Making the Most of Moodle

Created and displayed with open source software

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Linux

Making the Most of Moodle

Content licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

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Brian Jamison

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A brief review of Open Source and Software in General

People resist change.

Sometimes things break.

Software is complex.

Most software is awful.

Nothing is Free.

More minds are better than less minds.

Source Code:

Human readable text filesthat a computer turns into software programs.

Moodle

● Course Management System (CMS)– not to be confused with a CONTENT Management

System (CMS)

Installation considerations

– server– bandwidth– backups– access outside the firewall

Use teacher forums for collaboration

Embed multimedia

● Administration -> Filters -> Configuration– Multimedia Plugins

Moodle logs /everything/

● administration -> logs● database

Moodle backups

– Administration -> Configuration -> Backup

– Littering the server with zip files is /not/ enough● recommendation: RAID 1 + offsite storage

– use backups to duplicate courses!

Modules● Not all are created equal

– usefulness (birthday notifications vs. grading)– quality– speed of development

● Compatibility● Configurability● Freshness● Version ('ware the 1.0)

Speeding it up

● Find the bottleneck first● Use Linux● Maximize hardware

– add ram, gigabit NIC, hw RAID, swap, procs

Speeding it up, 2

● Tune the database– Eventually may need dedicated db server

● Services– Apache– PHP– Check for other loads e.g. mail or spam/virus

● Tune Moodle– Site admin -> Server -> Performance

Upgrades

● Consider all third party plugins● Security fixes inside firewall● Murphy says “Use a test server”

– make and test a backup– document all actions

● Ask for help

“RTFM, n00b”

How to ask for help on a forum (and get it)

1) Look around first!

2) Ask for one thing at a time

3) Details, details, detailsa) specific needb) versions, operating systems, logs, exact error messagesc) environment, class sized) your experience levele) things you already tried

4) Don't feed trolls

5) Use the bump

6) Report progress and success! (with details)

Greg Lund-Chaix

● Oregon Virtual School District Project

Any questions?

Visit us at our booth!

Brian Jamisonbrian@opensourcery.com

(503) 544-3558

Thank you!