Since 2013, we’ve been working with Óbuda University on a hands-on way to teach web development. What began as a course built around Orchard CMS later evolved into an Orchard Core-based subject, giving students a chance to learn by building something that could actually work in the real world, not just completing classroom exercises.We asked our colleague Gábor Domonkos, who has led the collaboration for years, to walk us through how the course started, how it works today, and what students usually take away from it.– How did this collaboration start?At first, the university had a Hungarian, non-developer course focused on Orchard CMS and DotNest, Lombiq’s hosted Orchard platform. Students built sites through the admin UI, which was a good introduction to content management. But once Orchard Core arrived, we saw a chance to create something more ambitious: a developer-focused subject where students could also write code and go beyond the basics.– What changed with Orchard Core?Orchard Core made the course much more flexible. Students can now learn not just how to use a CMS, but how to extend it, customize it, and build on top of it. That meant more room for customization and coding. It also gives them a much more realistic picture of what it means to develop with a modern CMS on ASP.NET Core.– How is the course structured?The semester is built around a few milestones. Early on, students choose their project topic and define the basic idea. Midway through the semester, they should already have a working site with real content. By the end, the project should be close to final, both in structure and content.The later stages are mostly about making sure students stay on track. If they need help, they can share a short update so we can spot problems early and steer them in the right direction. Some students also choose to demo their project before the official deadline.– What do students usually build? Any favorites?That depends on which version of the course they take. In the non-developer version, students often build sites with forms, search, taxonomies, and content workflows. In the developer-focused version, they go further and build custom modules, themes, and more advanced functionality.One project that stands out was a volunteer platform. Organizations could publish volunteer opportunities, and users could browse, apply, and track their enrollments. It was a nice example of how Orchard Core can support a real, practical use case without adding unnecessary complexity.– Has this led to anything beyond the course?Yes, some students later became our colleagues at Lombiq. By the time they finish the course, they already know the basics of Orchard Core and have built something real with it. More importantly, they have seen what it’s like to work with a real open-source ecosystem, not just with a classroom demo.– Where should someone start if they want to learn Orchard Core today?If someone wants to learn Orchard Core today, Lombiq has a few good starting points. Dojo Course 3 is a full video course on YouTube that walks through Orchard Core for both users and developers. We also maintain the Lombiq Training Demo for Orchard Core on GitHub, which is a functional module with heavily commented code to help developers understand how Orchard Core works in practice. And beyond that, Orchard Dojo regularly publishes tutorials, tips, and other learning resources for the Orchard community. For us, that is the best proof that the collaboration works. Students gain practical experience, the university gets a more hands-on subject, and the industry gets people who are better prepared for real projects. We believe more universities could benefit from this kind of collaboration, whether with Orchard Core or other open-source technologies. And if you are exploring something similar, we are always happy to share what has worked for us so far.

We migrated yet another Lombiq site from Orchard 1 to Orchard Core: Our Orchard learning website Orchard Dojo now runs on the latest version of Orchard. For a case study on how we completed this migration project, check out the case study on Orchard Dojo.

Our second Orchard university course finished - but this time it was also a massive online course. With the free and open Dojo Course we reached more people than we ever could with an on-site course. You can read the full case study for the Orchard Dojo Course and the Orchard university course on our Orchard training website Orchard Dojo.

We are very happy to announce that we just opened our free and open Orchard course, Dojo Course on our Orchard training site Orchard Dojo. The course runs in parallel with our Orchard university subject on Óbuda University: students and online participants will receive the same tutorials, same notes and supportive materials and they also have to deliver the same project work to complete the course. The course's syllabus is what we'll follow this semester until December. This all is very exciting, and we hope not just for us! If you'd like to learn Orchard from the ground up, this is a good opportunity to do so! How about enrolling?

Hello and welcome to the beginning of the existence of Lombiq - a company we want to be something inspiring, exciting and innovative. Our main focus in the beginning will be on Orchard-related services like consultancy and training - something we already have done for a long time. We also start off with own online services: Orchard Hungary (what we were maintaining for long as individuals) and Orchard Dojo. To show our dedication to Orchard we also provide sponsorship for this year's Orchard conference, the Orchard Harvest in Amsterdam. We want to be fair and remain open. Let the journey begin!