Forum .LRN Q&A: Drupal and .lrn

1: Drupal and .lrn

Posted by gennnaro brooks on 02/14/06 06:07 AM

I run a community/elearning site and am looking to use Drupal or .lrn.

Should I combine the two: use Drupal for it's great community features and integrate .lrn for the courses and learning aspect. Or do you think this is a bad idea and I should just go with .lrn? I think the former would be the best idea but wanted to tap into your experience.

Before I discovered .lrn I was looking for a robust community and elearning platform. I decided to go with Drupal and figured I would beef it up on the elearning side by integrating modules or maybe even adding Moodle. I've already hired a developer and he is getting ready to start the site. But then I found .lrn which satisfies so many of my elearning needs.

Any ideas?

2: Re: Drupal and .lrn (response to 1)

Posted by xx xx on 02/14/06 11:34 AM

Thanks for the question, Gennaro. I think it would be great to expand the possibilities of integrating a drupal and .LRN site eventhough or just because the platforms are completely different! Both platforms are not very difficult (after setup). You probably need pound to divide http requests between the webservers (apache and aolserver), but it works.

There are some hardcore developers pushing .LRN to the max concerning elearning features. It is a robust and very scalable elearning system. However, there are not enough developers for fast progression. The basis for CMS within openACS (.LRN's fundament) is available, but I am not aware of any current development. Nifty user-driven tweaks are not easily integrated if not important to .LRN

IMO, an integration showcase between .LRN and Drupal, would be tremendous, so people like you could benefit from .LRN (features and developers) and .LRN could benefit from Drupal. Real integration may not be easy, but I supposes Malte may have explored the user and platform issues. I think this initiative would benefit from backup by the .LRN board unless ofcourse you are one of the "brilliant" ones.

3: Re: Drupal and .lrn (response to 1)

Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 02/14/06 12:28 PM

Taking into account that .LRN is build on top of OpenACS which is a community system (and always has been), it might make sense to just go with .LRN. On the other hand, if you are already familiar and happy with Drupal, it would be good to see what community features in Drupal you use and if the OpenACS/.LRN equivalent would be adequate for you to use or what you are missing there.

4: Re: Re: Drupal and .lrn (response to 3)

Posted by xx xx on 02/14/06 02:54 PM

Malte, do you think integration is a viable option? Drupal and openACS differ greatly and some people may feel Drupal suits them better as a community/cms toolkit than openACS.

If not, Gennaro, it will depend on the functionality you need for your core business. Let us know how you compare the two.

5: Re: Drupal and .lrn (response to 1)

Posted by gennnaro brooks on 02/14/06 08:29 PM

Hi All,
Thanks for the posts.

I find Drupal much more powerful in community/cms. But it does not have a strong elearning side. People have integrated it with Moodle. But .lrn seems more powerful than Moodle.

My site is is elearning and community but it is the community that will draw students in, so that side is very important. Maybe Drupal should be the dominant platform and I'd use some things from .lrn.

I'm not sure how realistic that is in terms of the work it would take. It might just be better to customize existing Drupal mods. Any thoughts?

Has anyone looked at Moodle vs. .lrn?

I'll sit down and list the things .lrn has that Drupal doesn't and send that off soon.

Gennaro.

6: Re: Drupal and .lrn (response to 1)

Posted by Dave Bauer on 02/14/06 09:18 PM

Take a look at the single sign on solution for Moodle/.LRN

https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=394670

You could do something similar with Drupal, I am sure.

7: Re: Drupal and .lrn (response to 5)

Posted by John Osborne on 03/23/07 08:41 AM

Gennaro brooks,

Its been some months since this post, can you tell us what your decisions where, how your project is developing?

I'm in midst of a decision between drupal, oacs and plone/zone for developing a regional economic development site, the learning side isn't important, the forums, marketplaces, interactivity is.

Appreciate it.

John

8: Re: Drupal and .lrn (response to 6)

Posted by John Osborne on 03/23/07 08:42 AM

Dave, I never know if my emails have reached you. If you have a chance can you email me at mailto:josborne@eeforum.org

Thanks

John Osborne