I know there are lots of plugins for WordPress for putting together elearning online courses, and some of them look pretty darned good. But I don’t really want to use Wordpress.
Is there some way I can create an online course using Rapidweaver?
Any help much appreciated.
I think Sitelok by Vibralogix would be a great place to start. It would allow (amongst other things);
You will not find a bad word said about the product and the support is stellar. Also, Joe Workman has released a set of stacks to make the integration with Rapidweaver a no brainer!
Thanks Mark. I will check Sitelok out right away.
Another option is aMember. I think Sitelok is fantastic as well, I only mention aMember as that is what Rapidweaver Classrooms uses and I believe there is a video tutorial on how to implement it. Otherwise, Sitelok is great and the new stacks are handy
Thanks Jason. I’ve used aMember a few years ago, but not with Rapidweaver. Interesting that you mention Rapidweaver Classrooms uses it and that there’s some tutorials maybe.
Problem I might have with Sitelok is that I was going to use Armadillo to just add another blog to the one I have, but call it something like CourseXYZ, but I can’t find a way with Armadillo to add the necessary Sitelok php at the top of each of the blog pages I can only add it to all Armadillo pages and that would cause a problem with my normal blog, if you know what I mean.
Yep, you can find it here: http://www.rapidweaverclassroom.com/rapidweaver-tutorials/membership-websites/
I’m not sure when they were made and what/if anything’s changed since, but it just popped to mind.
I’ve never used Armadillo so can’t suggest anything there but I see your potential conflict. Would be worth an email to Adrian at Vibralogix as he’s familiar with Rapidweaver, he might have a workaround/suggestion.
I would be interested in seeing if you figure this out, I have just started using Armadillo myself and was wondering how to secure an Armadillo blog with Sitelok…
Moodle is a good choice for such endeavors.
Securing an Armadillo blog with Sitelok is easy. Just add relevant code to the main Armadillo blog page within RW.
I may be wrong, but it seems as though @Pip is trying to add Armadillo to some blog posts and not others. I don’t think that can be done, but not 100% positive. But with Armadillo you can easily create two completely separate blogs: and you can easily apply Sitelok to the specific blog you want locked down. The approach is the same as any page: add relevant code in the Prefix area.
… if you want students to be able to comment, and for those comments to be private, then you’d have to additionally purchase the Disqus plugin that works with Sitelok.
@Mathew is right that there is no conflict between SiteLok and Armadillo and also that you can create two (or more) blogs in one site using Armadillo. You can also use Armadillo to create non-blog content which can be edited online. I don’t really understand why you would need need CMS to create an online course, unless you want to be able to edit it online.
If I do it with the CMS I don’t have to worry about Rapidweaver publishing a gazillion files when I publish. Alas, it has a habit for me of republishing things it has published months ago. This is bad enough if there are 500 files, but if there were 5,000 then I’d have to take the day of work 
I totally take your point though, which is why I figured I’d look to see if there was anything that was tailor made to elearning/online learning publishing. Things like Teachable are excellent, but it is only a sideline so I didn’t want to commit to $40 a month for ever more.
Sitelok looks very good. I now just need to figure out the best way to create the several modules of the course, each which have multiple lessons, and I wanted commenting on each one.
Sorry about any confusion. I was looking to add Sitelok to just one of the blogs I have in Armadillo, There will be three on that site and two of them don’t want protection. I was just puzzled as to how to add the php snippet at the top of just that blog as the only place I can see to add it within Armadillo itself is in the settings and that looks like it would be ‘Armadillo’ wide, i.e. impact on all Armadillo pages. I must confess, I didn’t look at the options in Rapidweaver (silly me) so I will check that out. Thanks.
Moddle looks really feature packed Dominick. I had heard of it but never checked it out so thanks for the heads-up.
Have you used it yourself? How did you find it? It looks like it is very powerful. Maybe overkill for what I need, but maybe I should giver it a try and see.
There are lots of options for ways to do this within Armadillo. If you are really ambiguous about the number of lessons within each module then you might want to consider “hacking” the blog structure. After all a blog is simply a very nice way to organize lots of things: you don’t actually have to create a generic blog in terms of content.
… so for example let’s say you create 10 lessons for Module 1 and 15 lessons for Module 2. No real problem if you hack the blog structure. Simply give each relevant post a category of, e.g., Module 1. I suppose you could also tag by specific lesson (e.g. lesson 1, lesson 2) but mainly if you create, or date, them in chronological order then the lessons will present themselves as intended.
… the key here is not to use the regular navigation. Create special links to go to, e.g., Module 1. Specifically the link will then go to all the posts with the category of Module 1 ordered as you wanted by the chronology you used. This way you create a really flexible system. There’s no need to show categories, archives, and that stuff in a sidebar as they are irrelevant in this example.
At any rate, it’s an idea to consider.
Get the Disqus plugin and it’s super easy to add Disqus commenting to blog pages or regular pages. You’ll need the Blab plugin if you want all your users to have icons/avatars show up.
That sounds terrific. I felt it in my bones that I could do it with Armadillo as it does seem to be a VERY flexible CMS. I actually find it easier to work in than Rapidweaver as it lets me focus on content rather than the technical things, but I can rely on Rapidweaver to work its magic for the overall site creation.
I reckon I’ll probably go down the Armadillo + Sitelok root, although I’m in the process of checking out Moodle so I shall see what that has to offer before committing. I know the latter will give me quizzes and discussion forums, which are not essential, but would be nice to have around.
Moodle is free and has continued development over nearly 2 decades. It keeps getting better and staying up with modern technologies.
I requires a database and a special folder outside of the public_html which is for safety. It very secure and practically can’t get hacked. I have used it for many years. I have also watched as it grows and keeps getting better.
I found it years ago when searching for a similar solution.