The challenges that come with changing learning management systems are often reason enough for an institution to stick with its legacy system, however dissatisfied they may be with it. But two colleges that recently moved to Moodlerooms' learning management platform prove that the transition can be a positive experience, if your process adheres to a few key steps.
The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), a public research university with some 6,000 undergraduates and another 3,000 graduate students located in downtown Newark, has offered courses online since the mid-1970s-it now offers 75 or so online courses each semester. State University of New York (SUNY) Delhi is a technology-focused institution located in rural Delaware County. The school serves just under 3,000 on-campus students and offers about 60 to 80 online courses each semester; some 750 students took at least one online course during the spring semester.
For both schools, their learning management system is mission critical. Neither could risk losing functionality, faculty support, or student participation in the change-over. Each had been invested in their legacy LMS anywhere from five to eight years before deciding to make the switch. And each, in its own way, engaged in a set of best practices that enabled the school to seamlessly move its campus over to a new system. Here's their advice.
1. Give yourself a full year.... Or two.
A one- to two-year transition reduces the stress on the IT department and allows instructors and students alike to acclimate to the new system. Blake Haggerty, assistant director of instructional design at NJIT, says that his campus's two-year transition from their legacy LMS to Moodlerooms saved IT from support bottlenecks, and allowed user training to be paced over several semesters. "It allowed us to reach out to faculty members individually and help each one," he notes. The year-long transition at SUNY Delhi similarly "gave instructors time to poke around" in Moodle, says Clark Shah-Nelson, coordinator of online education.
2. Start small.
Both schools realized the value of trying out the new system with a test case of users. Delhi began testing Moodlerooms in 2007 with a limited number of courses, opening it for general use in early 2008. NJIT self-hosted Moodle for a 38-course pilot. It learned through that experience that support would be more effective and less costly with a hosted solution, which led them to select Moodlerooms.
3. Run both systems concurrently.
During their year test-case, Delhi ran both LMSs concurrently. Early adopters started using the new LMS immediately; a few faculty predictably stayed in the legacy system until the end. Part of moving the stragglers, Shah-Nelson says, involved simply explaining the new system carefully. "Some faculty members were looking to do things in the same way as before and simply needed more information before making the leap." he says.
At NJIT, running courses simultaneously through the legacy system and with Moodle gave faculty a chance to compare the two. "They liked the toolset, they liked the product, they liked the continuous improvement" offered by the Moodle community, Haggerty says. That early exposure helped win over faculty to the new system.
4. Integrate fully with student information systems.
One reason keeping content current in two systems at once was easy at Delhi, says Shah-Nelson, is because of Moodle's seamless integration with the school's SIS, SunGard Banner. "We had the same Banner feed going to both places, so an instructor could just choose a system, log into either one, and use it." In fact, the selection of Moodle at Delhi came after the university looked at other LMSs-Moodle's tight integration with Banner was a proving point.
At the time NJIT was looking at new LMSs, the university was also upgrading from SunGard SCT Plus to Banner, also a SunGard product. Thus, it was crucial that the new LMS work with the upgraded SIS. For instructors, the integration means that courses are automatically created in Moodle, complete with instructor and students, once they have been set up in the SIS. Students who register for a course can access that course in Moodlerooms within a day; if they add or drop a course, the change is immediately reflected in the LMS without having to be entered in both systems. The integration saves time for IT staff, who previously had to transfer adds and drops manually, as well as set up new courses and assignments.
5. Ease the content move.
Moving course content from one LMS to another can be a major task during the transition process. SUNY Delhi found helpful instructions in a Moodle wiki that explained how to export courses from WebCT, then used an export tool from the legacy system that created unencrypted ZIP files. They then used an import tool built by someone in the Moodle community. Shah-Nelson says his staff of student helpers then did some work on course files between the export and import processes.
At NJIT, importing content involved a team of students and recent graduates helping migrate the majority of content. The upgrade to a new system actually proved a bonus in that it allowed the instructor, Haggerty and another instructional designer on campus, to look through course material and help instructors refine it. "It gave us a reason to go through the content and make sure everything was up to date," he explains.
6. Support faculty every step of the way.
NJIT focused first on early adopters. "We created a spreadsheet of all users, looked at the courses to be migrated, and reached out to each [instructor] individually and help each one," he explains. Remaining faculty were brought on board gradually, with IT providing a sympathetic ear to the reluctant faculty. Eventually, says Haggerty, "Everyone realized we were migrating for a reason." In addition, for a sum of ($800), the school paid to have a custom theme created that gives Moodle a friendly, warmer look that Haggerty says helped welcome new users to NJIT's Moodlerooms.
SUNY Delhi offered plenty of faculty development training in varying lengths, including 90-minute workshops, short lunchtime segments, and videos. Perhaps its most successful training offering was a portal, Get Technical Help. Created as a one-stop-shop for help with Moodle, the portal won an award from The Sloan Consortium for its effectiveness. When a SUNY Delhi user asks for help in Moodlerooms, a new window opens that searches Moodle's help wiki for answers. The help portal also offers live chat with staff at SUNY Delhi via instant messaging, or a "click and call" option using Google Voice. Users can also take a more conventional route and submit a trouble ticket through the portal, which allows them to attach a file or screenshot, and to copy the instructor.
Both schools were won over by the around-the-clock professional support at Moodlerooms, which helped ensure the system was always up and running. That kind of 24/7 support-crucial for students taking online courses and potentially logging on at all hours-was something the schools' small IT staffs couldn't have offered without sizable personnel increases.
Looking ahead, both schools are running Moodle 1.9 but eyeing 2.0, the Moodle version released late last year. True to form, both plan gradual moves, with plenty of user preparation and consultation. "We'll pay close attention to educating our user base" before any migration, Haggerty says, adding that he may run a small 2.0 pilot this fall while discussing the move and its repercussions at length with users. Substantial growth in Moodlerooms use continues at both schools. At SUNY Delhi, "teaching styles are moving more toward embracing online tools," Shah-Nelson says, resulting in less use of paper in classrooms-all of it aided by students pushing instructors toward the LMS.
Of course, transitioning out any kind of a complex data system that's critical to the life blood of an institution is never a simple matter, but as NJIT and SUNY Delhi show, it doesn't have to be a traumatic experience either. Colleges and universities no longer have to stick with an LMS that is not serving their needs simply because they are concerned about making the switch. Following these common sense best practices means that any school can choose the learning management system that is right for them-and win over faculty, students, and administration in the process.
Webcast: Past, Present, and Future: The Evolution of Enterprise Moodle in Higher Education (August 18, 2011)
See how Moodlerooms can help you achieve your e-learning goals. Sign up for their August 18 webcast Past, Present and Future: The Evolution of Enterprise Moodle in Higher Education to get answers and an action plan on how you can bring Moodle to your campus.
Moodlerooms
190 West Ostend Street, Suite 110
Baltimore, MD 21230
Past, Present and Future: The Evolution of Enterprise Moodle in Higher Education
Date: 08/18/11
Time: 11:00 AM PT
Duration: 1 hour
Sponsored By Moodlerooms, Dell
Moodle has become a mainstream alternative to legacy learning management systems (LMS). Yet, for those institutions that have adopted Moodle as a part of an enterprise, fully supported platform, how have their goals for e-learning changed over the years? How has use among faculty shifted, and what are their plans for the future regarding Moodle 2?
Get answers to these questions and more on August 18 when Campus Technology holds a panel discussion with Moodlerooms and academic technologists from SUNY Delhi and the New Jersey Institute of Technology on the past, present and future of enterprise Moodle.
Presented by:
Clark Shah-Nelson, coordinator of online education, SUNY Delhi
Blake Haggerty, assistant director, Instructional Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Moderated by: Linda Briggs, contributing editor, Campus Technology
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