Moodle on Azure: A Budget-Friendly LMS for Nonprofits

For many nonprofits, providing training and educational resources to staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries is essential. However, finding an affordable and scalable Learning Management System (LMS) can be challenging. Microsoft Community Training (MCT) is a robust solution, but for some nonprofits, the pricing may be a barrier.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative: Moodle, an open-source LMS, which is available on the Azure Marketplace. This allows nonprofits to deploy Moodle within their Azure tenant, making use of their Microsoft Azure credits while keeping costs manageable.

Why Choose Moodle on Azure?

Moodle is a widely adopted, flexible LMS that enables nonprofits to create, manage, and deliver online training programs. By deploying it through the Azure Marketplace, nonprofits gain several advantages:

✅Cost-Effective

• You can host it within your Azure environment, using your Azure credits provided through Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact program (and pay for hosting/storage/servers), without having to pay just to access the application licensing. 

✅Scalable & Secure

• Azure provides enterprise-grade security, ensuring your training content and user data are protected.

✅Seamless Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem

• Moodle on Azure integrates effortlessly with Microsoft tools like Teams, OneDrive, and Power BI, allowing nonprofits to streamline collaboration, document management, and analytics. Educators and learners can access training materials within Microsoft Teams, making the learning experience more accessible.

✅Flexible and Customizable

• With Moodle, nonprofits have full control over their LMS setup. Unlike proprietary solutions, which can limit flexibility and lock you into one provider, Moodle is open source allowing you to customize courses, branding, user roles, and many other features that allow you to adapt Moodle freely to meet your nonprofit’s unique training needs.

✅Optimized Performance on Azure

• Deploying Moodle on Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) or Azure App Services ensures high availability, automatic scaling, and reliability. Nonprofits can adjust resources based on demand, preventing unnecessary expenses while maintaining a smooth learning experience.

✅Utilizing Microsoft Azure Credits

• Through Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact program, eligible nonprofits receive Azure credits, reducing hosting costs.
  • By hosting Moodle on Azure Virtual Machines, nonprofits can reduce LMS costs while maintaining control over their data and infrastructure.
  • By leveraging these credits, organizations can run a full-featured LMS without incurring many additional expenses. 

Getting Started with Moodle on Azure

Since Moodle is available on the Azure Marketplace, nonprofits can deploy it within their own Azure tenant in just a few steps:

1️⃣ Sign in to Azure – Use your nonprofit’s Microsoft Azure account (with eligible nonprofit credits).

Sign in page to Portal.Azure.com

If you have an Azure Sponsorship Subscription, you will need to make sure it is activated for your non-profit 
2️⃣ Go to Azure Marketplace – Search for Moodle in the marketplace.

In the search bar you can look for Marketplace. 

    In Marketplace, search for “Bitnami LMS powered by Moodle" 

Please note that there are other Moodle options available from different providers. Bitnami, now part of VMware, provides pre-packaged, ready-to-run application stacks. Their Moodle offering is a Virtual Machine (VM) pre-configured with Moodle, making it easy to deploy and manage on Azure without extensive setup.

3️⃣ Select the Moodle Image – Choose the pre-configured Moodle on Azure deployment.
4️⃣ Configure Resources – Set up the appropriate virtual machines, storage, and networking based on your organization’s needs.

During Setup up many of the settings will stay the same:

*Under Administrator - choose authentication type as password, and creating a username and password

*Under Network - The virtual machine and IP should create automatically, if not like create network. 
5️⃣ Connecting to the Virtual Machine and Signing into Moodle

Connecting to Virtual Machine
1. To connect to your Virtual Machine, you will need to click on the connect button. 
2. There are options to SSH into your Virtual machine. Select “SSH using Azure CLI.”
3. You see the Command Line Interface connects on its own with the virtual machine.
4. Now logged into bitnami type the Linux command as follows:
a. sudo cat /home/bitnami/bitnami_credentials
 

The user commands with give you the user credentials you will need to sign in onto your Moodle LMS website. In the next steps you will learn how to login into your Moodle site. You can type exit in the terminal and close the Azure CLI. 

Signing into Moodle
1. In the resource group that hosts your Moodle LMS deployment. Select your virtual machine. 
2. Under the essentials area locate the “Public IP Address.” 
3. Copy the address and enter the IP Address into your search bar.
4. You will see the screen for your LMS. Sign in into the LMS with the user credentials you copied from Azure CLI. 
5. You are now signed into your LMS. You will need to be signed in as an administrator and toggle the edit mode to make any changes to the website.

6️⃣ Deploy and Customize – Launch Moodle and integrate it with Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and Power BI for reporting.

For integrations, follow this step-by-step guide: Install Moodle integration with Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

🔹 Customization Tips:

• Configure branding and themes to align with your nonprofit’s identity.
• Enable Single Sign-On (SSO) for seamless access

📌 Support Note: Since this is deployed via the Azure Marketplace, support is provided by Bitnami/Moodle, not Microsoft.

Take Control of Your Training Platform

By deploying Moodle on Azure, nonprofits can implement a powerful, cost-effective LMS solution that aligns with their existing Microsoft ecosystem. This ensures they can continue offering valuable training programs without exceeding their budgets.