Have you ever run into a scenario where you wanted to test your content in an actual LMS environment, but didn’t have an LMS to test in? Or have you ever just wanted to play around in an LMS and see what is available? Well I got some good news. I use a hosting company called Dreamhost to host this website and a whole slew of other websites I have, and one of the really cool features they have is the ability to do a one-click install of Moodle on any of your websites hosted with them.
If you haven’t heard, Moodle is an Open Source LMS that is free.
Some of the cool features of Moodle:
- It’s Free!
- It supports SCORM 1.2
- It also supports AICC
- They plan on supporting SCORM 2004
- It supports and works with Articulate Presenter, Engage, and Quizmaker
The problem with Moodle is that it is a tad difficult to configure yourself, and upgrading versions is often a pain in the ass. Well, Dreamhost has made installing and upgrading moodle versions really easy.
Dreamhost is a web hosting provider that will host your website, and offers a bunch of custom one-click installable plugins.
Some of the cool features of Dreamhost:
- Only $5.95 per month to host your domain
- Offers free one-click install for Moodle
- Allows you to host unlimited domains
- Offers free one-click install for wordpress so you can start blogging
- Offer a slew of other one-click installable software
It is pretty cool, and I highly recommend checking it out, as it is really cheap. But I wouldn’t recommend using this as an enterprise level solution if you need an LMS. The hosting provider charges only 5.95$ per month, so that kinda tells you that you shouldn’t expect a really high level of quality of service. They also offer no additional support for the 3rd party plug-ins such as Moodle, so if something is not working in Moodle, they likely will not be able to help you.
We used Moodle on Dreamhost very extensively for testing the Articulate Studio ’09 products, so our products are guaranteed to work with Moodle.
You can sign up for a dreamhost account here:
http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?182057
I’ll be interested to hear if anyone else checks it out, so please comment if you sign up and try it out.
-Dave
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I have Moodle installed on my mac using MAMP (I use VMWare Fusion to run Articulate products). It works great for testing coursepackages. Another free tool I use is SCORM Player from Reload (http://www.reload.ac.uk).
Interesting to hear about this service; any more ideas like this?
One idea I’m considering is using Amazon Web Services to set up Moodle or another LMS.
>Interesting to hear about this service; any more ideas like this?
Stay tuned to my blog. I should have many more good ideas.
>One idea I’m considering is using Amazon Web Services to set up Moodle or another LMS.
Interesting idea, how were you planning on incorporating Amazon Web Services?
HI Dave,
I just signed up with DreamHost to check out the Moodle installation. They are offering a pretty good two-year deal so you don’t have to sign up for 10 years or so to get the cheapest available price. I’ve noticed on the blogs, however, that the on-click install isn’t 100 per cent complete. There’s some configuration that users need to do (cron job is the most important, but I’ve seen references to need to custom php.ini). Did you use the DreamHost on-click install, and, if so, have you experienced any difficulties? I’ve also heard that DreamHost might not support Moodle 2.0, which might make the upgrading aspect of the deal less enticing. Again, do you know anything about that?
Hi Joe,
You know it has been awhile since I actually did the install, and I don’t remember specifically doing the custom php.ini and the cron job, I just don’t think I ever cared about the features that required the crong job, but the DreamHost Wiki has been pretty useful in the past in doing that type of stuff in the past, so you might want to check their if you have specific questions on how to do it.
As far as not supporting Moodle 2.0, not too shocked that they don’t support it yet, but DreamHost has been pretty proactive in supporting newer versions of Moodle. However, in the past I have had lots of moodle specific issues, so I am happy not being on the bleading edge because I know it works, and guessing Moodle 2.0 still has lots of kinks to work out.
HI Dave, Thanks.
By the by, are there any plans for you to redo uploading a presentation to Moodle on your blog? I am not 100 per cent sure, but it looks like the process has become considerably more complicated since your last blog (perhaps because of the options in Studio 09. Or does the procedure outlined in your previous blog still pretty much hold?
Hey Joe,
Actually the steps are pretty similar today to how they were when I did that demo, and actually Studio ’09 should have the same LMS publishing options as AP5.
-Dave
Dave,
You say you don’t recommend Dreamhost for an enterprise level LMS. Is there anyone that you do recommend?
Stuart
Hey Stuart,
If you really digg moodle, I would check the moodle sites for recommended Moodle hosted providers that offer support. With Moodle on Dreamhost they offer no support, so if you run into problems, you will have to figure them out yourself, and Dreamhost isn’t a 100% reliable hosting company, but hey, you are only paying $100 a year. I know there are several Moodle hosting providers out there that do specialize in moodle support, I am just not familiar with any of them enough to make a recommendation.
However, if you aren’t tied to moodle, there are a couple of other enterprise level LMS or LMS like systems I would recommend:
-Articulate Online is number 1. I am the QA Manager of Articulate Online and helped make many of the design decisions behind the product, so obviously I am going to digg it. In terms of ease of use (which is often a pain point in LMSs), cost, and reliability, there is nobody even close to Articulate Online in the market.
-GeoLearning. They provide a good LMS, and the people their are intelligent, and passionate about their product. They have been very helpful in troubleshooting any issues that customers run across.
LMSs that I would stay away from:
-Saba. Can’t tell you how many issues I have run into with Saba, and how difficult their product is to use. There are about 10 different versions of Saba out on the market, and all of them do something really funky in regards to SCORM implementation that always cause me headaches. Also, they tried to charge us $5000 for a Saba test server, just to test our content. We provide the global leading eLearning Authoring tools, you would figure that ensuring our products would work with theirs would be a high priority for them, but I guess not.
-IBM LMS. Not really sure why they even got in this market, but they too have been a nightmare to work with. Long story, just would shy away from them.
Hope this helps.
-Dave
Dave,
We are looking for help with simulating an LMS to check our e-learning program before submitting to the client.
I see you recommend Articulate Online and GeoLearning. Could you please let me know how we can get more information and pricing on Articulate.
Thanks
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
You can find pricing information for Articulate Online here:
http://www.articulate.com/products/ao-plans.php
One potential problem though with using Articulate Online for testing is that it doesn’t use SCORM or AICC for it’s communication protocol. So if you are trying to get an LMS for testing, choosing one that conforms to SCORM ore AICC would probably be better.
-Dave