1. Moodle – CS view Distributed IT Forum - 22nd February 2006
Stephen Gallacher
Derek Higgins

2. Background
Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (obhe.ac.uk) commissioned in 2003 by Sir Graeme Davies
- to conduct a review of the use of ICT in the University to support learning and teaching
OBHE was asked to indicate how the University might move forward

3. Background
OBHE findings presented to Senate Education Committee on 12 May by Professor Mike MacMahon.
Working Group set up convened by Andrew Nash VPLT to consider the OBHE report’s recommendations and how they could be implemented

4. Background
Allan Martin, Director of the IT Education Unit and convener of the Learning and Teaching Committee’s VLE Working Group invited to join WP.
AM presented VLE Working Group conclusions, and a recommendation that the University should identify Moodle as the single VLE to be supported centrally by the University.
The Education Committee group accepted this conclusion which was subsequently endorsed by the University’s Senior Management Group – July 2004.

5. Background Noted that the University:
Should recognise the possibility of Moodle being overtaken in the future by something offering greater utility or value for investment.
Should monitor deliverables from the Sakai[1] consortium of US universities which develop an open source, standard compliant, Managed Learning Environment (MLE).
Expect that migration from Moodle should be easier in the future since Open Source software.
[1]

6. Background
Some teaching Departments had already adopted their own VLE – provided input to VLE WG
Others postponed VLE development awaiting central direction regarding VLE choice
Moodle would be supported centrally
Departments which already developed VLE’s and could support themselves would not be forced to move to Moodle

7. CS involvement
CS already hosted Moodle server for EDUC faculty since July 2003
CS ran internal Moodle server for delivery of some course material and testing.
Tasked with establishing a production Moodle service by beginning of September 2004
Servers run on solaris

8. Timescale
Chris Russbridge allocated 20K for purchase of servers on 21ST July 2004
Server order placed on 28th July 2004
Servers operational from 23rd August 2004
Migration from other Moodle servers started week beginning 30th August

9. Implementation at Glasgow
Hardware – HP DL380, 2x3GHz, 4Gb, 6x36Gb, Linux
Set-up and Installation - LAMP
Moodle Configuration – separate Moodle for each requested site
Administration – Set up Moodle Admins
for each site

10. Disk Usage Resource area (docs,ppt,etc.) - 60Gb Database area - 1Gb
Web area – 5Gb
Resource size –
6k ppt's, max size found 16Mb
14k doc's, max size found 15Mb
average resource 3Mb
Max upload filesize configurable by each Moodle Admin

11. Spread No. of Moodles - 49 ( 42 live) 24000 Users, 16300 distinct
1100 Courses
4 Faculty Moodles (IBLS,Educ,Eng,Vet)
5 Faculties set up on a department basis

15. Governance Moodle Implementation Group convened by Mike MacMahon
Moodle Technical Group
convened by Steven Jack
(CS Staff, Guide Staff, Faculty reps)

16. Support
Support – helpdesk answer basic queries and pass on others to Moodle Admins
FAQ and help on main Moodle page
Staff Moodle Community for Admins and course creators
CS / GUIDE (LTS) staff
Moodle workshops

17. Administration Moodle system administration - Moodle site admin
- Virus scanning
- Course admin
- Backups,etc.
Installation of optional modules where requested
- Questionnaire
- Dialogue
- Hotpot

18. Upgrading Upgrade policy decided by Moodle Technical Group
One dept upgraded to the latest version before the start of the last term
Department test this version during last term
All other Moodles are upgraded to tested version during the summer.

19. Administration Themes - standard glasgow for consistency
- template from future cms ?
- local Moodle Admins can modify theme if required

20. Login Problems Invalid logins – incorrect username/pwd
No LDAP account, which HelpDesk can check, or manual account, which Moodle admin can check, in that name
Novell password expired – account disabled – max logins (3) –grace limit (6)
Duplicate accounts- resolved by adding the users unique University ID as an alias to their Novell account

21. Other Problems Problems using Moodle - enrolment - works in 1.5.3
User Problems
- questionnaires
- forums
- printing saving ppt/pdf/mathcad files
- browser issues – cookies,sessions
Should Moodles be configured to use standard student addresses ( deny hotmail etc)

22. Future Statistics – wider access to individual statistics
RSS feeds for Moodle alerts
LAMS integration
Staffing
Hardware requirements ( DR,SAN)
Possible migration to other VLE (SAKAI ?)
Learning Activity Management System  
LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities
SAKAI – Collaborative learning environment

23. Questions