This pandemic has been tough on everyone. Many have faced financial hardships, lost jobs, or pivoted to self-employment and new businesses. Through these challenges, one lesson has become clear: having an online presence is not just beneficial - it’s essential, and will become even more crucial in the future. Companies are adapting their business models to meet evolving needs, while educational institutions are transitioning to online learning to minimize in-person contact. This transition has been particularly challenging for schools and colleges that lack dedicated email systems for managing their virtual classrooms.

Fortunately, some forward-thinking developers anticipated these needs and created Moodle, the world’s most popular learning management system. What makes Moodle particularly special is that it’s both free and open-source. If you’re unfamiliar with open-source software, I recommend reading my previous article on the topic. In essence, open-source software makes its source code publicly available, allowing anyone with programming knowledge to modify and customize it to their specific needs.

What does Moodle offer? The list of features is extensive - too long to cover in one article. You can explore the complete list on their official page. For now, let’s focus on setting up Moodle on your local server. We’ll use docker and docker-compose to simplify the process into a single step. Before proceeding, you’ll need both tools installed on your system. Follow the official documentation for docker and docker-compose to get started.

Here’s how to set up your own Moodle instance:

  1. Create a new project folder and a docker-compose.yml file:

     mkdir moodle && cd moodle
 touch docker-compose.yml

  2. Add the following configuration to docker-compose.yml:

  3. Build and run the server with these commands:

     docker-compose rm -fs
 docker-compose up --build -d

That completes the setup process. You can now access your Moodle portal at https://localhost. For detailed configuration options, consult the official guide.

If you plan to use Moodle in a production environment, you’ll want to make it accessible beyond your local network. You can achieve this by configuring nginx and deploying it on a dedicated machine in your home or office. Alternatively, consider deploying it to a cloud server, depending on your specific needs and requirements.

I hope you found this guide informative and learned something valuable about setting up your own learning management system.