Moodle Hosting Service

Moodle Hosting Service

by Amanda Hawkins -
Number of replies: 5

Hi,

We are looking at using a Moodle hosting service for our division. We currently don't have a way to use Moodle courses. 

Does anyone have a recommendation which hosting service we should use? I am not the "tech" guy but just an Outreach teacher trying to create more opportunities and course options for our students.

Thank you!

In reply to Amanda Hawkins

Re: Moodle Hosting Service

by Tim Bloomfield -

We're in a similar situation so I would be very interested in also hearing the responses.

In reply to Tim Bloomfield

Re: Moodle Hosting Service

by Murray Jarman -
One of the things to check is whether you want to run specific plugins, filters etc. as I know at least some hosting providers only support a limited set of extensions. So if there's something that's really important for your implementation, make sure you get a service that can handle your needs.
In reply to Amanda Hawkins

Re: Moodle Hosting Service

by Jacob Fraser -
We are using Blackboard/Open LMS here in Palliser. Like Murray mentions, plugins are a feature that they have a limited number that they are going to guarantee will continue to be supported throughout their hosting service.
Alison mentioned iCampus21, and you won't be remiss investigating her choice as she is familiar with Open LMS as well.
Another thought to consider is to approach your district tech team and see if they have capacity to take on hosting. The physical hardware and software isn't significant, but the time to troubleshoot, even to sandbox test updates before unrolling them, becomes the valuable part of the service so you don't have unexpected downtime. Alison and I once experienced how a plugin was able to slow and then shut down the entire hosting instance in another school.
In reply to Amanda Hawkins

Re: Moodle Hosting Service

by Kevin Anderson -

I would advise running your own rather than hosting, either on AWS or in-house.  You will benefit from the knowledge and have far more control over the install (versioning, cost, sizing, plugins, etc).  AWS allows us to have an image of our server made so that when we upgrade or test a new plugin, we can back out in seconds if there's a problem.


We paid iCampus21 to assist with our initial install.  It was money well spent, and I believe we ended with the best of both worlds.  A professional initial install that we now manage ourselves.