At Riverdale, we've used both Remote Learner (our prsent provider) and
Moodle Rooms. While I haven't been the one administering the hosted
moodle at Riverdale, I have self-hosted Moodles at other schools, and from
what I've seen thus far, it may end up being easier to host it yourself.
Moodle Rooms gave us ridiculous amounts of downtime, and not-so-great
ticket resolution. Remote Learner seems to be moderately better, but
personally, I'm not impressed - we've had an ongoing (2 weeks +) error
that randomly generates during assignment uploads, and they've been little
help in resolving the issue.
Like many mature LAMP applications (mediawiki, joomla, etc.), Moodle is
fairly simple to install and self-host, and it's worth looking into that
option - when I've hosted it previously (and had *much* better uptime), I
simply purchased some relatively cheap hosting and had the moodle up and
running in an hour or so. I had control on the backend, and while I
didn't have folks testing plugins for me (a service the Moodle Hosts
provide...tested plugins), I've found most of the popular plugins are
fairly stable and work well together. And there is an active community
around Moodle, so you won't be totally in the dark on issues.
I suppose it really depends what type of human resources you have to throw
at it, of course - bringing students in, managing classes, etc., was all
my problem and not someone else's. And having it hosted for you brings
tons of benefits - approved plugins, ticketing, etc.
~j
A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> writes:
>I'm considering using a Moodle hosting service for at least some of the
>iScoop (http://iscoop.ning.com/) online courses we hope to offer during
>the 2009-2010 school year. If you've had good experiences with a Moodle
>hosting service I hope you will be willing to share the name of the
>service. I'll compile whatever recommendations come in and put them on the
>School Computing Wiki (http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com).
>
>Thanks,
>
>Fred
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