Moodle is the most widely used distance learning platform in the world: courses, cohorts, materials, quizzes, grades and course forums. It installs from the Softaculous Apps Installer in cPanel, and the installer lists many series, from current back to some more than ten years old.
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Moodle is heavy, and its weight does not come from the catalogue: it comes from people. Twenty students sitting a quiz at the same moment cost the account far more than two hundred pages of content. On a shared plan, a Moodle with one small cohort and light materials runs fine. An institution with overlapping classes, video and timed quizzes needs guaranteed resources: see VPS, Cloud or Dedicated. Do not promise exam dates before you know which server you are on.
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What to prepare first
| Requirement |
What to do |
| PHP extensions |
Moodle is demanding. On a new account you must enable intl, soap, sodium and fileinfo, which arrive off. Turn them on in Select PHP Version, on the extensions tab, before opening the installer. |
| PHP version |
Series 5 wants PHP 8.2 or newer; series 4.5 settles for 8.1. See changing your PHP version without breaking the site. |
| Which series |
For a new project, the newest one the installer lets through. The old series only matter if you are rescuing courses from an ageing installation. |
| Space and files |
Moodle arrives with many thousands of files, then grows with teacher materials and student submissions. See the limits of your account and plan for the growth, not just the launch. |
Installing, step by step
| 1 |
In cPanel, open Select PHP Version and enable intl, soap, sodium and fileinfo.
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| 2 |
Open the Softaculous Apps Installer, search for Moodle and pick your series.
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| 3 |
Address: protocol https. Moodle sits well on a dedicated subdomain, which keeps the training platform separate from the corporate site. See adding a subdomain.
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| 4 |
Site name and description. This is what students see at the top.
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| 5 |
Administrator account: a username that is not admin, a long password from the password generator, and an institutional e-mail address somebody actually reads.
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| 6 |
Under Advanced Options, switch on automatic backups, then click Install.
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Moodle stores course files in a data directory that belongs outside the public web directory. The installer handles that. If you ever move the installation by hand, check that the directory is still out of reach of the browser: student work lives in there.
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The scheduled task is not optional
Moodle depends on a scheduled task for nearly everything that does not happen in front of the student: sending forum posts, closing quizzes, calculating grades, processing enrolments, building reports and making course backups. Without it Moodle opens and looks normal, and then nobody receives notifications and grades never appear. Create it following cron jobs, and check in the Moodle administration panel that the last run is recent.
Before you let students in
| 2 |
Test outgoing e-mail. Moodle sends a lot of it: sign-ups, password resets, forum notifications. Register a test account and confirm the message arrives. On bulk sending, see bulk e-mail without burning your domain.
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| 3 |
Decide how students enrol before you publish the address. Open self-registration without confirmation fills up with fake accounts within days.
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| 4 |
Think about data protection. You are storing names, e-mail addresses, submitted work and grades. See personal data protection.
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Run a rehearsal with the whole cohort before the first real quiz. Twenty people logging in at the same minute give you, in one afternoon, the answer no plan comparison table can.
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Keeping it
In the Softaculous installations list, Moodle offers upgrade, backup and change admin password. Always upgrade with a fresh backup and outside teaching hours. For what every installation has in common, see installing a ready-made platform.
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Tell us how many students you expect and whether there are timed exams. With that we can tell you whether the plan is enough.
Open a support ticket
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