about estimated time to adjust this things and put it in a simple beautiful shape.

Greetings.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Howard Miller -
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"as you know Moodle is extremly overwhelming for new users."

It is? 

"time to adjust this things and put it in a simple beautiful shape"

How are we supposed to tell you that if we don't know what "things" you wish to transform into a "beautiful shape"

I'm just checking - you're serious, yes? big grin.  You might want to have a look at https://www.instructure.com/canvas (I heard this was also developed from Moodle 🤡 )

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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Marouane Ghoulami -
Ok, Mr. Howard, imagine we want to build a web site with custom design and all (not using themes plugins), and we cant to add restrictions on login users (can't connect with the same cridentials at the same time), and we want to add more specific stuff which will be defined later.

But for now, in your opinion what is the estimated time to use moodle with all its features, in a a project designated for e-learning, we're doing a requirement analysis ?

Greetings.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Howard Miller -
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I'm sorry - I'm completely lost. You don't know what your requirements are. You say you want to use Moodle but you don't want to use the features in Moodle provided for customisation (I don't know why). The only requirement you mention is something Moodle already does.

I think you're asking what's involved in completely re-skinning Moodle with a different theme engine so it looks completely different. Nobody can answer that for you because we have never done it.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Richard Oelmann -
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You can get Moodle set up in anything from a couple of hours to however long you want to spend tinkering. It doesn't *need* anything else for a project designated for e-learning. That's what it is.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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I usually start with the smallest item, like budget.
wink

Currently Moodle development costs are running at 70+ M USD, https://www.openhub.net/p/moodle/estimated_cost, so a double digit M USD would be an estimation. If you haven't reserved that ready, I would look at the work others have done. There are "forks" of Moodle, but most with the intention of extending its capabilities. The only fork I know, which simplifies Moodle is http://www.moodecx.ch/.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Gareth J Barnard -
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Dear Marouane,

I estimate to replicate Moodle, that with a small team of people, you're looking around five to ten years or so. Perhaps with lots of people, then perhaps two to three years.

Unless you mean something else, like setting up a landing page that has a link to a Moodle installation that you've tailored to your look?

Kind regards,

Gareth
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Richard Oelmann -
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"we want to extend that but not necessarily extend our solution using plugins, if that make any sense."
Not really. Why would you use a system designed to be extended using plugins, and not use the designed plugin exendability to do that.
It sounds like you've simply set yourself a challenge to do 'because we want to' rather than doing any real investigations into what, why or how to do it.
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In reply to Marouane Ghoulami

Re: Building an E-learning platform Moodle-Based

by Richard Oelmann -
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eLucid - don't know
Blackboard is not and never has been based on Moodle: As Rick mentions below, at one time they owned one of the companies which had previously been a Moodle Partner and provided Moodle as a service. But Blackboard Learn is an different closed source application.
Totara - originally based on a fork of Moodle around 10 years ago. If you have 10 years to put into your new product, good luck.

Moodle is open source, you *can* develop from it in any way you wish, within the terms of the GPL licence. However, all I can see from the thread so far is that you want to put a nice skin on it (look at themes) and you want to alter some of the functionality (look at plugin development). Unless you can specify your precise requirements the only answer anyone is going to be able to give you is 'it takes as long as it takes'. It will depend on those exact requirements, funding available, and the experience and skills of your development team. TBH, if you are looking (as in one of your other posts) to alter the data management structure, as well as the look and feel, then you are not looking to build on Moodle at all and you are really looking at building an entirely new application and the only advice anyone can give you then is that Moodle has been around for well over 20 years with a massive community contributing to its development.
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