Suggestions appreciated for Software to run Forums to support Student Learning

[Twiddler]

Hi

 

I am new to Edugeek so apologies if this sort of information has already been discussed.

 

We are trying to create an environment whereby the students (aged 11-18) get information electronically from staff and other students by subject area under the banner of independent learning.

We do not have a well supported or well developed VLE and the ICT staff are snowed under - so we are looking to create a more independent environment that is easy to set up and maintain by academic staff.

It seems that the ideal environment to achieve this is using a hosted forum software suite without being too expensive or in the case of some free hosted sites passing their personal information to 3rd parties and/or being age restricted (13+).

 

I have looked at and tinkered with Proboards which is just perfect (categories, boards, sub-boards, polls, moderators, calendar and other features) - it would be perfect but we cannot really go with it due to the commercial implications and age restriction on use.

 

I've looked but nothing obvious pops up - I am sure Moodle has an offering but that is probably off the menu due to the problems I have mentioned earlier - I would be very grateful to hear your wisdom on this ...!

 

Many Thanks

[RichB]

I'd take a look at what this is going to cost Vs a re-vamp by an external supplier of the current VLE.

 

Moodle is a great tool when set up correctly and people know how to use it and its free. It could do this forum thing with ease and loads of other things.

[Twiddler]

Thanks RichB.

 

The trouble is we have Moodle already and in that there is a problem forcing us to try and look elsewhere.

It is installed and has been managed internal historically by different people with different agendas - the result that staff are not confident of their courses and data staying where it's put or getting removed accidentally or on purpose without consultation.

Additionally my experience is that Moodle is not popular with many staff in the UK at least as it's seen as clunky and they are not motivated to make use of it as opposed to the all shiny Frog VLE for instance - word gets around!

 

Appreciate the reply and still looking I guess!

Mike

[ADMaster]

 

If you are looking for a forum and not a replacement for the vle there are a number of options based on the LAMP stack.

 

Phpbb

Tikiwiki

Joomla

 

Also if your filter is done with lightspeed you should have access to mybigcampus. MBC is a vle moderated by the filter folks.

[MordyT]

For forums...

Free

 

Phpbb

SMF

MyBB

 

Paid

Xenforo

[Marci]

Surprised no-one's mentioned vBulletin... s'about the most established commercial forum solution out there, and plenty of examples of it out in the wild (you're looking at it now for instance). It's not cheap, but nor is it overly expensive either.

[Cache]

Surprised no-one's mentioned vBulletin... s'about the most established commercial forum solution out there, and plenty of examples of it out in the wild (you're looking at it now for instance). It's not cheap, but nor is it overly expensive either.

 

vBulletin has gone drastically down hill over the last few years so, if you were going to purchase a vBulletin licence I would stick with either version 3 or version 4 (4 being what's used here).

[MordyT]

Surprised no-one's mentioned vBulletin... s'about the most established commercial forum solution out there, and plenty of examples of it out in the wild (you're looking at it now for instance). It's not cheap, but nor is it overly expensive either.

 

I run several VB forums and would not recommend it for a new forum.