1. I had all students buy their own websites with shared server access where they each installed moodle. They are each creating their own courses in my class.
2. I had them download FTP.
3. I had them download Moodle and upload it to their servers. A note here, make sure they unzip the file. I had maybe 1/3 of my students try to upload the zipped file and of course it would not work. Also, uploaded took quite a while in some cases. Moodle is 91mb and has around 10,000 files, so it can easily take 30-60+ minutes to upload. Be prepared for this.
4. Next we set up Moodle. Now this will change depending on what kind of server you are using. This process was not too bad. Some students needed help due to some slight configurations that needed to be made to get everything working but overall this part was fairly easy.
5. Some students just had no luck. I also students who tried to use other web hosts that they own their own websites through and of course those services were sufficient to run moodle so they did have to buy sites from icdsoft as I had originally recommended. For the students that had no luck, I simply asked them for their usernames/passwords and upload the Moodle files myself. This solved all the problems – thus is was user error causing the problems.
I hope this has helped anyone looking to do something similar.
]]>1. Have a server. I have my students buy their own website (http://icdsoft.com/promo-code/course359) for $38 and just use the server that comes with that site. Its very easy.
2. Download and install FTP. FTP which stands for File Transfer Protocol allows them to transfer files from their desktop to their website. It is the middle man. There are many free FTP programs online. I personally like cyberduck.
3. Go to Moodle.org and download the standard Moodle package. They then upload this onto their website using the FTP program from step 2.
At this point they go into their browser and install Moodle. Set up will vary depending on the type of server you are using. Its actually a very easy process that can be done in as little as 10 minutes.
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