As a Moodle Partner, we have fielded hundreds of inquiries regarding the capabilities of many different third-party modules. On behalf of our Moodle hosting clients, we have engaged in testing and found a number of third-party modules to be very useful, including:

• Book activity: Create multi-page resources with a book-like format. Currently under development for use with Moodle 2.0.
• Certificate activity: Provide students with a PDF certificate upon meeting specified course criteria. Currently under development for use with Moodle 2.0.
• Configurable Reports block: Examine custom course and user reports and custom MySQL queries.
• Dimdim Web Meeting activity: Integrate Dimdim webinar capabilities which allow opportunities for blended learning within a Moodle course.
• Feedback activity: Survey your students with custom questions and scales which is now a part of the standard distribution in Moodle 2.0!
• Login & Logout block: Promote social networking features in Moodle by providing users with a time-based greeting, user profile image, last login data and profile update link.
• Menu block: Elimates the endless scrolling required by lengthy Moodle courses. Center section summaries are used to create navigation buttons that can collapse all other center sections. Moodle 2.0 includes a new Navigation block with similar features.
• MrCUTE Jr. File Repository block: A simple file repository that allows file sharing among courses. Moodle 2.0 contains a file repository API to better facilitate repository integration.
• Register activity: Track and calculate time spent by a user working on a Moodle course.
• Sidebar block: Allows activities and resources within multiple instances of a block.
• User Administration block: Provides numerous tools to ease user administration tasks in Moodle.

Moodle 2.0 has incorporated the Feedback activity and also provides a variety of other new features and tools such as the Navigation block. However, existing third-party modules developed for use with Moodle 1.x will no longer work with Moodle 2.0. In time, patrons and developers may release updated modules designed to work with Moodle 2.0, thereby continuing the tradition of third-party development which has so dynamically enhanced the efforts of the Moodle Community.

We are pleased to announce that our contributions to the Moodle Trust have once again culminated in the successful development of the latest feature-packed release of Moodle, now at version 1.9.

As always, our dedicated servers are optimally configured so that we can continue to provide reliable Moodle hosting services for the latest release of Moodle. If you have any questions, please contact us for more information.

The effort to provide effective documentation for Moodle began a few years ago with the introduction of a community wiki at MoodleDocs. With the rapid release of new features and refined interfaces in Moodle, this community wiki has earned accolades and praise for the wealth of information shared there. In fact, recent releases of Moodle have contained a context-specific MoodleDocs link at the bottom of any page with configurable variables, resulting in a dramatic increase in the usability of Moodle.

New Moodle documentation resources have also emerged, including MoodleTutorials.org. These efforts exemplify bold new innovative resources that can provide video tutorials for Moodle experts, as well as advice for those just beginning to use Moodle. The sample at right is a streaming Moodle overview video that is a little over 2 minutes long.

ClassroomRevolution.com, LLC continues to support the open Moodle documentation process by submitting and editing MoodleDocs articles and MoodleTutorials videos on a regular basis. For those seeking professional services, we also offer Moodle training and Moodle support services as an authorized U.S. Moodle Partner.

We encourage all prospective clients to compare hosting policies and discover how our expertise can provide peace of mind due to our proven reliability and value. Because of our committment to providing high-quality hosting services, we will never oversell our hosting accounts. We have been contracted to rescue a number of Moodle sites which have been installed on discount hosting services. As the number of users attempting to access resources rises, the Moodle site slowly become unusable. This experience has taught many organizations to be wary of such discount hosting solutions.

Moodle sites that load very slowly, or that time out, have often been loaded onto discounted hosting accounts on servers with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other accounts. Moodle is dynamic software that can require an extensive amount of server resources to run properly, and simply cannot perform adequately if it is forced to share resources with too many accounts hosted on the same server.

Technical Support

As modern consumers, nearly everyone has experienced both superior and inferior technical support. Unfortunately, not all technical support policies are created equally, often offering few actual technical services without purchasing an expensive support plan. All of our Moodle hosting clients automatically receive the following technical support services at no extra cost:

• 24/7 technical support for all Moodle software errors & server performance issues, including unlimited named technical support accounts.
• Installation and customization of standard Moodle, including: image resizing, spell-check, and 3-5 third-party blocks, modules, or other modifications.
• Moodle upgrades for all security-related concerns and any major (e.g., 1.8 to 1.9) or minor point releases (e.g., 1.6.1 to 1.6.2).

These basic technical support services are provided to our Moodle hosting clients free of charge in order to maintain an optimal Moodle experience. Moodle hosting clients with more advanced needs are also able to purchase our flexible and cost-effective Moodle support services.

Bait and switch

Some Moodle hosts also offer entry-level shared hosting accounts that provide attractive pricing but are often paired with inadequate storage or bandwidth capacities. For example, if a hosting account allows up to 500 users, but only provides 500 MB of storage, is it reasonable to expect that each user will only need 1 MB to upload assignments and attachments? Of course, as soon as these limits are breached, these companies can then offer far more expensive hosting accounts in a classic move that some have labeled as “bait and switch” or “up-selling.” We are simply content to offer a variety of hosting options that can meet any organization’s needs. If upgraded capacities are ever legitimately required, we will pro-rate any usage that has already occurred and apply the remaining funds offset the account upgrade.

Better hosting?

We offer a number of superior features with our hosting accounts. Regardless of the account, we allow an unlimited number of Moodle courses with any of our shared or dedicated Moodle hosting accounts. Even our CRTeacher.com shared Moodle site provides up to five course shells for each site subscriber. All of our hosting clients can choose to use any of our available custom Moodle themes. CRTeacher.com subscribers may choose among many of our themes for each of their course shell accounts. CR-5.0 annual Moodle hosting accounts allow a client to choose a custom Moodle theme and provide logos or images which we place in the theme’s header for a branded effect. Finally, any annual hosting account at the CR-10.0 level or higher, includes the design and creation of a custom Moodle theme based on client specifications for a completely branded solution.