Today, I was looking to backup my photo galery because I will change of hosting provider.
Making the backup, I see in the app catalog two software in relation with school, two web hosted apps, so I think it’s relatively easy to add to the Nethserver apps:
1- Claroline is an Open Source eLearning and eWorking platform allowing teachers to build effective online courses and to manage learning and collaborative activities on the web. Translated into 35 languages, Claroline has a large worldwide users and developers community.
2- Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites
What do you think to add these two software to Netserver be “school friendly”
Emiliano, nobody is holding back anyone to have multiple choices for a category of applications served by NethServer. I can imagine that both Chamilo AND Moodle can be made available as a module.
Although on another platform, I have been busy installing Chamilo. Base install works like a charm, but I have diffuculty to get the LDAP/Samba authentication to work. (if anyone has ideas about this, please say so… I am currently a bit stuck on this)
Oh, that’s for sure and I also agree. But I was proposing to focus on one of the two platforms at first try, just to avoid the situation in which the two platform will get incomplete support because we leaved the developer’s attention on where they want.
[quote=“robb, post:25, topic:2132”]I can imagine that both Chamilo AND Moodle can be made available as a module.
[/quote]
Sure thing
In my opinion, both must be supported as modules by NethServer, though I would much more like to focus on one, verify it is completely supported, then switch to the other one. If we don’t focus on one before the other, we risk to “half support” both, and user experience will lower.
Choosing an LMS is something that should be done by the team of teachers that needs to work with the LMS, not by the administrator of the server.
I have some experience with both platforms. Moodle has a (much) larger userbase and documentation is better. This will make that possible problems can be solved easier with the help of the Moodle community.
Look and feel of Chamilo is more modern, more intuitive. This makes it as a platform for the teachers and students a lot easier to use.
The bigger part of the Chamilo community is Spanish speaking, but the developers also speak English quite well aswell as French. I feel the Chamilo community is quite inactive. Something I try to change I am a moderator on the Chamilo forums.
I think a good choice of an LMS is first to make a list of requirements you need that the applications must be able to do. Then compare both LMS’s and see which of the two is best for your situation. (this works like this for any application)
Finally install and testdrive if the application actually works as you expect.
I’d love to see an educational repository where all educational applications are available for NethServer. One-click installs for all of them with LDAP/Samba authentication. (even better with kerberos for SSO)
And I completely agree. What I find out hard to make you understand is that I don’t see the problem as “sysadmin” or “teacher”, I see the problem as packager for NethServer. My goal is to port Moodle/Chamilo inside NethServer, so I have to start somewhere (so I will choose at first one of the two/three platforms available) and until I have finished my work, sysadmins and teachers have the option to install its chosen platform by hand.
It might be a way to start leurning to package for NS… Maybe start a new topic in the developer section where you announce the development of a Moodle package… create a github repo and start working on it…
Explain your steps and what your findings are. I am sure more experienced devs will help you when you get stuck.
(again… keep the discussion going… say what you have done, ask for help!)
It would be great to have both implemented. For both there are very valid reasons to choose them.
Moodle: largest userbase, very well documented.
Chamilo: VERY userfriendly. Modern and smooth interface. Large userbase, especially in Spanish speaking South America.
If both packages are available through NethForge, the user can choose which of the two is used.
I am busy getting Samba authentication with Chamilo, but have a hard time getting that to work. Any help on this is greatly appreciated.
Would you mind to open a new issue on github? It’s quite easy, please explain the goals in details as best you can.
We may think to a V1 as minimal viable product
Nethserver for school isn’t a bad idea: your description says, it’s for small organisations so it could fit. I could try to promote it in our school but there is a big problem: The school’s website and our files are situtated in the educational part of the governement’s servers ans in MS Office 365…(If you want to do a research -->myschool.lu Warning, it’s written in french.) But I could ask if we could take Nethserver as a VPN-Backup server= Copy of the files in a VPN, like universities.
Nethserver is recommended in our school, because our “IT-specialists” (They don’t even know how to secure a router) aren’t familiar with Linux so they could learn using it in a more easy way.
thanks for the link. I will try and do a feature request for Chamilo (and later on Moodle)
An easier application to integrate with Samba/LDAP is Xerte online Toolkits. That will get a feature request too…
Anyone who wants to help, please chip in.
We definitely want it and I’d like move forward. Which are the goals? We may start from install Moodle/Chamilo on NethServer. Do we have already a howto?
We can:
open a new issue on github for 7 version
create a bounty with the aim of develop a new module
I would suggest to start from Moodle, which is simpler (from what I’ve seen) to install.
+1. On the development part, I see the following points:
Clarification on what type of ibay configuration to implement (web server root/folder/what else);
Definition of parameters to implement in the web configuration interface for Moodle (from zero parameters to full configuration within interface. I would like the first one best ;));
On the previous two points, build up a basic interface for Moodle configuration;
Creation of the RPM including dependencies (mysql, for example), Moodle base files and NethServer configuration pages.
Currently I’m quite busy, but I would very much like to collaborate on this.
Thanks, regards,
[Edit] - the same steps applies also if we choose to start with Chamilo. Yes, I would like both on NethServer, but if I have to choose somewhere to start, I will start with the simplest one.
Very much recommended, indeed. NethServer is simple to manage once installed and it has inside OwnCloud, which [will be integrated in the near future][1] with LibreOffice Online (replacing MS Office 365 with a local solution and not on cloud).
[1]: https://owncloud.org/blog/libreoffice-online-has-arrived-in-owncloud/ “will be integrated”
Hi @robb, Hello tribe[quote=“robb, post:15, topic:3105”]
any educational topics? Where are we, as a community, standing to use NS in schools? What can we do to progress?
[/quote]
On this subject there is a very interesting point which in the case of my country is the learning curve that Debian users are leery, which has been, for my promotions NS, terrible resistance point .
IMHO, NS for schools is a practical and robust package that can provide stability in our educational platforms worldwide, especially if we set different options scalability from their applications.
This is what has given me more strength from the proposed school servers, where even Nethserver was being evaluated as UTM against PFsense.
With the support of the tribe would love to facilitate this way and overcome with the power of free and liberating knowledge that resistance .
I am a moderator on the Chamilo forums.