Why Moodle Partners Matter

Yesterday, we tackled one of the most frequently asked questions about Moodlerooms enterprise platform, joule-- "Is it a fork in the Moodle community code?"

Actually, no, it isn't a "fork." joule's source code is based on the most updated Moodle source code, which includes various enhancements, plug-ins and seamless integrations with third-party providers. Also, it's neither distributed nor accessible to anyone but Moodlerooms' technical staff. Moodlerooms would only be bound by GPL licenses if we were to drastically alter and then distribute a completely new version of the Moodle code base.

For Moodlerooms, joule is all about making Moodle enterprise. The plug-ins and enhancements help us to do that.

Within the same realm, this leads to another question we're commonly asked at conferences. That is, "Why should the open source Moodle community even be interested in joule, if, as a customer, we can't have access to the joule source code?

The best way to address the "why," is to tell the story of Moodlerooms' inception. When Moodleroooms was in its infancy, our leaders focused on how to establish a Moodle delivery model that accomplished a number of goals:

• First, how could Moodlerooms deliver Moodle to institutions, schools, corporations and non-profit organizations of varying size and scope while limiting the financial investment required to implement and maintain the actual Moodle instance? Essentially, we wanted to make it possible for anyone to implement and use Moodle on any scale without requiring them to purchase expensive hardware and hire staff with extensive technical experience to maintain that hardware and the code base.

• Second, how could Moodlerooms successfully provide the most extensible, stable and sustainable solution possible to its customers?

• Third, as a member of the Moodle partner network, how could Moodlerooms most efficiently deliver Moodle-centric services?

• Fourth, how could Moodlerooms best support the open-source Moodle community?

After taking all of these factors into account, Moodlerooms decided to operate under a "Managed Open-Source" model for all its solutions. This includes the enterprise-level package, "joule," as well as our standard hosting package, "Power." Moodlerooms' Managed Open-Source practice enables us to maintain one core code base for all customers so that upgrades or new features from Moodlerooms or the Moodle community can be implemented quickly and in a seamless manner. Our Managed Open-Source approach also:

• Prevents Moodlerooms from having to secure, test and maintain numerous code bases.

• Provides customers with the most secure and up-to-date learning management platform possible.

• Enables customers to request the activation of extended features and plug-ins anytime, on-demand by Moodlerooms' technical staff.

That leads to the main question, "Why should the Moodle community be interested in Moodlerooms and specifically, joule?"

• First, considering Moodlerooms conducts its own code testing, in-house development and integration services, Moodlerooms frequently provides the Moodle community with best practices and documentation for connecting to third-party plug-ins and applications. For example, Moodlerooms has already released instructions for integrating with Datatel ERP/SIS and Google Apps for Education. In 2011 and well into the future, Moodlerooms will continue to provide the open-source Moodle community with ways of expanding their own Moodle instances.

• Secondly, as is the case with every other certified Moodle partner, Moodlerooms provides significant financial support to the Moodle organization by donating 10% of its total annual revenue. This support enables the core Moodle developers to keep doing what they do best--improving open-source Moodle, and most of all, keeping it free.

With this post, it's our hope that all Moodle users understand the role that the entire, global Moodle partner network plays in the support of the Moodle community. For more information on the Moodle partner network, click here. As always, if you have questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading.