Moodle is a free and open-source learning management system written in PHP and distributed under the General Public License. Developed on pedagogical principles, Moodle is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other e-learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces and other sectors.

Moodle in itself stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.

This makes Moodle e-learning solutions, to be on a more robust hosting environment.

How to Choose a Moodle Hosting Provider

While Moodle hosting isn’t technically a type of hosting, there are some things to take into consideration and some specific features to look for when choosing a host for a Moodle site.

And while many hosts in Kenya who do offer those features, there are also some who are dedicated to Moodle LMS hosting.

Either way, knowing what you need from a host in order for your educational eLearning portal to function properly is paramount in that decision.

Capacity

The first thing to consider is capacity. How many students will be accessing and using your site simultaneously?

Too many, and without a good host, and Moodle can run quite slowly, resulting in a poor user experience for your students.

Make sure your host can accommodate multiple users on your site at once, and at peak usage times.

Compatibility with Moodle

Next, check which version of Moodle you’ll be using. All versions of Moodle work best in a standard Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, or LAMP stack infrastructure.

Check that your host not only offers LAMP, but updates it on a regular basis to keep up with new versions of those components, but of the CMS you’ll be using.

In addition, select a host that will allow you to customize the PHP and MySQL configurations to accommodate Moodle. Not all hosts will let you do that.

Control Panel and Compression

Choose a host that offers a control panel through which you can compress files of 20 megabytes or more. This will make it easier for you to switch hosts in the future, should you ever decide to do so.

Also, make sure your Moodledata folder is not stored in the public folder, also for future ease of migration.

If all this seems a little confusing or just a lot to keep track of, look for a host that offers dedicated Moodle hosting.

That way, you’ll know they’ve thought of everything, and all you’ll have to worry about is creating high-quality educational content for your students.

Types of Hosting for Moodle

Shared hosting plans may not provide the power needed to host large websites for online learning, such as university courses that experience large enrollments.

Though, they will be adequate for smaller online learning services. For more power, you’ll want to check out Dedicated server plans or Virtual private servers depending on your need.

Dedicated Moodle Hosting

Dodwell Solutions is specialized in Moodle hosting in Kenya and the entire East Africa. We also provide Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud hosting to run your Moodle website on.

Our hosting services are scalable, making it able to handle everything from 500 to 10 thousand students.

Moodle Customization Options

Customization options for Moodle come in the following forms:

• Themes are template packages that change the way the course looks
• Plugins enhance the functionality of Moodle by adding additional features written in PHP
• Language packs help tutors to provide courses in their learners’ local languages
• Dreamweaver is a proprietary web development suite that can be used to create and manage Moodle pages
• Moodle is open source so you can alter its underlying code.

The open source nature of Moodle makes it very flexible and extensible. Most changes can be made in the administration panel; those that cannot can usually be hacked together using PHP.

Themes are one of the most powerful options for customizing Moodle. Themes can also change the look of an entire elearning website, letting companies add their own colors and branding.

Some organizations develop their own themes based on bootstrap content, so it’s easy to customize the theme for your own use.

The fact that plugins are written in PHP helps a lot. It not only helps in creating your own, but it means there are a lot that have been contributed by the user community.

Moodle Requirements

Dodwell Solutions’ Dedicated Servers

If you’re looking for a web hosting account for Moodle, you’ll need Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP for a smooth installation.

Moodle’s own documentation states that this is the “safest” way to install it, and there’s a huge amount of support for the LAMP stack.

Moodle can also be installed on Windows or Mac as a standalone piece of software – ideal if you want to give it a test drive before handing it over to your system admin team.

One-Click vs. DIY Installation

If you want to install Moodle to a hosting account but your provider doesn’t give you one-click installs, the process will be slightly more complicated.

Many hosting companies provide helpful customer support to walk you through this.

If you aren’t so good with the technical stuff, then you might want to switch to a hosting provider that integrates simple application installs.

Databases and PHP

But, if you still want to take this on, there are a couple of things that must be done before starting.

First, you’ll want to make sure that your host provides a database such as MySQL or MariaDB.

The host will also have to support PHP. You may have to configure PHP in your control panel.

In order for your Moodle website to work, you will also need a variety of PHP extensions installed.

If you are unsure if you have these with your host service, don’t worry. Moodle will check for these extensions while installing so you can install necessary scripts before continuing.

You can also talk to your hosting provider about their included script installations.

Final Installation Tasks

The rest of the process can be completed by following instructions on Moodle’s website.

Though, inexperienced web users will find it much easier to pick a hosting company that provides a one-click install of the application.

Moodle Needs:

1. A bare minimum of 160MB storage space for core files – but remember that you need space for your multimedia and content uploaded by students
2. Linux or Windows
3. A backup location with sufficient space (preferably in a remote location)
4. 256MB server RAM (again, a bare minimum – Moodle recommends 1GB for every 10-20 concurrent users)
5. MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL or Oracle support (MySQL or PostgreSQL recommended)
6. PHP
7. Remote backup provision to store copies of your students’ work
8. A web server
9. A modern web browser.

In summary, here’s what Moodle needs at a minimum vs what it needs to run optimally:

You may be tempted to get the most inexpensive hosting for your Moodle setup, but keep in mind that as your student body scales, you’ll need to scale your website as well.

Best to keep that in mind when selecting your web hosting package.

While many web hosting companies offer Moodle as a 1-click installer, not all of them will meet these requirements on their cheapest plans.

The remote backup provision is rarely offered on any web hosting plan, and will require a more complicated setup than a regular website.

We recommend opting for a virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated server, but have a chat with your host before committing.

For robust and more scalable hosting services write to elearning@dodwellsolutions.com

The post Moodle Hosting In Kenya | Robust & Scalable Solutions appeared first on Dodwell Solutions Limited.

Some commentators are predicting that this will change the way we live. Perhaps, but in what way? We will certainly remember this time for the rest of our lives. At least briefly, we will appreciate the smaller things in life a bit more. But will it really change anything fundamentally, for the long-term? If so, how?

But when people suggest “things will never be the same,” they’re talking about something deeper, about how we live—about our habits, norms, and ways of living. For parents, teachers, and students, it’s possible that some aspects of schooling might not go back to the way they were before.

Schools, Learner Management Changes

With COVID-19, schools are rapidly changing the basic way they do their work. Some have become old-fashioned correspondence schools, with the vast majority of interaction happening by written mail. Others have tried to recreate the school setting online using digital tools like Zoom, moodle elearning, congrea virtual class, BigblueButton Teleconferencing to name but a few. Others are in-between, directing students to online tutoring and practice programs, and posting videos. Most people think that they just want to get things back to normal. That makes sense. After all, the schools didn’t do anything to cause the crisis. So, why change them?

What lessons can we learn from this?

In the current crisis, COVID is forcing parents to be teachers and forcing everyone—students, parents, and teachers—to adapt to online learning tools.

This is not to say that all the online tools are very good. Many are not. But consider the following: Suppose a teacher tries three online tools during the crisis. She likes tool A, dislikes tool B, and is indifferent on tool C. This doesn’t exactly sound like a recipe for mass transformation, does it? Well, actually, if the crisis had never happened, the teacher would never have known about any of these tools and wouldn’t have used B or C anyway. The key is that the teachers (and perhaps students and parents) now want more of A, and that could be transformative.

Third, our adaptations have indirect effects that lead to other changes. The necessary shift due to covid 19 has changed our neighborhoods in ways that were not intended. In the current crisis, the shift to online tools may also have indirect effects.

The potential long-term shifts from COVID-19

Below, I apply the above logic to several policy areas that I’ve seen discussed recently in the context of coronavirus. The first two topics—online tools and fully online learning—are the ones that come to mind first. The rest are potential long-term shifts that might fall more into the “indirect” bucket.

Use of online tools? It should be clear from my arguments above that schools will make much greater use of online tools. Most students in the country will soon have laptops and some type of internet access (though the digital divide will remain a significant concern). Teachers are going to like many of the tools out there, and they will have an easier time using them now that students have some experience with them. Online tools can be helpful complements to in-person instruction—instead of a replacement for it—allowing teachers to focus more on engaging students and mentoring them.

A shift to homeschooling and fully virtual instruction? There may be some shift in this direction. Families will get more accustomed to online learning. However, this approach has the significant disadvantage that families have to play the role of class monitor and teacher. Few families want or can afford that, given their work schedules and other responsibilities. Moreover, research consistently suggests that students learn less in fully virtual environments. In-person, teacher-led instruction simply has too many advantages.

A shift to private schools? A key question is: Which schools will respond better to the current crisis? It could be that traditional public schools respond better, meaning they provide better educational services to children and their families. This is possible because they are designed to have greater capacity. They have IT departments and directors facilitating special education, procurement, and more. They benefit from economies of scale and expertise. On the other hand, private schools have fewer rules to follow. With fewer government rules and more limited union contracts, private schools can be more nimble in responding to a crisis.

It’s too early to tell which sector will win out. One recent report suggests that private schools have switched to online instruction more aggressively than traditional public schools.

But if one sector responds better, this will be a meaningful victory, and one that parents will no doubt notice. The schools that respond best can expect more parents to select them, and expect more political support.

Private schools sustainability? Everything above about private schools also applies to private schools with one exception: Private schools are likely to get pummeled financially. With the exception of the small fraction of students attendance, families have to pay tuition. While the middle-class families that attend private schools will not be as hard hit by the COVID-19 economic crisis, everyone will be meaningfully affected. Over the next year, it is likely we will see a large spike in private school closures.

A shift to competency-based learning? Some education experts have argued that this may be the big winner of the current crisis. However, I think that’s unlikely. As with homeschooling, competency-based approaches have severe limits. While they let students learn at their own pace, competency-based approaches atomize learning and rely heavily on standardized tests. Students provide their competency, and can go on to the next topic, only by passing a test. Competency-based learning is “personalized,” in the sense that instruction is adapted based on existing skills, but, again, within the confines of the tests. Some of these are better than others, but I still don’t believe the more competency-based approaches will be the ones teachers and students gravitate toward in the current crisis. Competency-based learning suffers too much from the same problems as high-stakes testing more generally, which has fallen out of favor.

Yes, we will need more competency-based approaches in the short run to determine which students will be promoted to the next grade, given the lost learning time. But a significant long-term shift to online learning seems less likely.

Shifting roles of students, parents, and teachers? A shift to some online tools could shift the role of teachers, making them more like coaches and mentors. They can point students to very good online lectures and then be there to provide guidance and feedback, and to make connections across topics. The roles of students and parents could also shift. Now that they have more places to look, they may be more likely to try and address learning needs on their own. When roles change, everything else can change with it—though in less predictable ways.

One additional indirect effect: The politics of education

Politics is about how we make collective decisions. It involves values and power struggles. In a later post, I will consider how the COVID-19 crisis might (or might not) reshape the politics of education. Could this lead to big changes in public policy that aren’t yet evident? Might we see reductions in national and county regulation? More flexibility for students who choose courses and tools?

The academic calendar for ECD,Primary and High school students has been scrapped for the year 2020, this one change alone has disrupted at minimum 6 to 8 college and university intakes.

What more regulations do you anticipate as we move into the future? share your views.

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