Build a Joomla Website Forum

G'day Astrid!

Looks a bit like you're not going to get a response from the pros. Your question is a bit outside the field of this forum, which rather than being a general Joomla forum, revolves mainly around the Build a Joomla Website tutorials.

But I'll give it a bit of a go which may set you on the right path.

Actually, you seem to be pretty much on the right path already. You need to set up a user group for each student. Simple as that! If you have 20 students, you have 20 user groups. Five hundred students, 500 user groups.

This assumes it's just as you described: read only and not private replies.

You could have all the public stuff on the website and use e-mail for the private stuff you've mentioned.

You should be able, using the right extension, have the completed homework attached to a form on the website if you see it as worthwhile to tie the communication more to the website, for a psychological advantage.

There are several online form builders that have received some air play lately and also several Joomla form builder extensions. I use Breezing Forms which is about the simplest I could find. Still a bit of a learning curve. I suppose you can attach a file. You'll have to check that out yourself.

You could look at UddeIM. It's a private messaging system for Joomla. I think it allows attachments. Check it out.

So there are several alternatives for you. Please let's know how you go with it.

Best wishes.

Are you sure Joomla is the right CMS? There are precious few Learning Management extensions and those that do exist are expensive. I know - I've looked as my wife is a professional English teacher in France.

I've come a long way down the Joomla road and thanks to that experience have been able to 'create' what we need - but it wasn't easy.

Laurie's right - a unique 'group' for each user.

Extensions. I'd look at Simple Quiz - it's actually quite sophisticated and will also serve very well as a form builder, as well as letting you create a range of tests and test questions for assessments, exams etc. The developer, Christopher, is incredibly helpful.

But you may want to have a look at Moodle - which if you don't know it, is a specialised LMS. It too is open source and very well supported and might be better suited to your needs. There is a 'bridge' available called Joomdle - http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/living/education-a-culture/lms/10021 which you might want to investigate if you are set on Joomla.

Both Joomla and Moodle demand a large investment of time if you are going to get the most out of them. If you are a relative newcomer to either or both you are set for an interesting, instructive and very busy year.

Ian

I think in your shoes I would go for one or the other. Learning Joomla AND Moodle at the same time is a massive task and Joomdle only really allows a single log in to both sites. That was my conclusion and I stuck with Joomla - mainly for its greater flexibility and wider usefulness.

If all you intend is to build a site and concentrate on your tuition, I think you should have a long look at Moodle before anything else. I would suggest you Google Learning Management Systems and look at their competition too.

Ian

Hi Astrid - you can do all that in Joomla, I just get the impression that an LMS might be better suited for you. I did quite a bit with Moodle - it's very good but I found it rather 'worthy'. Time has moved on and so I am sure has Moodle.

Ian