The word is, those of you looking to sell Moodle™ courses, are searching for alternatives. I’m sure as Moodle website owners, you’re not looking to switch your Learning Management System, but are just looking to better it. And that is because Moodle does not have the needed e-Commerce capabilities, to sell courses online. It’s not supposed to be an e-Commerce system. It’s great at what it’s supposed to be; a robust, highly scalable and secure Learning Management System.
But then, what options do you have?
As a starter, you could look at open source platforms which could help you. You’d want to keep development costs low. And a popular content management system you have to consider is- WordPress!
The question, of course, I have to answer for you, is why WordPress? Why WordPress as compared to other open source platforms? And why WordPress altogether?
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Why WordPress
WordPress is a very popular platform. It has garnered this popularity and attention, because it is very easy to work with, whether you are an end user or a developer. With WordPress, you have an ecosystem of plugins, to help you.
- e-Commerce: If you were just looking for an e-Commerce system, you have to know, that WooCommerce+WordPress, is one of the most popular and used e-Commerce solutions available. WooCommerce can help you sell e-courses, and physical goods like books, DVDs, course material too. WooCommerce also allows you to schedule sales, or offer discount coupons.
- SEO+Social Sharing: As compared to pure e-Commerce platforms, WordPress has more to offer. It is search engine optimized and has social sharing plugins available to popularize your content. You could have and maintain an active blog, to talk about your courses, and provide interested students a means of finding what they are searching for.
- Social Participation: WordPress facilitates social participation, by providing plugins for forums, and social networking. A participator does not necessarily have to be a registered student on your Moodle site. This could help add content on your website and make it popular.
- Events: WordPress has event management plugins as well, which can help you manage any e-learning events you plan to host.
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WordPress Moodle Integration
It is understood, that since WordPress is a completely different platform, you’d have to set up a different site. But maintaining two different sites can be an overhead. And in such cases, you’d want options to automate several processes involved. The point of integration is ‘selling the Moodle courses’. And this would mean integrating WooCommerce (WordPress) and Moodle. This is where the Edwiser Bridge: The WordPress Moodle integration Plugin could help you. This plugin automatically imports Moodle courses onto your WordPress website. The courses are imported as products, which are sold from your WordPress+WooCommerce store. One major advantage of students purchasing your courses is that they are auto-enrolled for the courses they purchase.
With Edwiser Bridge integrating WordPress and Moodle, you have a solution that works. And with the Single Sign-on extension, students can seamlessly transition from your WordPress website to Moodle. You can also sell your courses easily (using WooCommerce and the WooCommerce Integration plugin for Edwiser Bridge), you can search engine optimize your content, and can drive traffic to the website, using an active blog. What do you think about this idea? Sounds like something that could help you? Do let me know your thoughts and comments, using the comment section below!
Cheers!
