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Archive for the ‘Mahara’ Category

What is e-learning?

Posted by Amy Adair on 11 Apr

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E-learning, as a concept, (although it’s been around for a long time), I’m sure is quite new to many of you out there. My experience with it goes way back to university when we used Blackboard for downloading course materials and reserving library books online. Now, nearing my 1st month of working in Synergy Learning, I have learnt that there is so much more to what these learning platforms can do. So, a useful exercise I thought, would be to do a quick fire question round about the industry.

What is e-learning?

“The delivery of a learning, training or education program by electronic means. E-learning involves the use of a computer or electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) in some way to provide training, educational or learning material.” (Derek Stockley 2003)

It can occur in real-time, communicating with others online, using the likes of Skype, virtual classrooms & chatrooms or be used at your own pace using, online learning materials, social media, blogging, video, email etc.

Who needs elearning?

Anyone can use e-learning. It’s not just for use in the educational sector. Businesses, governmental agencies as well as not for profits are using e-learning to educate, inform and communicate.

How is e-learning created/ developed?

There are different platforms from which to develop your e-learning portal. We have 3 options that we provide; Moodle, Totara and Mahara. We look at your specific requirements and objectives and provide a solution which is going to achieve the right results.

What types of technologies are used to deliver online learning?

There are many to choose from including; Webcasts, podcasts, videos, youtube, computers, tablets, mobile, blogs, webcams and interactive whiteboards.

What is the difference between Moodle, Totara and Mahara?

Straight from the horses mouth, Moodle.com defines Moodle as “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 is Totara?

Totara was built using the Moodle platform, but is designed specifically to meet the needs of the corporate sector.

What is Mahara?

Mahara was created in New Zealand and means “to think” in the Måori dictionary.

Mahara is an eportfolio system which allows its users to create and manage a digital portfolio of their work and achievements online as well as giving them the opportunity to share elements of their portfolio and interact with others online.

The list of questions could go on but as this is a quickfire round, we’ll stop there for now.

If you want anymore information on the e-learning industry or are considering a move to online learning for your school or company, call or email us and we’d be happy to discuss your requirements and talk through your options.

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Moodle, Mahara and Totara at BETT 2013

Posted by admin on 30 Jan

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BETT 2013 is taking place in the ExCel London, with a staggering 30,000 people visiting the event between January 30th and February 2nd. Of course a selection of the Synergy Learning team are here to represent and offer sound eLearning advice and promote our Moodle, Mahara and Totara platforms.

We have attended the event for the last 7 years and always found it a good place to share eLearning experiences and meet up with potential partners. Its also a great opportunity to meet up with some of our existing partners and plan ahead for 2013, so if you are there be sure to drop by and say hello!

Where are you?

If you’ve been to BETT before you’ll know that with over 650 exhibitors its worth planning who you want to see. We are based at stand C1 and a link to the map is here.

Who are you?

If you are from a school, college, university or interested in work based learning make sure that you visit us to speak about our learning platforms. The team attending Bett are Joel Kerr, Jonny McAlister, Paul Taylor and Pete Potter. Each with specialities in different areas so drop by and have a chat and if you like what you hear. You can also arrange a 30 minute free consultation to chat about your eLearning projects (maybe even get a free coffee!). Click here to book your session.

What can you do?

Our design team have put together a mobile site for the BETT show which shows some of our projects and also has some more information about the team. We love to talk about our projects and services that we can add, to enhance the learning experience at your institution. Check out the mini site and if you are not attending BETT then you can still contact the team through the site.

Remember to follow the tweets on the @synergylearning feed and official BETT hashtag (#Bett_Show) and we hope to see you there!

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Foyle Cloud: Foyle Learning Community’s collaborative VLE

Posted by Kenny McCormack on 23 Nov

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Just to introduce myself, I am Kenny McCormack, Operations Manager at Synergy Learning and I look after the development and design teams. As I have just passed my first year in the company, I thought I would write a blog on one project that I have some personal interest in, it involves my old grammar school in Derry city, St. Columb’s College.

The project is called the Foyle Cloud and the project team is aspiring to be a model for adoption of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) for schools and colleges in Northern Ireland, which is by no means an easy task. In addition the aims and objectives for the 3 year programme and beyond are to:

Improve IT skills from the ground up as part of the Digital Derry vision
Adopt and promote e-Portfolio usage for portfolio based qualifications
To provide a platform for sharing courses between schools and reduce travel between schools i.e. improve efficiency and hopefully save money along the way
Provide a platform for staff collaboration in and between schools

As you can imagine with such ambitions there are many challenges that must be overcome by the team to successfully deliver the project, this blog will try and cover some of these and where Synergy Learning services has helped.

The technology solution bit

To help achieve the aims and objectives of the programme the customer needed to select a solution that would be easy to use, robust, scalable, would allow schools to have their own VLE, but still provide a means for students and teachers from different schools to collaborate.

The Foyle Cloud selected Moodle as their VLE platform of choice. Moodle is the world’s leading open source Learning Management System with a global user community and is recognized for its many benefits.

Features	Moodle Benefits
Anytime Anywhere	Support distance education and supplement classroom-based teaching – Blended Learning
Rapid content creation	Upload existing content, other web resources can be linked to, or create and edit new content in Moodle
Knowledge sharing	Stimulate discussions outside the classroom
Assignments + Quizzes	Test and report on students’ learning, encourage students to learn and self-test, deliver exams
Feedback + Choice course activities	Quickly gather feedback from students
Tracking	Learners tracked of all actions (Views + Posts) and can be reported on
Communication + Collaboration tools	In system messaging between teachers + students, forums, wikis, interactive chat, workshop modules

One other important reason why the Foyle Cloud selected Moodle, was its ability to link any number of Moodle environments together using its proprietary MNET protocol. Once the system is configured correctly, each school has their own VLE and a central hub VLE is established to provide the inter-school collaboration platform.

Learners from different schools are able to roam from their own school VLE to the central hub to participate in shared curriculum courses reducing the need to travel to the school in person.

Teachers can manage their own courses on their school VLE, share information and collaborate with other tutors from other schools in the network on the central hub.

The diagram below illustrates the Foyle Cloud Moodle network setup and the main user type responsibilities:

Foyle Cloud Moodle Network Model

In addition to providing the ability to network different Moodles together the MNET protocol also allows another open source system, Mahara, to be linked to any of these VLE environments. Mahara provides the missing technology bit that Moodle does not have; e-portfolio services.

Once linked to the Moodle network, the Mahara site provides a system for all learners of the VLE to store and share documents within a collaborative and reflective platform.

Users of the system can demonstrate their life-long learning, skills and development over time to selected audiences.

So where does Synergy Learning come in you may ask? The Foyle Cloud contracted us to provide the solid hosting platform required to cope with the large number of concurrent learners and teachers that would be using the system on a daily basis. We also provide the expertise and support to maintain the systems and ensure their optimum use.

Communication + programme structure

With the number of schools in the Foyle area who have already come on board and also those planned for year three, it is clear that a good organisation structure is essential.

Synergy Learning’s experience again has helped the Foyle Cloud management group develop a comprehensive communication structure with clear roles and responsibilities for those involved.

The agreed organisation structure is illustrated below:

Organisational structure

This model could be adopted by other similar organisations attempting to gain the benefits of working together as a network of schools or colleges.

Part of the implementation of this organisation structure was to agree a standardized protocol for managing the different VLE’s. This operations protocol includes agreeing one single process for:

Adding and enrolling users
Password policy
Course labeling and layout
User profile fields
Category organization
Global VLE configuration settings

In addition to standardizing how the system is used, the Foyle Cloud also availed of Synergy Learning’s theme design services to create a consistent look and feel for all of the Moodle sites whilst still allowing each school to be branded separately.

The story so far!

Since implementation of the technology components of the system earlier in the year the Foyle Cloud ran a pilot course on the central hub site called ‘Building Bridges’, which was launched in tandem with the opening of the new Peace bridge in the city. This course content was created through the collaboration of pupils from a range of different schools and backgrounds in the city.

Since the kick off the project 7 schools have come on board to the Moodle network:

St. Columb’s College
St. Mary’s College
Lisneal College
St. Joseph’s College
Immaculate Conception
St. Brigid’s College
Lumen Christi

The plan is to have 18 or more at the end of the 3 year programme.

So what’s next for Foyle Cloud!

Along with continuing to bring in more schools and colleges in the area to the network, the Foyle Cloud intends to:

Launch the first certified shared course on the central hub in the next school year – either BTEC or A-Level Applied Engineering course
Pilot their first e-portfolio certification course – Occupational Studies
Pilot the use of Mahara in general with one of the schools on the Foyle Cloud already so that this can be adopted by all schools next year
Fully establish the staff collaboration area on the central hub for all teachers and tutors

Synergy Learning will continue to support the Foyle Cloud to ensure the success of the programme.

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Case Study – Christel House Academy

Posted by Adam Moran on 30 Sep

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Hi, I’m Adam Moran – a placement student at Synergy Learning. After 4 months of working here I am finally ready for my first blog post!

The post is a case study on Christel House Academy so read on for more information…

Introduction

Christel House Academy opened their first learning centre in 1998 after businesswoman and philanthropist Christel DeHaan had a series of life-changing visits to various children shelters in Mexico.

DeHaan realised that underprivileged children would need more than food and clothing to make a lasting difference in their lives and the way to do this was to give them the opportunity of an excellent education. In a bold effort, DeHaan opened charitable Christel House learning centres in Mexico, Venezuela, India, and South Africa.

In 2002, changes to state education law in Indiana allowed the Mayor of Indianapolis to authorise the first public Christel House in the United States. Located in Indianapolis, Christel House Academy is a K-12 school that uses holistic education principles, along with meaningful technology, to help children break the cycle poverty by earning a college prep diploma and gain access to further education opportunities.

After over 12 years of high expectations of student excellence and worldwide recognition, Christel House decided to come to Synergy Learning to introduce a new level of E-Learning to their operations.

Director Carey Dahncke has helped to explain the reason for this change in direction:

“We wanted to roll out a 1:1 netbook program for our students, but wanted to make sure that the netbooks would be used in meaningful ways. We also wanted the technology to be a ‘game changer’ in how we conduct teaching and learning. We looked at various options and decided that the ability of the internet to allow learning anywhere anytime was where we wanted to land.”

The Solution

Christel House need very specific functionality for their E-Learning so it was concluded that the best option would be to combine the VLE Moodle with the ePortfolio Mahara (Mahoodle).

Carey has explained why an amalgamation of the two programs was important:

“We looked at a number of commercial programs and decided that something organic in nature would allow us to create a system that worked to support our curriculum and instructional practice– rather than having technology that disrupts and changes those patterns”

Results

Since introducing Mahoodle Christel House has worked hard trying to integrate the changes into how they operate on a day to day basis. Things aren’t always expected to run smoothly from the off and it is only natural to assume there will be some constraints. When asked about the potential barriers involved in introducing Mahoodle, Carey replied:

“Time and training have been our biggest challenges. We attempted to launch it on a domestic hosting site. That had issues with stability. Despite conventional wisdom pertaining to the physical location of the hosting site, having a Mahoodle site that cannot remain stable under heavy user demand, renders the entire project completely ineffective. After experimenting with hosting providers, we decided to work with Synergy Learning on the hosting too. Synergy’s experience with managing not only the design, but also hosting platforms, made all the difference for us. Synergy has been able to deliver a rock solid platform to run our site.”

Apart from these minor setbacks, Christel House has got off to a good start with Mahoodle and is excited to see the true capability of the software. When asked about how the experience was working with Synergy Learning, Carey added:

“Synergy Learning was able to produce a very high quality site in a relatively short time period. The finished product is simple and very attractive. Unlike a raw Moodle site, this conveys a professional finished appearance. We were very impressed.”

We are confident that in the future this VLE will be able to improve the operations at Christel House and it is clear that the feeling is mutual. We will be sure to keep you up to date with the progress at Christel House as their association with Mahoodle continues to grow!

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Mahara 1.4

Posted by Joel Kerr on 24 Jun

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Mahara 1.4 was released last week and comes with a host of new functionality that is taking the software to the next level.

The main new features according to Mahara.org are:

New Google Apps and Image Gallery blocks
Star ratings with comments
Easier page for sharing content with others
Ability to add comments on file artefacts
Support for SSL-based SMTP and LDAP servers
Administration interface for mail server configuration
Remote avatar (Gravatar) support for HTTPS sites

Mahara.org also list other notable changes and bug fixes:

“Views” are now “pages” and “blogs” are now “journals”
Lots of small changes to make the interface more consistent
Pages can now display more than one embedded video at a time
Added a fullscreen button to the internal video player
Added spellchecker and undo button to the WYSIWYG editor
Spam checks now also performed on forum posts
Support for new Youtube Iframe embed code
Optional site-wide maximum quota
Working start/stop overrides on pages
Removal of the obsolete and broken Solr search plugin
Removal of the httpswwwroot setting
Removal of the .htaccess file

If Mahara is something you are interested in and you would like to find out more information on the benefits of working with Synergy Learning please call us on +44 (0) 28 9042 2000 or drop me an email joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com.

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Mahara Coming of Age

Posted by Joel Kerr on 10 May

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With regret I was unable to attend this year’s iMoot but thankfully through the medium of recorded sessions, I could catch up on a few presentations I’d had my eye on.

There is an ever-growing interest in Mahara and it has not gone unnoticed by those interested that the release of Mahara 1.4 promises to take the ePortfolio to the next level. With this in mind Kristina Hoeppner’s presentation (Using Mahara for your ePortfolio – New features in version 1.4) topped of my list of missed iMoots to catch up on!

Mahara 1.4 is due for release in May you will be excited to hear, generously giving enough time for schools and universities in the Northern Hemisphere to test the upgrade before going live in the new school year. Here is a quick recap of the Mahara features and functionality covered in Kristina’s presentation:

Navigation

There have been a number of improvements to the navigation in Mahara 1.4, with a renaming and reshuffling of tabs to make navigation more intuitive.

Creating Portfolios

Creating portfolios has also been made easier with all the required functionality now being found on one screen in the top navigation bar, saving a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. The various options when choosing the number of columns to use can also be found on one page for quick and easy editing.

Share Tab

The addition of the ‘Share’ tab within the Portfolio tab allows you to quickly see all the pages you’ve created in your Portfolio and who has access to which pages.

When sharing pages the user has the ability to give access to collections of pages, setting the same restrictions for each page. This will save a lot of time having to go through the same process for a number of individual pages.

Shared Pages

Found under the ‘Groups’ tab, the Shared Pages is a full collection of pages that have been shared with the user. Within the screen will be included comments and a search option.

Topics Tab

Also within the Groups tab, this feature makes it easier to:

See in which forums discussions are going on
How many posts have already been made
View the beginning of the latest post

Maharadroid

Acessibility for android phones comes within the core code of Mahara 1.4 allowing the site administrator to easily faciliate the mobile sharing of artefacts and the upload of files directly from the mobile phone (visit http://code.google.com/p/maharadroid to try it out)

Plugins

There are a number of new (and existing) plugins available to extend the functionality of Mahara, which fall under the headings of Authentication, Sharing and Aggregation

Authentication

Single Sign On and connection with Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google etc. is possible via the Janrain plugin. The Shibboleth plugin will also work with Mahara 1.4.

Share

Users will be able to embed Twitter ‘Tweet’ and Facebook ‘Like’ buttons on their Portfolio Pages.

Aggregation

Google Apps and Windows Live continue to be available for integration with Mahara.

Kristina also touched on a few of the plans for Mahara 1.5:

Skin Support allowing individual students to create their own themes for their portfolios
Additional plugins (Flickr and Picasa for external slideshows)
Compatibility with the Walled Garden Plugin allowing one to maintain a large scale Mahara installation which incorporates a number of individual institutions
Support for even more external media (Wiki Educator, Glogster)
Extended Mobile Support for other platforms
Improved search functionality

So there you have it. Some very exciting new additions to Mahara are on their way, I’m sure you’ll agree. Thank you very much to Kristina for an informative and flowing presentation.

If you have any questions about Mahara or would like to get your ePortfolio up and running please feel free to give us a call on +44 (0) 28 9028 8830 or email joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com.

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How to Use Mahara

Posted by Joel Kerr on 11 Apr

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ePortfolio’s are becoming increasingly essential to online learners, as a means of collecting together artefacts and learning achievements in one space. Of course this is not all ePortfolios are capable of. I came across this useful video by University of St. Gallen (via @anitsirk on Twitter) explaining the different ways they are using Mahara.

As an approved Mahara Partner we at Synergy Learning have provided Mahara solutions for many clients and have developed a strong understanding of how it fits in around the wider elearning framework. You can find more information on our Mahara services on the website. If you would like to speak to one of the team email me at joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com or call +44 (0) 28 9028 8830.

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ELA Conference 2011 // Technology on a Shoestring

Posted by Joel Kerr on 25 Mar

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It was my pleasure to be in Edinburgh this week for the ‘Technology on a Shoestring’ conference – a pretty apt title given the increasingly tightening strings on which companies have to balance their budgets.

Of course any chance to visit Edinburgh gets a thumbs up from me and combined with the opportunity to meet with elearning types, those in the know and those who want to know, is a double whammy.

Keynote came from Euan Semple who’s got an impressive CV that includes time at the BBC, Nokia, the World Bank and NATO. Mr. Semple covered the benefits of Social Media and the challenges faced by the Senior Management in letting the employees loose on the various channels.

There was talk of the quality of networks compared to quantity, the need to make communications human as opposed to corporate and how to engage people by asking the right questions. Conversations, conversations, conversations; that’s what’s important!

The emphasis was not on how far we had come but the possibilities that are yet to present themselves; the new businesses and products that will develop, the new businesses models that will evolve and most excitingly the freedom that working online can offer.

Other speakers included Mark Clark from JISC, Kenny Shaw of Screen Media, Pauline Randall from Florizel Media and…me. That’s right. As an exhibitor I had the opportunity to pitch the benefits of the ever popular Moodle and Mahara.

That aside, points covered were how technology can facilitate change, the need for innovation given the budget cuts, the need for positivity in the face of adversity and the importance of not hitting the bottle (actually the last point wasn’t covered, I made that up to check if you where still with me).

It is increasingly clear that through careful research and planning, structure and strategy, online services can offer the necessary savings required by companies in today’s market. And the sooner you get started the sooner you get your head around the possibilities and the sooner you start reaping the rewards!

I’d like to thank the eLearning Alliance for the invitation and the possibility to showcase Synergy Learning. I’ll leave you with one extremely naff but amusing quote from Stuart Hilles of the eLearning Alliance, “How can I soar like an eagle when I’m surrounded by pigeons?”

Take from that what you will.

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January // BETT 2011

Posted by Joel Kerr on 21 Jan

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It’s been a busy start to the year!

As has become the norm, our year kicked off by exhibiting at the BETT show. An important event in any edtechs calendar that attracts people from all over the world. It’s a great way to see first hand the new products available and the improvements to those that have been around for a while.

MOODLE

There was a non-stop flow of Moodle visitors throughout the week; existing users who stopped by to share their admiration of the software, organisations that wanted to migrate from other platforms and of course those who were taking their first tentative steps into the world of elearning.

Our job is made a whole lot easier by the fact that Moodle generates such good publicity through word-of-mouth. There were very few people stopping by who hadn’t heard good things about Moodle and the enthusiasm for the software continues to grow. The number of companies and schools who had done their research and were planning a full migration in the near future was overwhelming.

New clients range from primary schools, secondary schools, Local Authorities, FE colleges and universities to councils and large scale organisations. We were also pleased to answer questions from a number of the other exhibitors who were interested in partnerships and integrating Moodle into their own operations.

MOODLE 2.0

At last years BETT we were enthusiastically telling our Moodle visitors the virtues of Moodle 2.0 so it was a pleasure to be able to offer some real solutions at this year’s show. We have upgraded a number of our own client’s sites with successful results and the improved navigation and increased functionality has not gone unnoticed.

BETT offers the opportunity to gauge a real response to the upgrade; both teachers and trainers recognise the benefits of the new conditional activities feature, cohorts, the repository API, the Portfolio API and the list goes on.

We have a queue of people waiting to upgrade with our Route to Moodle 2.0 packages and the demand is only going to increase.

MAHARA

As Moodle becomes as increasingly integral part of the learning environment so the need for an ePortolio also increases. We had a record number of inquiries about our Mahara Services this year. Again the software is proving popular with both educational and commercial establishments who are looking to facilitate records of ‘life learning’ within their establishments.

I’ve spent this week getting in touch with the new contacts we made at the show and the whole office has felt the full benefit of BETT 2011.

I would like to thank all those who visited us at the BETT show for making our trip a rewarding one. If you are in need of our Moodle or Mahara Services get in quick! Our 2011 calendar is filling up fast.

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New Moodle and Mahara Hosting Platform

Posted by Joel Kerr on 07 Oct

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Synergy Learnings Senior Network Engineer, Peter Hinds, has been locked away in his office for the last few weeks, tirelessly building our new hosting platform.

Synergy Learning host Moodle and Mahara sites for a number of clients, from individual trainers to large universities and organisations. I managed to catch up with Peter to find out what he was up to and what benefits it will offer.

Hello Peter, could you tell us a bit about the hosting platform you are building?

Yes, it is a fully resilient platform comprised of hardware manufactured by industry leading vendors. The application tier, which resides on the hardware, allows us to assume full control of all services.

The advantage of building from scratch is that it has allowed us to standardise our operating system and installed packages, which will lead to a quicker diagnostic process and further optimisation for Moodle and Mahara hosting.

As a Senior Network Engineer creating a new hosting platform must be right up your street. What do you enjoy most about a job like this?

It really is, I’m not just saying that either!

I enjoy working with the latest technology and adapting it to best suit our needs. I take great satisfaction in the planning and implementation of the project. On a day-to-day basis working with Linux servers and Cisco brand network devices is excellent.

What are the benefits of the new hosting platform compared to the current?

The primary benefit is that the platform is engineered to be resilient from top to bottom. Every network device is redundant and every server is multi-homed in to the appropriate switches. Our firewalls run in a High Availability (HA) configuration with stateful fail-over, meaning should one firewall drop offline the other will maintain sessions without any noticeable switchover.

We already monitor our current platform 24*7 but improvements on the new platform will allow for even finer tuned monitoring.

Security is arguably the most important aspect of any network and on the new platform we have a really robust solution in place using the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA’s). Our data centre also has ISO270001 accreditation, 24*7 physical security, redundant power supplies backed by diesel generators, strict environmental controls and fire suppression.

What differences will our customers notice?

Our high standard of service will be maintained when clients are migrated to the new platform however the new platform does have unique benefits.

One of particular interest is the ability to adjust server specs as required. For example, if it’s a particularly busy time of year for the client they could increase the CPU and RAM available to their server which would allow them to ensure the smooth running of their moodle application under heavier load than usual.

Increasing storage space will also be very straight forward which means the flexibility of our packages can be adjusted and refined to a particular clients needs.

Will there be a crossover period between the two systems that will impact upon the operations of our clients Moodle sites?

There will be a period of crossover but thankfully not one that will impact upon the operation of our clients Moodle sites. Each client will be contacted in due course and provided with details of when their site will be migrated and any actions they may have to undertake. The migration process is very straight forward and isn’t any cause for concern.

Peter is hoping to have the new system up and running by November, keep posted to the blog for more information. For more information on Synergy Learning’s hosting packages visit Hosting with Synergy Learning.

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Moodle

Content Development

Case Studies

Archive for the ‘Mahara’ Category

What is e-learning?

Moodle, Mahara and Totara at BETT 2013

Where are you?

Who are you?

What can you do?

Case Study – Christel House Academy

Mahara 1.4

Mahara Coming of Age

How to Use Mahara

ELA Conference 2011 // Technology on a Shoestring

January // BETT 2011

New Moodle and Mahara Hosting Platform

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