Moving the Open University to Moodle 2.1

Moving the Open University to Moodle 2.1

Ross MackenzieThe Open University

Starting Point• Moodle 1.9

– Lots of core customisations

– 770,000 users in database– 176,000 users active on 559 courses

– 40,000 – 60,000 users per day– Peaking at c.1.4M transactions per day (30 trans/sec)

Infrastructure• Six webservers

– (4 student-facing, 1 admin, 1 housekeeping)

• Postgres database cluster – (2 systems, active/passive pair)

• NFS cluster – (2 systems, active/passive pair)

A typical day

A typical day – last Monday• 1.16M transactions, 56.7K users, peak 30 trans/s

A typical year

19-May07-Jun 26-Jun 15-Jul 03-Aug22-Aug10-Sep29-Sep 18-Oct 06-Nov25-Nov14-Dec 02-Jan 21-Jan 09-Feb 28-Feb 19-Mar 07-Apr 26-Apr15-May03-JunMay-10 Jun-10 Jul-10 Aug-10 Sep-10 Oct-10 Nov-10 Dec-10 Jan-11 Feb-11 Mar-11 Apr-11 May-11 Jun-11

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Migration Targets• Lose the localisations to core

• Rework OU-modules

• Demonstrate we can run M2 at scale

• Add cool new stuff

Where are we now…• Localisations to core

– Very few in M2.0 / even fewer in M2.1

– OU specific needs constrained to OU modules

Where are we now…• Reworked/enhanced OU modules

– Forum / blog / wiki– Quiz– Authoring tools – Dataplus– Study Planner– Subpage (resource page)

Where are we now…• Running at scale / numbers

• 3M transactions in 24 hour period (using M2.0)• 35 transactions/second• Average transaction time 0.6s

• Modelled based on our most heavily used transactions

Where are we now…• Running at scale / Infrastructure

• 9 web servers (+2,+2 ) – all virtual– 6 students, – 1 admin, 1 house-keeping, 1 stats– 4 (2xstaff instance, 2xall students)

• Postgres cluster• NFS cluster

Where are we now…• Add cool new stuff

– Integration with Google Apps for Education

– Better mobile support

– Improved personalisation

– Annotation tool

Bringing M2 into service• The OU never sleeps

19-May07-Jun 26-Jun 15-Jul 03-Aug22-Aug10-Sep29-Sep 18-Oct 06-Nov25-Nov14-Dec 02-Jan 21-Jan 09-Feb 28-Feb 19-Mar 07-Apr 26-Apr15-May03-JunMay-10 Jun-10 Jul-10 Aug-10 Sep-10 Oct-10 Nov-10 Dec-10 Jan-11 Feb-11 Mar-11 Apr-11 May-11 Jun-11

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OU patterns• Lots of courses running to their own pattern

– Usage peaks in February, May and November– Lots over 9 months, more 6 months long

• Migrate progressively at end of course

• Run Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.x installations in parallel

Parallel running• Will keep current VLE running

– Current 1.9.11, 1.9.12 in Sept 2011– Expect to retain in service until end 2012 (?)

• New VLE– Live to academic teams in August (using M2.1)– Live to some students in late September

Issues / updated• Performance

– Do now think this is going to be OK

• Accessibility– We’ve made some fixes, M2.1 includes more

• Haven’t got Elluminate integration sorted out yet.– Basic bridge available, does not meet OU needs

New Design• Implementing new set of themes for M2

• Wanted visual distinction between old and new platforms

• Building on experience with M1.9 themes

Mobile Matters• Seeing increasing mobile device traffic to VLE

• Latest numbers– c. 2.4M pages last month (to over 14,000 users)– 58% Apple / 23% Android / 9% Blackberry

Annotation Tool• Reinventing the highlighter pen and post-it note

• Make/manage annotations on any website

• Share annotations with other users (groups/OU/World)

• Follow other users

More from the OU• Sam Marshall

– http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?user=11 • Tim Hunt   

– http://tjhunt.blogspot.com/ • Jenny Gray      

– http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?user=60 • Jason Platts (DOULS project)  

– http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/douls/• James Brisland (load testing with Jmeter)

– http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/XHProf/?page_id=64• Ross Mackenzie

– http://bit.ly/rossmac

Any Questions?

Ross Mackenzie

Email: r.a.mackenzie@open.ac.uk

Work blog: bit.ly/rossmac

Slideshare: slideshare.net/ram65

Twitter: twitter.com/rossmackenzie