Protect yourself from ‘bots self-registering by adding a reCaptcha element to the registration page.

1. Get the reCaptcha keys you will need below from the XWS Dev site. (You probably have to log in to the XWS Dev site to see this.)
2. Log in as an administrator on the site you’re trying to protect.
3. On the home page, go to Users > Authentication > Manage authentication.
   1. Make sure Email-based self-registration is enabled.
   2. Scroll to the bottom of that page and enter the two reCaptcha keys.
   3. Save changes.
4. Click the Settings link on that line.
5. On the Email-based self-registration page:
   1. Enable reCaptcha element. Set to Yes.
   2. Save changes.

RSS is off by default in Moodle sites. To turn it on requires (at least) three levels:

• Server level
• Module level
• Individual resource level

At the Server level:

• Admin > Server > RSS. Turn on RSS globally.
  This doesn’t activate anything; it just makes it possible to do so below.

At the Module level:

• For each module type (e.g. Forums) that wants to use RSS:

• Admin > Modules > Activities > Forum. Turn on RSS for that type of module.
  Again, this doesn’t activate anything; it just makes it possible to do so below.

At the individual resource level:

• For each resource that wants to use RSS:

• Go to the resource (e.g., go to a particular forum)
• "Update this forum" button
• In the RSS section, set RSS feed to "Discussions" if you want posts and comments. Set to "Posts" if you want only posts to be in the feed.
• Set # recent parameter to how many items are in the feed. 5 is common; 10 is common. More for a very active resource.

Header

Set up initial administrators and course creators:

• Log in as the original administrator created when you installed Moodle.
• Create initial users. These should be people who will help configure and build the site. Don’t rely on the original administrator to be the only one.
• Go to Users > Permissions > Assign system roles.
• Assign Admin privs to those initial users who should be site-wide admins.
• Assign Creator privs to those initial users who will be creating courses.

Check the security settings:

• Go to Security > Site Policies
  The default site policies are OK for many sites. Check the following:
  • Open to Google?
  • Maximum upload file size?
  • Site policy page?
    You might want to create a page that defines the agreement with your users. Set the URL here.
  • Set password policy?
    You might want to require that users have “strong” passwords.
• Go to Security > HTTP Security
  You might want to make the login page secure with https. Read the warning, however.
• Go to Security > Notifications
  If you want to be notified when users have problems logging in, set these parameters.

Here’s a checklist of things to do, or at least consider, when you create a new Moodle site.

Decide where to install the copy of Moodle. Either top-level of the site (i.e., the entire site is Moodle-based) or in a sub-folder (i.e., Moodle is only part of the entire site.) If sub-folder, choose a name for the folder to be used as part of the url of the site. (e.g., courses, moodle, learn)

Use Fantastico to install Moodle.

• Leave “folder” empty if you want top-level. Use folder name if you want it in a sub-folder.
• Use admin as the username for the original admin user. First name “Admin” and last name “Istrator.” Choose a good password.
• Use a special “admin” email address.
• Use “Slogan here” and “Description here” for those boxes.
• Run the cron job at 30 minutes.
• <MORE?>

In cpanel>File Manager:

• Create a /moodledata/ folder outside public_html.
• Edit config.php. If you moved anything, edit the paths. In particular, change the uploaddata path to the new/moodledata/ folder.

Log in to Moodle as admin.

Install en-us language pack.

• Site Administration > Language > Language packs, select English (en-us), and click install.
• Site Admin > Language > Language settings and select en-us as the Default language.
• While on that screen, decide if you want to display a language menu or not.

Create initial users. I like to leave Admin alone, so in case something gets messed up you can go back to the original to get things working again.

• Site Administration > Users > Accounts > Add a new user.
• Do this for all of the initial users you want to set up.

Make some of the users site-wide Admins.

• Site Admin > Users > Permissions > Assign system roles.
• Select the users you want to promote to site wide Admin status. These users can do anything on the site.

Make moodledata not accessible via the web.

• In an FTP client, move /public_html/uploaddata/ to top level, i.e., same level as public_html.
• Edit config.php to change the “dataroot” parameter to point to the new location.

Fix php parameters for Moodle.

• Go to Site Admin > Notifications.
  It will tell you to set register_globals and display_errors to off.
• Use cPanel > Software/Services > php.ini EZconfig to change these.

Clear Nnotifications.

• When the rest of the Notifications have been cleared (e.g., after HG support has fixed the php parameters), register the site to remove the button on the notifications page.

Change the timeout.

I think the default timeout is too short.
{Tell how to change it here.}

(Optional) Turn on RSS capability.

If you want RSS on any part of the site, there are 3 levels to deal with. You might have to change many settings to make each level work.

1. The default setting is that RSS is off for the entire site. To turn on the possibility of using RSS: go to Administration > Server > RSS and turn on the global default. This doesn’t create any RSS feeds, it just makes it possible to do so.
2. The default setting for all activities is to have RSS off. For example, the default for Forums is to have it off. To turn on the possibility that some Forum might have an RSS feed: go to Administration > Modules > Activities > {the activity you want to RSS-enable; e.g., Forum} and turn on the default for this activity. You might have to do this for more than just Forums. This also doesn’t create any RSS feeds, it just makes it possible to do so.
3. The default setting for each instance of an Activity (e.g., a particular Forum) is to have RSS off. To turn on an RSS feed for a particular forum: Go to the particular forum; select the “Update this forum” button. In the RSS section, set RSS feed to “Discussions.” (This turns on both posts and replies/comments. Another option is “Posts” which only sends new posts to the feed.) Set the # of recent entries to the number you want displayed in this feed. I usually use 5. 10 is also reasonable. More if your forum is very active and your users want a longer time slice.

<More standard things to do ?>

Choose registration method

Minimize spam

Start with the article in docs: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Reducing_spam_in_Moodle

Add more ideas here…

Notes on moving a moodle course from one site to another.

For example, I’m moving Antiques 2007 from xsfor.us to antiquesbaseball.com.

Initial Setup

1. FFox: Open this set of instructions in one window.
2. Finder: Nav to a folder to contain the backup downloads.
3. Interarchy: Open the old site’s bookmark. Nav to /moodledata/.
4. FFox: Open the old site’s home page in a second window. Log in as an Administrator.
5. FFox: Open the new site’s home page in a third window. Log in as an Administrator.

Move course(s)

1. Log in to the old site as an administrator.
2. Backup the course you’re moving.
   Select "all" info. (You can skip logs.)
3. Use an ftp program to download the .zip file to your workstation.
   My convention: Site Archives > XWS > {new site folder}
4. Log in to the new site as an administrator.
5. Create an Empty course if there isn’t one there already.
6. Open the Empty course.
7. In the Administration block, click the Restore link.
8. During the restore process you can replace the existing course or create a new course. Use new course; we made the dummy course so you could restore many old courses.