Using Moodle for Training Civil Servants - Bahrain and Brazil

Using Moodle for Training Civil Servants - Bahrain and Brazil

by Peter Knight -
Number of replies: 5

Below is a note I sent a few minutes ago to Martin. The basic issue we face here in Bahrain is whether to adapt Moodle 1.7 or purchase a proprietary LMS. We need to be able to do competency-based training and integrate with an Oracle Horizon HRMS. I am also interested in this issue for Brazil, where I spend most of my time. I would most appreciate any help members of the Moodle community can give -- we have a rather short time to make this basic decision -- by January 15.  I can be reached by regular e-mail at ptknight@gmail.com.  I also attach a summary description of what we are doing, funded in part by UNDP, so you can see the context.

Dear Martin,
I am working as a consultant to the Kingdom of Bahrain's Civil Service Bureau, financed  by UNDP. We are setting up an e-learning system for civil servants here, with possible extensions in the future to the whole population of the Kingdom.
 
I am trying to help the CSB determine whether to implement Moodle or a proprietary system -- we must get out an RFP by the 15th of January.
 
There is a Moodle implementation here at Arab Open University, Bahrain Branch -- indeed I believe it is used throughout the AOU system. We know about the great progress with BOU adopting Moodle. But our question has to do with Moodle's use in a corporate training environment, where it would need to be linked with an Oracle Horizon HRMS.
 
I was wondering if you as the mastermind behind Moodle could tell us about implementations which may have already taken place in corporate or government environments rather than academic ones. The article " 2006 the Year of Moodle" notes that the corporate environment is one where Moodle has been less successful, gives some reasons why, and suggests that some company should help adapt Moodle to a corporate learning environment, which is essentially what we need for the CSB. They do have an Oracle Horizon HRMS, and we need to do competency-based training.
 
Thank you for any help you can provide. My cellphone number here in Bahrain is +973 3674-4008 but e-mail would be fine. I am interested in the same question regarding training of civil servants in Brazil, where I coordinate the e-Brasil project.
 
With best regards,
 
Peter

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Peter T. Knight, President
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In reply to Peter Knight

Re: Using Moodle for Training Civil Servants - Bahrain and Brazil

by andrea gulp -

dear peter

You can find some information in this section of the forum, under "moodle VS sumtotal". I basically had the same problem at the time. Some one gave me very good suggest.Have a look to suggest from Mark Aberdour and Martin Langhoff...you can find some ideas.

by the way...I'm working on a partnership project with a brasil university and i'm very interesting in your work. If is possible I'd like contact you about that.

andrea riccetti

andreacommunication@gmail.com

andreagulp@yahoo.it

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In reply to andrea gulp

Re: Using Moodle for Training Civil Servants - Bahrain and Brazil

by Peter Knight -

Andrea, I've contacted you about Brazil, which will be a pleasure to discuss, outside this forum. There are a large number of Moodle implementations in that country, especially in academia.

Right now my main concern is to find someone in some organization who has adapted Moodle 1.7 to interface with an Oracle Horizon HRMS so that competency-based training can be aligned with the personnel performance management etc. Any suggestions from you or other members of the forum are most welcome. We have very little time to take this critical decision. Thanks again for responding,

Peter

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In reply to Peter Knight

Re: Using Moodle for Training Civil Servants - Bahrain and Brazil

by Mark Aberdour -
Hi Peter,

I am not familiar with Oracle Horizon, although we have worked with the Oracle iLearning LMS both as a standalone system and a part of the Oracle e-Business Suite HRMS. Searching through the Moodle support site shows that plenty of people have successfully got Moodle working in an Oracle environment, so it sounds like your proposal is feasible. I guess the main thing is just how far you would like Moodle to integrate with the Oracle HRMS, if it's just for user ID purposes then I guess it shouldn't be too much trouble, however if you wanted to integrate with some of Oracle's more in-depth performance management and competency tools then it would certainly be a complex task, as you know from reading "2006 the Year of Moodle", this type of 'corporate' functionality isn't built in to Moodle yet, so you'd be looking at quite a bit of development work. I guess if you got someone with suitable development expertise to scope out the effort required then you could weigh up that cost against buying licenses for Oracle iLearning, which should of course be able to just plug into their own HRMS suite with the minimum of fuss.

Regards,
Mark
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In reply to Mark Aberdour

Re: Using Moodle for Training Civil Servants - Bahrain and Brazil

by Peter Knight -

Mark, thanks for your useful post. We are researching this further, getting a better idea of the exact implementation we have here of Oracle, and will specifiy integration with this HRMS in the RFP for the project. I think we will leave it flexible for the vendors to either adapt Moodle or use a proprietary LMS-VLE/LCMS -- including Oracle's own, and also suggest multiple options for hosting: inside the Government Data Network, in Bahrain, outside Bahrain. We will aslo allow presentation of multiple options. This seems the best route forward to elicit maximum creativity and seek lowest cost options. We will need to be able to import SCORM compliant couseware/learningware from a variety of sources and want to encourage local as well as international providers to have multiple sources of content, suitably arabized with appropriate cultural sensitivity, etc.

Any further suggestions?

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In reply to Peter Knight

Re: Using Moodle for Training Civil Servants - Bahrain and Brazil

by Mark Aberdour -
Hi Peter,

I will shortly send you some further info by email - Epic's 'Learning Management Systems' white paper - which goes through the various considerations that should be made when procuring an LMS. Whether going open source or commercial, it will help you devise a good framework for your RFP and later on for evaluating the proposals.

All the best,
Mark
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