If you have Windows or a Mac, you can download a full Moodle installer, including the web server, database, and PHP. All of these components are needed to run Moodle and installing them individually on your computer can be tedious. Fortunately, the Moodle community has created full installers based on the XAMPP package. A single double-click on the install package will install everything you need.
To install Moodle on Windows:
Point your browser to http://download.moodle.org/windows and download the package to your desktop. Make sure you download the latest stable version of Moodle 2, to take advantage of the features we discuss in this book.
Unpack the archive by double clicking on the ZIP file. It may take a few minutes to finish unpacking the archive.
Double click the Start Moodle.exe file to start up the server manager.
Open your web browser and go to
http://localhost.You will then need to configure Moodle on your system. Follow the prompts for the next three steps.
After successfully configuring Moodle, you will have a fully functioning Moodle site on your machine. Use the stop and start applications to control when Moodle runs on your site.
To install Moodle on Mac:
Point your browser to http://download.moodle.org/macosx and find the packages for the latest version of Moodle 2. You have two choices of installers. XAMPP is a smaller download, but the control interface is not as refined as MAMP. Download either package to your computer (the directions here are for the MAMP package).
Open the
.dmgfile and drag the Moodle application to yourApplicationsfolder.
Open the
MAMPapplication folder in yourApplicationsfolder. Double click the MAMP application to start the web server and database server.Once MAMP is up and running, double click the Link To Moodle icon in the MAMP folder.
You now have a fully functioning Moodle site on your machine. To shut down the site, quit the MAMP application. To run your Moodle site in the future, open the MAMP application and point your browser to
http://localhost:8888/moodle:
Once you have downloaded and installed Moodle, for both systems, follow these steps:
Once you have the base system configured, you will need to set up your administrator account. The Moodle admin account has permissions to do anything on the site, and you will need this account to get started.
Enter a username, password, and fill in the other required information to create an account:
A XAMMP installation on Mac or Windows also requires you to set up the site's front page.
Give your site a name and hit Save changes. You can come back later and finish configuring the site.
You now have a functioning Moodle site on your laptop for experimentation. To start your Moodle server, double click on the StartMoodle.exe and point your browser at http://localhost.
Now we can look at a Moodle course and begin to look at Moodle functionality. Don't worry about how we will use this functionality now, just spend some time getting to know the system.
You have just installed Moodle on a server or a personal computer, for free. You can use Moodle with as many people as you want for whatever purpose you choose without licensing fees.
Some points for reflection:
What collaboration / learning challenges do you have in your organization?
How can you use the money you save on licensing fees to innovate to meet those challenges?
Are there other ways you can use Moodle to help your organization meet its goals which would not have been cost effective if you had to pay a license fee for the software?