Should I recommend this product?

[webfoundry]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this product (but not Joomla) and new to this forum and hoping some wise heads can help point me in the right direction.

I am about to develop an e-learning site for my client and have been asked to compare Moodle; Blackboard; WebCT and JoomlaLMS and recommend the most appropriate product for the job.

The main requirements are:-

1) That tutors can be associated with students
2) That students can be associated with more than one tutor
3) A good image management system for uploading, moving and copy images of student art work. The tutors need to easily view images and work development, almost like slides on a lightbox.
4) A good forum - like this one!
5) The tutor must be able to upload materials into a student's learning area (different materials will be available to different students at different stages of their studies).
6) The student can pay in installments, and has the option on some courses to pay after thet have started the course.
7) Good customisation of interface to allow us to brand the site properly
8) The system must be able to cope with large numbers of users logging in at the same time
9) Courses can have several tiers (3 tiers or hierarchy) i: course ii: stage iii: unit

Can anyone see any problems using JoomlaLMS to meet the requirements above? What requirements are best met by JoomlaLMS? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help me.

Phil Holt

[den]

1) That tutors can be associated with students
2) That students can be associated with more than one tutor

Associating tutor<->student is possible only within the courses. So, after creating a course tutor can enroll learners to it (learners can enroll themselves). Also, tutor can create course assistants (another tutors) fro his course. All course tutors can view/work with all course learners.

3) A good image management system for uploading, moving and copy images of student art work. The tutors need to easily view images and work development, almost like slides on a lightbox.

Learners can sent files to tutors for downloading (using dropbox). Tutors can post files to the 'documents' tool. Images within the 'documents' tool could be viewable online and downloadable.
Also, you can use separated Joomla components for image libraries.

4) A good forum - like this one!

Here we are using vBulletin (separated from Joomla solution with bridge).
Also JoomlalMS can use SMF forum as closed forum for courses.

5) The tutor must be able to upload materials into a student's learning area (different materials will be available to different students at different stages of their studies).

Only using different courses you are able to differentiate materials by student learning stage. So , if material is published within the course, it would be viewable for all learners participated in this course.
But, using learning paths and publishing materials in them (as steps) you are able to create prerequisites to complete previos steps before accessing next ones.

6) The student can pay in installments, and has the option on some courses to pay after thet have started the course.

There are a different types of paid subscription to courses: subscription to X days, from date to date, lifetime subscription.

7) Good customisation of interface to allow us to brand the site properly

Fully compatible with Joomla CSS styles. Licensed version is branding-free.

8) The system must be able to cope with large numbers of users logging in at the same time

All depends on your server hardware.

9) Courses can have several tiers (3 tiers or hierarchy) i: course ii: stage iii: unit

You should draw your attention to the learning paths and their possibilities. Also, teachers can create subfolders at the documents tool and publish them for date periods, in such way they can differentiate course materials by date.

[andreas]

Since Den has answered all the individual questions, here are some thoughts on the comparison issue....

I have worked with Moodle; Dokeos, Claroline, Docebo, once looked at Blackboard and some other LMS, don't know WebCT, but have been tester for JoomlaLMS.

I believe each approach has strengths and drawbacks. Thus Dokeos and Claroline are excellent for universities, but far less usable in a commercial environment. Blackboard may be the Mercedes among LMS - - - especially when it comes to pricing. And as with some cars... the reputation may be better than the actual product.

What I like about JoomlaLMS - it is affordable, has outstanding support (which you no doubt will have noticed studying this forum) and the developpers are very open to suggestions and ongoing development. It works well with both school and commercial settings and - most important - is completely integrated in Joomla, which means, you can add all those wonderful Joomla components.

To make a long story short: we switched to JoomlaLMS.

As to your question #7
The testers had a long argument with the Elearningforce about the removal of branding some time back. I think it is rare for a (commercial) Joomla component - but very recommendable - to remove all branding in the front end. In the backend you find the company, which is helpful to keep in touch, of course ;-) ... By the way - the branding is not removed in the trial version (Den put it the other way round.... so I just wanted to make sure...)

Best wishes in testing this tool!

As to your question #8
Yes, I agree with Den, it depends on the server, not the programme. I suspect you don't need a high end, superfast server, but definitely a dedicated server if you produce heavy traffic (whatever that means)