I am putting together a simple e-learning system for a client. My client will provide some videos and text-based content. The content is/has been generated with the help of prior learners of the material, so that aspect is not an issue. The system needs to be lightweight, simple, and allow customer generated content and a blog.

A full-blown LCMS such as moodle or atutor is too heavy-duty for this situation. There is no need to integrate with an outside LMS -- just a system for authenticating users and managing payment.

Wordpress with a series of plugins had been recommended. Since I already use Wordpress, that might be reasonable. Since some of the content is video, maybe dimdim has some of the needed features -- I haven't used it.

Do any of you have experience with something like this and have any suggestions?

John,

Couple of questions...

1) Does user authentication process need to be automated?

2) On the payment structure, is the access to the course intended to be... pay once access forever, or pay for timed access (x dollars for a month's worth of access).

Charles

quote:

Originally posted by TheTrainersNotebook:
1) Does user authentication process need to be automated?

I'm not sure what you mean. I'd like the user to be able to supply a username and password to return.

quote:

2) On the payment structure, is the access to the course intended to be... pay once access forever, or pay for timed access (x dollars for a month's worth of access).

We are looking at pay once access forever and pay once access for a year or similar.

Thanks,

John,

As a precrusor to authenication, walk me through the steps you envision after the user clicks the buy button and complete the payment process... (From this point, there are several ways to end up with a user name and password.)

How many users do you expect?

Here's why I ask...
I've setup for the local ASTD chapter a double wordpress (wp) setup. I setup the wp public site in the domain root (http://domain root.com) with simple registration required to post, comment etc. and in the wp members area (http://www.domain root.com/members)a more involved registration process. Registration at the member level requires 1) registration code and 2) admin approval before they can login. With our membership at < 200, and < 10 new members per month, admin approval will take only seconds. But if we were a chapter with 2000 members and 100 new members per month, then admin approval would take an inordinate amount of time and we would need a higher order of regisration / authentication process automation.

Charles

Thanks, Charles. It sounds as though WP is working for you -- that's good to know. I'm looking at under 1000 users, probably. I can manage the tech part of the auth -- probably a plugin with MySQL support. If you do that, even a few thousand should not be a time issue.

I've also looked at amember for the payment and auth. Regardless of what I use for that, I'll also need a plugin to support access to "free" areas and so forth.