Making the Big Switch A story of learning management system change

Presenter Info Autumm Caines Academic Technology Specialist Capital University Columbus, Ohio

Lecture Tools This presentation was delivered at the Portland Oregon Moodle Moot on August 7 th, A cloud-based interactive tool called Lecture Tools was used during the presentation to poll the audience. Polling slides for this version of the PowerPoint include the results from the Portland session.

Key Points of Importance Concerning Change History Representation Pace Reframe Choices Communication/Evaluation

Icebreaker slide

History Understanding a product’s history at an institution – LMS at Capital Year 2000 Recommended by faculty committee Self-hosting Low integration with other systems 50 professors using in the first few years

2010 Just starting to think of change – Things have changed since inception Off-site hosting AD, LDAP, and SIS integrations – Some integrations basic in the form of automatic batch files – Users, courses, enrollments created automatically 300 unique professors using the system Note: Small number of online offerings – Most courses offered face to face

Blackboard Usage What Blackboard tools or functions do you use the most? Percentage Posting of documents or files 69.30% sending 58.80% Announcements 55.30% Gradebook 43.90% Posting of or embedding links 39.50% Blackboard assignment feature 29.80% Discussion Board 18.40% Digital Dropbox 18.40% Tests 18.40% Wiki 15.80% Calendar 8.80% 2010 Faculty Senate Technology Committee’s Technology Survey

Proposing Change

Representation Importance of working with stakeholders – Faculty Senate Technology Committee One representative from each school Two representatives from IT Reports to the Board of Trustees

Pace Paying attention to the pace of change – Current (2010) switch from Blackboard version 7 to 8 Approved by committee Learning curve in Grade Center – Questions about moving too fast Taking concerns seriously Hearing constituency reservations

Reframe Reframing the conversations – Pace of technology – Blackboard 8 is an older version – 10yrs since looking at product Technology changes Market changes Changes in pricing structures

Choices Struggle with narrowing choices – Maintaining Older courses Plug-in integrations – Many systems considered Close consideration narrowed to: – Blackboard 9.1 – Moodle

Why?

Why Did You Say Change is Good or Bad at Your Institution

Implementing Change

Pilot Decision to recommend pilot of Moodle through Moodlerooms hosting and support partnership comes mid 2011 – 21 faculty volunteer one course each Agree to not use Blackboard for that course Agree to give feedback and get feedback from students Pilot to run Spring 2012 term 500 user block purchased Sandbox and production sites configured Integrations/plugins for pilot – – LDAP – Respondus’ Lockdown Browser – Learning Objects’ Campus Pack – Turnitin

Communication Frequent communication to faculty and students was key – Channels Faculty Listserv Presentations at faculty and department meetings Article in student newspaper Messages in Blackboard for pilot courses – Directed students to Moodle (iLearn) system – Channels to get feedback (Very low response rate) Discussion board on front page Town hall meetings

Faculty Impressions Evaluation surveys distributed after low response rates on feedback channels

Closing the Pilot Benefits of change – 77% savings – Savings came from: No licensing fees in Moodle Pricing structure based on active users Pictures of students in profiles Drag and drop upload

Things I Wish Were Different Longer pilot – Problems with course copies One term pilot did not materialize this Instructors not allowed to backup/restore – Enrollments based on Course ID Number » Backup/Restore does not carry this field – Integrity of naming convention not maintained Import is not an exact copy of all settings – Manual grade book columns do not carry – Topic settings need to be changed before import – As a result administrators processing all course copies manually

Want all the details? New Book! – Cases on Educational Technology Planning, Design, and Implementation: A Project Management Perspective Chapter: Piloting the Change: Migrating a Learning Management System while Discovering a Project Management Protocol by Autumm Caines technology-planning-design/ technology-planning-design/ % discount on the whole book with code IGI50

How Could Change be Managed Better at Your Institution?

Sources Burke, J.L. (2002). Chronicle of Change: Capital University Columbus Ohio: Capital University. Eckel, P., Green, M., Hill, B., & Mallon, W. (1999). On change III - taking charge of change: A primer for colleges and universities. Washington, DC: American Council on Education. Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. New York: Broadway Books. Kotter, J. (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review, p Schwartz, B. (2005, July). The Paradox of Choice [Video file]. Retrieved from html