wiseoldowl

Good to see Overnet Data catching up! :-)

I guess, as always, it comes back to the question, "What do your users want?" unless, of course, you're solely driven by price and not teaching and learning. I have no experience of the It's Learning platform but would it suit your users? Whether or not something is good will depend on what your users think. Also, consider the costs of change if you move away from one solution to another - things like training, getting people back up to speed, speed of adoption, technical skills required, technical training required, administration costs in terms of time and money, etc. Hope this helps - much to think about perhaps.

As previously mentioned in this thread, it's not about the tool but about the people that use it. So, first step is to understand how your school will want to use a VLE. For example, is it about storing stuff or is it about enhancing teaching and learning? If it is about teaching and learning, then you'll need advice about how Moodle will fit into the wider context of teaching and learning within the school. Moodle in some ways is a 'jack-of-all-trades'. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense, what I mean is that it can be used very successfully in a wide variety of settings from primary schools in the UK to international schools, from higher education contexts to corporate training use. So, it is essential to understand how Moodle will fit into your school. Then you can tailor Moodle and configure to fit. For example, many schools setup Moodle 'out-of-the-box' without thinking about the resource/activity types that will be available to teachers. By default the choice can be very confusing to most teachers confronted by Moodle for the first time so ask teachers which tools they want and pick carefully. You can always add tools as your Moodle evolves. Typically, to get started, all you need to make available are a few resource types such as web page, labels and links to files and in respect of activity types then just assignments and/or quizzes will be a good starting point. Fundamentally, successful implementations are the result of on-boarding teachers through good training and professional development encompassing a pedagogical shift to include online learning, a culture within the school that embraces an additional approach to teaching and learning and a clear strategic plan supported and encouraged by the senior leadership team. Done correctly, online learning is a powerful adjunct to current teaching and learning practice within the school opening huge opportunities to enhance student progress and attainment but there has to be a will. Moodle is a powerful tool but you do need to know what you are going to use that tool for - it has to have a purpose. If it's just added to your system without a context or purpose identified in teaching and learning, it will fail.

Apologies for joining this discussion a little late and being slightly off topic but I think the following is very relevant if you are considering a VLE and online learning. I just wanted to correct the perception that Moodle is based around Course Management. It certainly was during Moodle 1.x days and I have seen many Moodle 2.x installs hanging onto that approach but this misses the flexibility that Cohorts bring to the party. Good Moodle 2.x management focusses on enrolments through Cohorts and the use of Groups and Groupings to manage access to content. This approach allows for far greater flexibility of management enabling, for example, Key Stage courses across year groups. This is especially useful for exam-based courses and managing access to content though cohorts, groups, groupings with the additional flexibility provided through activity completion and activity access restrictions. In Moodle 2.x a course is merely a container for content. Moodle now enables a more sophisticated approach to how teaching and learning can be managed enabling far more to be done for learners than envisaged even a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, there is a gap between understanding what can be achieved when teaching/learning online with a focus on tools and formats rather than actual teaching and learning. As the potential of Moodle is less realised the gap widens - something to address urgently for all learning platforms.

If I can make a suggestion then Boomish, check out the use of LearnDash within Wordpress. It's a really simple to use but comprehensive plugin that given the ease with which you utilise WP it might form the basis of something to get some feedback. I've often thought WP very suitable for most primary schools and Learndash would add something more VLE like as the site moves forward. Justin Ferriman has done a good job on this at WordPress LMS Plugin by LearnDash® and there is also a demo site you can use to get a feel of what could be offered. Might be something to grow into down the track.

Hi Boomish I'm sure you've asked but from your query and responses I'm not clear so the first question I'd ask is, "What do your teachers, pupils and parents want from a VLE or even an online presence apart from Homework Management?" If you use the feedback as your baseline, you will find a solution and get buy-in from stakeholders. At the end of the day, it's not so much about the product or service but how it is used by the users - if they don't use it, then ....

Micron asked, "Another Edu company in trouble?" The real question is, "Is education is trouble?" Any company supplying education has to be sure of the market they are involved in and with shrinking budgets to supply appropriate IT services to education it is difficult to understand the education market and what education actually wants from its suppliers. An observer might view the market as one that is rapidly approaching a tipping-point and secondary education being divided between those schools/academies pulling back into core services regardless of the impact on learning and those understanding the benefit of investing in IT services. However, it is the responsibility of those involved in IT services within schools/academies to reduce the total cost of ownership and find ways to improve the return on investment. Big ask I know, given that IT services are rarely in control of their budgets in schools/academies. I guess it comes down to those in control of budgets (what's left of them) understanding how these things can be achieved - not an easy task for those who trained as teachers. This is the tipping-point - do you move on or do you contract? I suspect that in the long term, those that move forward will succeed and those who contract will not.

If you're looking for an external hosting service backed up by experience, you could have a chat with the guys at LUNS – Lancaster University Network Services | E-Learning. Talk to Paul Verrall or Miles Burke. They've handled hosting for a number of our clients and always proved themselves up to the task for schools and academies.

There are, of course, other suppliers providing Moodle theming services.

I'm assuming you're a school/academy. Themes? Well, you can take your pick but I'd always suggest choose a responsive theme so Moodle can be used with tablets, etc. Configuration? Big area to cover so I'll stick with your potential user needs. You'll need to understand the skills of your teachers and then configure resource and activity types to the ones that match your teachers skills. Then as the skills base grows you can add in additional resource and activity types and provide the training to go along with them. Usually, I suggest that things like labels, pages, links, etc. all the basic stuff are available. As far as activities are concerned don't make everything available because it will be too confusing at first so stick with maybe assignments and quizzes. Whatever you choose make sure it fits with your teacher's skills and school needs. I assume you've been to Moodle.org and checked out the documentation for your version. Cheers

It is likely that it is MathJax clashing with File Picker. If you do not need MathJax disable it and File Picker will work OK. If that doesn't work, go through your plugins and disable and test to find the plugin that is causing the problem. Hope that helps.

Couldn't agree more with Matt40k and dhicks. Collecting data and how it is used will also vary from school to school but one of the key issues is to ensure the data collected for the purposes of engaging parents in their child's learning has to be subject to more than a 'here is the data' approach. In my view it needs to part of a wider context that will include policies, school culture, data cleansing and supporting parents so they understand the data being presented and how they can use it to support their children.

Interesting article Reeza, thanks for sharing. I'm not sure I would agree that effective student reporting will raise whole school parental engagement, it usually requires a little more.

You can install Moodle and WordPress on the same server and you can use an LTI connection to place WordPress within Moodle for users. This means that your users in Moodle will be able to use WordPress within Moodle and there will be no need to worry about authentication because LTI will handle that for you. Search for 'Moodle Wordpress LTI' in Google but this article by Gavin Henrick may prove useful Moodle 2.2 supports connecting to IMS LTI tools. | Some Random Thoughts.

You're right Graham! :-) Now I wonder ...

What made me smile was the he was on a charge for bribery but German law allows to 'bribe' is way out - interesting! :-) Sorry, I didn't mean 'bribe' I meant pay a penalty fee to make the charge go away, no that's not right I meant ... it's a bribe!

I suspect you have seen poor examples of Moodle implementations. One of the big advantages with Moodle is its ability to be configured for a particular school's or academy's needs. The latest 2.7 version is pretty intuitive for teachers and students, at a basic level all they have to do is drag-and-drop resources into a course but Moodle offers so much more. In terms of 'look-and-feel' there are some pretty good themes out there, some even move away from the traditional 'three-column' look - with Moodle themes development almost anything is possible. There are some nice responsive themes which makes Moodle a good choice for multiple device types. There are also integrations out there and some provide interesting tools such as integrated room booking, parent portals, parent evening organisers, progress data and more. The best place to start is to create a specification of what the school wants/needs, otherwise it will be very difficult to find what is required. I'd split features into wants and needs columns just to focus down on what is actually needed and what would be 'nice to have'. Then research from there and take time, don't rush, there are many learning platforms out there, don't be persuaded because someone else likes this or that but go for what is required.

Beyond hosts like Hostgator, etc. you can use a dedicated hosting service which is run by experienced people used to running Moodle. The problem with the hosts you mention is that it is always shared space and resources will be minimal to run Moodle will be minimal. I'm not sure why these hosts still offer a service because Moodle can be resource-hungry if well used. If you expect your Moodle to be used extensively then your choice is between a dedicated host or host internally. Bear in mind that a dedicated host will be relatively expensive which for 300 students may be too costly.

One of my tips would be to configure the resources and activities that teachers are actually going to use rather than present a whole range of different resource and activity types. Stick to the basics such as web page, label, file, assignment - it may not be exciting but it will help teachers get a handle on Moodle. I'd even not include quiz at first. Let me people know what is possible beyond the basics and 'open up' Moodle based on demand.

I guess it's all about what you consider to be good practice. Keeping your Moodle 2.x within the core bug or security patch window is probably a good plan. Check out the release dates and create a plan for upgrading throughout the next 12 months. Publish the plan so all stakeholders know what's happening. Keep informed about changes in changelogs and deviate from your published update process only if you need.

Just to make this clear, this is not a post that is available at SchoolsICT Limited.

Hi Mark Have you thought about what teachers will actually use and disable access to the remainder of the resource and activity types? For example, under Activities disable Assignment, Chat, Choice, Database, External tools, Glossary, Lesson, Quiz, Survey, Wiki, Workshop and just leave them with Forums and SCORM. Under resources disable Book, IMS Content Package and leave everything else. The idea is to tailor Moodle to what you think your teachers can cope with and would find easiest to transition their existing skills to. A few simple guides on how to do things would be useful for them. From that basis you can then develop the site to suit your teachers. If you move to WordPress it sounds like your teachers don't know how to use that either and you are also removing the place where they keep their files. Moving to something completely different like SharePoint is all well and good if you have the drive and training budget behind you otherwise you're going to be back where you started. I'd stick with Moodle and figure out what you can do with it to suit your teachers and take it from there. Evolution not revolution!

As a company we use SharePoint but consider it's a lot of work vs benefits. Simpler to use, configureable and scaleable solutions would be things like Box but some schools can be reticent regarding non-SharePoint cloud-based solutions. Depends what the problem is you're trying to solve at the end of the day.

Big Moodle fan here. If what you're looking for is only the ability to upload documents from students to teachers then there is no need to use Moodle or any VLE. There will be plenty of more appropriate ways to achieve that. You don't say but presumably you will want your students to upload from an external location as well as internal. But if you're looking for software that will help teachers engage with their students online, provide resources and activities for online learning and utilise assessment tools then maybe a VLE is what you're looking for. It might be a good idea to specify what features you and your SLT are looking for and search on that basis. Good luck.

Interesting to see the problems with Moodle in this thread. Many of them can be resolved without a great deal of effort. From the recent research I've done I find that Moodle is chosen and implemented without much thought for teaching and learning. Generally, it's a basic install with all its bells-and-whistles and teachers are 'told', 'encouraged' just to get on with it. It's rarely configured to meet current school needs and skills. There's a sort of expectation that teachers will 'pick-it-up'. Given that online learning is a big shift in pedagogy it's hardly surprising that teachers can find Moodle difficult and clunky. With a reasonable degree of skill a Moodle can be setup and configured to meet current skills and pedagogy and look really good for primary, secondary, FE or HE.