Moodle 1.9 runs on Apache 2.0, e.g. on the current TypoInstaller system for Windows.
The Windows installation of Moodle 2.0.8+ ( using XAMPP v1.7.1, shipped with Apache 2.2.11, PHP 5.2.9, MySQL 5.1.33) is the latest edition for W2k. Moodle 2.0.8+ requies PHP 5.2.8 and MySQL 5.0.25.
Moodle 2.2.2+ requires PHP 5.3.2, MySQL 5.0.25. The Windows installation of Moodle 2.2.2+ ( using XAMPP v1.7.4, shipped with Apache 2.2.17, PHP 5.3.5 (VC6 X86 32bit) + PEAR, MySQL 5.5.8 ). This MySQL edition does not run on W2k, but just on WinXP . On W2k, MySQL 5.5.8 crashes at start, by the error message:
mysqld.exe - Entry Point Not Found. The procedure entry point MiniDumpWriteDump couldnot be located in th dynamic link library dbghelp.dll
XAMP 1.7.3 ( SourceForge "XAMPP", SourceForge "XAMPP" ), the latest version for W2k, is shipped with PHP 5.3.1 ( not sufficient for Moodle 2.2.2+ ) and MySQL 5.1.41.
Delete the MySQL binary directory of your “Moodle 2.2.2+” installation, e.g. “C:\Program Files\moodle\server\mysql\bin”.
Copy the the MySQL binary directory of your “XAMP 1.7.3” to your “Moodle 2.2.2+ installation, e.g. copy “c:\temp\xampp\mysql\bin” to “c:\Program Files\moodle\server\mysql\bin”.
Execute the XAMPP setup script, e.g. “c:\Program Files\moodle\server\setup_xampp.bat”.
Start moodle by executing the Moodle start application, e.g. ”“c:\Program Files\moodle\Start Moodle.exe”.
Login, go to “Settings / Site administration / Plugins / Enrolments / Manage enrol plugins”, disable the options “Self enrolment” and “Guest Login”, by clicking on the “eye” symbol. Enable the option “Course meta link”, by clicking on the “eye” symbol.
Prevent search engines to crawl your site, by unchecking the option “Open to Google, opentogoogle” ( i.e. ”[ ]” ) at “Settings / Site Administration / Security / Site policies”.
Force login by checking the option “Force users to login, forcelogin” ( i.e. ”[x]” ) at “Settings / Site Administration / Security / Site policies”.
Change your the password of your user “admin” at “Settings / My profile settings / Change password”.
Install a button with a link to the imprint and a link to the data privacy statement, on each page: Go to “Settings / Site Administration / Appearance / Theme settings”. If you use the standard template, set a button at “Custom menu items, custommenuitems” which loads the address ( URL ) of your imprint and to the data privacy statement.
Create courses.
How to create an anonymous guest login for an existing course.
Uncheck the option “Force users to login, forcelogin” ( i.e. ”[ ]” ) at “Settings / Site Administration / Security / Site policies”.
Set “Auto-login guests, autologinguests” to “Yes” at “Settings / Site administration / Users / Permissions”, so that visitors are logged in as guests automatically when entering courses with guest access. This is the one-and-only switch to allow or deny access for anonymous users!
Enter the course to enable guest access.
Add the method “Guest access” at “Settings / Course administration / Users / Enrolment methods”.
Set “Allow guest access” to “Yes” at “Settings / Course administration / Edit settings / Guest access”, and provide a password.
MoodleDocs "Workshop module" - “Workshop is similar to the Assignment module and extends its functionality in many ways. However, it is recommended that both course facilitator (teacher) and course participants (students) have at least some experience with the Assignment module before the Workshop is used in the course”.
Eventually, for full operation, Moodle needs access to a mail server, to communicate by E-Mails for registration of users, and to provide copies of forum discussios. A simple E-Mail account at another E-Mail provider is not sufficient ?! This is a problem on Windows where there is no built-in free E-Mail server, and another problem if your E-Mail server needs another “open” public E-Mail server, which must trust your server that it is not driven by a commercial spammer.
Moodle 2.2.2+ does not work properly with the browser MSIE9, as you can´t switch features on/off by clicking on the “eye” graphics.
On all platforms: You might encounter a limit in the size of uploadable documents, e.g. 8 MB. The 8 MB limit might also apply to the backup of courses . If so, please ask experts for advice. You have to fix it in the PHP configuration of Apache.
Some functions of Moodle are of minor quality - Moodle is not the #1 chat tool, the #1 wiki in the world,... ect. Especially be warned that if you activate chat in Moodle: Just 50 concurrently chatting users are enough to decrease the performance of the system and increase the response time of the server very much , to become inacceptable both from administration's and user's view.
Be shure that on your Moodle installation is accessable in the Internet, there is an imprint ( contact information ) both quickly to find on your title page, and on any other Moodle page ( e.g. a link “imprint” which links to a web page with all the necessary imprint informatins like name of the service provider ( sirname ), address, telephone number, E-Mail address ).
At “Site Administration / Appearance / Theme settings”.
Standard template: At “Custom menu items, custommenuitems”, you can set a Button which loads another web address ( URL ). This might contain the proper imprint informations.
Some other templates have a “footnote” section which can be filled with individual data, like a link to the imprint.
The free Hot Potatoes - “The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web”.
Moodle.NET "Moodle Demonstration Site" - “Here are some demo accounts for you to use. The database and files are erased and restored to a clean state every hour on the hour”, “Also please note that you might not be the only person using one of the demo accounts at the same time, so you may see unexpected things happen occasionally”.
Moodle.DE Testplattform - “Nutzen Sie die Möglichkeit, das Lernmanagementsystem Moodle live zu testen. Diese Plattform erlaubt es Ihnen, alle Funktionen und alle Rollen zu erproben. Alle Daten werden täglich einmal automatisch gelöscht”
Moodle.DE "Trainerzertifizierung" - “Der erfolgreiche Abschluß der Zertifizierung wird durch ein internationales Zertifikat bestätigt. Es ist zeitlich unbegrenzt gültig und bezieht sich auf eine Hauptversion von Moodle (derzeit Moodle 1.9)”.
The series of conferences Moodle Moot in Germany - “MoodleMoot heißen die weltweit stattfindenden Konferenzen rund um Moodle. Auf dieser Seite wird die Vorbereitung, Ankündigung, Anmeldung und Doku zur MoodleMoot in Deutschland organisiert, die mindestens einmal jährlich stattfindet”.
There is just a single filesize, which can be assigned both to trainers and students.
If some students use Tablet PCs, there is no local filespace on these devices. So administration is forced to grant private filespace ( “Private files” ) to all students.