Drupal as a platform for an academic community
Hi all,
I am evaluating different CMS as a platform for a community site that will host several academic projects, discussion fora etc. The audience are people working with information technology as part of their research and we want to provide a platform where they can prepare their projects or discuss related questions. From what I have seen Drupal, maybe in the OpenAcademic flavour, seems like a very good choice for what we have in mind.
I have some familiarity with CMS, but have never used Drupal before, so I am very keen on getting your input - recommendations for modules that might be especially helpful and the like. I have drawn up a list of our requirements. This is more of an ideal list and I would be very surprised if any system would support this out of the box or with modules, but obviously the closer we can get the better:
multi site capable:
- several sites installed on the same machine (at least 3)
- users only need to register once to access all the sites
- users can have different roles in the different sites, i.e. moderator on one site and normal user in another
- search for as well as taging of resources should ideally work over all sites
several groups on one site:
- some groups will be by invitation only, others open to all members of the site
- groups will have content available to all users and other content only for the group members
- all content (files, postings etc.) that is not limited to specific groups should ideally be accessible to the general public, i.e. without need for registration
user management:
- set different rights for users in different groups
- user profile with at least basic information, i.e. affiliation, website and interests, ideally searchable
- user can decide whether to share their profile or not
modules / capabilities:
- discussion forum for a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site; users should be able to subscribe to a topic
- blogs for a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site
- calendar of events for a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site; ideally with notification for specific events
- users can upload files, either to their personal page or to groups
- chat (not terribly important)
- wiki for groups as well as individual users
- social bookmarking
- taxononmy
- assignments for users and groups with notification (again not very important)
- RSS feeds for, ideally, a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site
- RSS aggregator for, ideally, a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site
- reasonably standards compliant, i.e. no accessibility issues and validated HTML output
- option to make moderator approval necessary for registration of new users
What do you think about using Drupal for this project? Anything that might be especially problematic in a Drupal context?
Any comment would be very much appreciated!
Thanks, Torsten
Hi Torsten.
Hi Torsten.
We use Drupal for academic classes and campus groups of various kinds, and most of what you want is indeed possible with Drupal & its modules with quite minimal tweaking. Drupal provides a plethora of very useful tools for academe, and what's lacking is either in development or fairly easily achieved via some PHP knowledge.
- several sites installed on the same machine (at least 3)
Via multisite/subsite installation. (Very easy on linux.)
- users only need to register once to access all the sites
Single Sign-On module. Optionally, tie your Drupals in with the campus authentication system (we use LDAP) and your task is done, plus users will always remember their names & passwords, a huge benefit.
- users can have different roles in the different sites, i.e. moderator on one site and normal user in another
Various access control modules, most likely
- search for as well as taging of resources should ideally work over all sites
Dunno, perhaps feasible
- some groups will be by invitation only, others open to all members of the site
Organic Groups module
- groups will have content available to all users and other content only for the group members
Organic Groups module
- all content (files, postings etc.) that is not limited to specific groups should ideally be accessible to the general public, i.e. without need for registration
Core permission system
- set different rights for users in different groups
Organic Groups and various TAC modules
- user profile with at least basic information, i.e. affiliation, website and interests, ideally searchable
Core, plus various Profile modules
- user can decide whether to share their profile or not
Various Profile modules
- discussion forum for a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site; users should be able to subscribe to a topic
Forum or various Discussion modules or 3rd party tie-in to SMF et al
- blogs for a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site
Core via combo of Story and Blog set-up plus Organic Groups, Subscription modules
- calendar of events for a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site; ideally with notification for specific events
Core plus flavors of the Events module and subscription modules
- users can upload files, either to their personal page or to groups
Core + Upload module plus media fields using the fabulous CCK module & its extensions (depending on the kind of files/media you need them to upload)
- chat (not terribly important)
Chat module
- wiki for groups as well as individual users
Various wiki modules, some in better shape than others
- social bookmarking
Tagging modules
- taxononmy
Core
- assignments for users and groups with notification (again not very important)
We're also working on this; doable but with some custom work
- RSS feeds for, ideally, a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site
Core plus Organic Groups
- RSS aggregator for, ideally, a) individual users, b) groups, c) the whole site
advanced Aggregator modules
- reasonably standards compliant, i.e. no accessibility issues and validated HTML output
Theme-dependent, core themes are generally pretty good
- option to make moderator approval necessary for registration of new users
Core
Questions of access are very easily achieved in Drupal via the many different user access control settings and specific modules. Ditto taxonomy, in which Drupal excels. Your largest hurdles will likely be the set-up of the different sites and the integration of user permissions and tools cross-site. But from my modest standpoint, I'd highly recommend it for what you're planning. Cheers!
Thanks, Schwa!
Thank you very much for the detailed answer and especially for pointing me to the useful modules. That sounds very encouraging! I will make sure to look at the Organic Groups as that module seems to be especially useful!
Hi Torsten
*speaking quietly as I don't want to be seen as a traitor :) *
You might want to have a quick look at Moodle (www.moodle.org) if you haven't already. Other than taxonomy, I think it could handle the rest and more given it's for an educational site.
We use Moodle as well as
We use Moodle as well as Drupal - it could also work for you, Torsten. Personally I prefer Drupal since it's far more granular for things like taxonomy, access control and interactive blogging. Your results may vary; Moodle is a fine tool, too. :)
Moodle
Thank you both for suggesting Moodle! I have had a look at it and was very impressed. Despite the fact that Moodle is tailored to needs very similar of ours I got the impression that Drupal is more powerful / flexible (but please correct me if I am wrong), which might be useful in the long run (and the taxonomy feature, of course)...
Moodle works very well
Moodle works very well in a course-centered paradigm, or in a site where all users have clearly defined roles in every group, and where all site activity is centered in courses. If you are looking to meet less formal learning needs, or to have contact between courses, or to have the content created within courses flow into other areas of the site, Drupal is probably a better fit.
Moodle is very comfortable for teachers, as it provides a familiar paradigm. Moodle can also be a useful tool for people who have never worked online before, for exactly the same reason.
Drupal offers a broader, more flexible set of tools.
Cheers,
Bill
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http://www.funnymonkey.com
Tools for Teachers
Problems Hosting My Drupal-powered phpedu applications
I have been working on Drupal-powered PHPEDU for 3 months. This package is truly difficult. But after a lot of frustrating efforts, I got it running very well.
As I am about to host the package online, I soon came to realise that there is no way for visitors to create their own accounts to log into www.mathsoft.org, the server for phpedu.
Obviously, I think that this a design mistake. I have tried to login into PHPEdu forums. Like my application, there is no way to create an account.
Other than this flaw, my conclusion is that this package is great indeed.
Please I need help in making this package accessible online
Much of what you want can be
Much of what you want can be accomplished out of the box with Drupal and contrib modules --
The DrupalEd demo site at http://drupaled.alphabetademo.org does much of this right now -- we will be adding in some extended user profile functionality and cleaning up some look/feel issues before it ships, but that site provides most of the functionality you describe in your post.
Cheers,
Bill
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http://www.funnymonkey.com
Tools for Teachers
DrupalEd
Yes, DrupalEd looks very promising indeed! I have registered and will continue to play with it over the next days and follow the development - thanks, Bill, for your work with this!
PhpEdu drupal
You might want to take a look at PhpEdu as well, it's built on drupal 5.x
http://www.phpedu.org.uk/
lsabug
PhpEdu drupal
Thank you very much! I will have a look at this!
Torsten