We also use Remote Learner for our consulting/support group, and they
have been good when we have needed them.
We started with an in-house Moodle server, but the 1:1 program in the
Middle School swamped it most effectively. Basically, the teachers
wanted to use Moodle with all students in the classroom at the same
time, for materials, file exchange, and quizzes. If you read the fine
print, a basic Moodle installation on a Windows 2003 server is more
suitable for lighter, evening use. If you have more than one
classroom of students doing something significant on Moodle, like a
quiz, a slower box will blog down. (At least in our experience...)
We upgraded (with Remote Learner's help) to two Linux servers,
optimized to run Moodle. One is the database, and the other is the
processing front end. Since this change,we have one of fastest Moodle
servers I've used, our usage is almost double what it was last year,
and there have been no complaints about access speed by classrooms
(except when our wireless network becomes bogged down by backups or
other such delights, another work in progress).
After a review, we decided to do an in-house server cluster because
our students are moving so many files into and out of Moodle,
including podcasts, digital images, etc. I would have preferred a
hosted Moodle solution, but we were concerned about Internet bandwidth
and the cost of ramping up to a dedicated hosted server to meet
processing needs.
In the near future, I hope to work on creating a single sign-on
feature in our school web portal, so that once students and teachers
log in there, they are also authenticated into the Moodle system
embedded in the school portal.
Jim Heynderickx
Director of Technology
American School in London
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