Best Practices

Administration Best Practices

• Use named administrator accounts rather than shared accounts.
• Limit site administrator access to a small trusted group.
• Apply the principle of least privilege.
• Use role assignments at the most appropriate context.
• Document major configuration changes.
• Test changes in staging before production.
• Avoid changing many settings at once.
• Use maintenance windows for high-impact changes.
• Communicate planned changes to users.
• Keep a rollback plan for upgrades and plugin changes.

User Management Best Practices

• Use institutional authentication where appropriate.
• Avoid duplicate accounts.
• Suspend accounts when access should be temporarily disabled.
• Delete accounts only according to policy and data retention rules.
• Review privileged accounts regularly.
• Use cohorts for group-based enrolment where suitable.
• Keep user profile fields consistent.
• Protect personal data and follow privacy requirements.

Course Management Best Practices

• Use a clear course category structure.
• Agree on naming conventions for course full names and short names.
• Hide courses until they are ready for students.
• Use course templates where possible.
• Encourage teachers to organize long courses into sections.
• Archive old courses according to institutional policy.
• Review course backup and retention requirements.
• Avoid placing too much content on a single course page.

Roles and Permissions Best Practices

• Do not assign site administrator access for routine course management.
• Assign roles in the correct context.
• Review custom roles carefully.
• Document any role changes.
• Test role behavior using a sample user.
• Avoid granting broad permissions to solve a narrow problem.
• Review manager and course creator permissions periodically.

Plugin Best Practices

• Install only necessary plugins.
• Check compatibility with the Moodle version.
• Review plugin maintenance status.
• Test plugins in staging.
• Confirm privacy and data handling implications.
• Keep plugins updated.
• Remove unused plugins after proper review.
• Document plugin purpose, owner, and support contact.

Theme and Branding Best Practices

• Use supported themes.
• Test visual changes on multiple devices.
• Maintain accessibility, especially color contrast and keyboard navigation.
• Avoid excessive undocumented custom CSS.
• Keep branding simple and consistent.
• Test themes before Moodle upgrades.
• Keep a backup of theme settings or documentation.

Backup and Recovery Best Practices

• Back up the Moodle database.
• Back up moodledata.
• Back up Moodle application code and custom plugins/themes.
• Test restore procedures regularly.
• Store backups securely.
• Monitor backup success and failure.
• Keep backups according to retention policy.
• Ensure backups are not stored only on the same server.
• Document recovery steps and responsibilities.

Performance Best Practices

• Monitor server resources and trends.
• Run cron regularly.
• Schedule heavy tasks outside peak hours.
• Use caching appropriately.
• Keep Moodle and plugins updated.
• Review slow reports and large courses.
• Encourage streaming platforms for large video content.
• Plan for peak academic events.
• Maintain a staging environment for testing.

Security Best Practices

• Keep Moodle, plugins, server packages, and dependencies updated.
• Use HTTPS.
• Use strong authentication practices.
• Limit administrator access.
• Review logs for suspicious activity.
• Protect moodledata from direct web access.
• Secure database credentials.
• Follow data privacy requirements.
• Review file upload policies.
• Disable unused authentication methods.

Troubleshooting Best Practices

• Define the problem clearly before changing settings.
• Determine the scope of the issue.
• Check recent changes.
• Review logs and monitoring data.
• Reproduce the issue when possible.
• Make one change at a time.
• Document the fix.
• Escalate early when the problem belongs to another technical area.
• Communicate clearly with affected users.

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