Closer to the Dream: Letting Pedagogy Transform Learning Management Systems Ryan Gjerde – Luther College Bob Puffer – Luther College Dan Beach – St. Olaf College Barron Koralesky – Macalester College

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Seven Elements of LMS Transformation Recognition Inclusion Selection Conversion Integration Implementation Adaptation

Bob Puffer Luther College

Luther College - Recognition Increases in software licensing Concerns about software quality Barriers to adaptability and integration Need for increased capability

Luther College – Selection 1.WHAT DO WE NEED? Faculty survey of LMS usage 2.WHAT’S OUT THERE? Edutools – 3.WHERE’S THE BEST FIT? Xplana evaluation – reduce to top six Reduce to top three and test on-site for: FunctionalityEase-of-use AdaptabilitySupportability Administration burdenIntegratability

Luther College - Selection Commercial or opensource? Barriers to opensource adoption: –Support –Stability –Longevity –Accountability –Modifying complex code

Luther College – Adaptation The ‘M’ in Moodle – “Modular” Moodle development community - “Martin and the Twelve Heads” Owner-enhanced BlocksLanguage packs Course formatsAssignments formats Import/ ExportThemes Filters

Dan Beach St. Olaf College

Selection Determined what faculty were using and why Asked what people wanted Compared several systems via Moodle stood out Set up a testing server

Integration/Implementation Database choice (PostgreSQL) Authentication via LDAP Create a Moodle course for every class

Integration/Implementation Automatically enroll students into classes Import college ID photos Training sessions for IT support group

Implementation Announced decision to the campus Offered training seminars Self-taught Quicklink

Outcome Students grabbed onto it first –"I think Moodle is interesting and I wish more classes would use it. It’s easier to have assignments posted online …” –"It’s kind of cool to see who’s in your classes. It seems like it’s still a new thing for professors, since I have only one class using it. We use the forum for class a lot and it seems like there’s a lot of possibilities with Moodle." -from the Manitou Messenger (student newspaper)

Outcome faculty currently using it 150+ classes this semester Just-in-Time-Teaching (JITT) FERPA Expanding uses

Barron Koralesky Macalester College

Recognition – Motivation Macalester didn’t have a CMS New faculty arrive expecting CMS Students too!

Inclusion - Campus-wide collaboration is critical Instructional technologists Web coordinator Librarians Central IT – Networking, Database Faculty development center Early adopter faculty

Selection – Why Moodle? Needed a CMS to try Rising use in our peer group Open source –Apache, mySQL, PHP

Selection – Pilot program Started just two weeks before fall semester 2004 Few hour initial setup LDAP authentication = piece of cake

Selection – Pilot program Grew fast – outgrew server right away 1st semester = 20% of our users! 2nd semester = 50% of our users!

Inclusion–Faculty Development Fall Teaching & Learning Seminar – Moving your courses online –Pedagogically (not technically) focused – Why you want to use the method, less on how –Get faculty “talking about teaching” Fluid syllabus Web-based reading reflections Facilitating out of class discussions Online assessment

Inclusion–Faculty Development Faculty Moodle Workshop –½ hr pedagogically focused introduction Led by faculty Again, more why –1.5 hr hands-on with IS support –Lunch –~20% faculty in 2 sessions

Integration & Adaptation Pilot to fully supported Automatic course creation Automatic course enrollment Bring content into courses – e.g. relevant library links Other modules

Integration & Implementation New faculty/student orientation Information Fluency program Use by other campus groups ~75% of students using Moodle

More information –Username = educause –Password = educause