LMS Strategy

From WolfWikis

Getting Help with Moodle

Link to Moodle Guides (under development) that can help you get started using Moodle (posted August 24, 2009) WEBSITE

Action Items Prioritization and Discussion

List of LMS Action Items that need to be tackled on the road to the next NCSU Campus LMS. Each high-level item has a page for discussion. The action items and sub-steps are also available in spreadsheet form. (posted 8/20/2009)

LMS Committee Members and Current "To-do" list for the project

Link to the current list of committee members, contact info and affiliation WEBSITE

Link to the current Moodle needs list WEBSITE

Moodle Campus Announcement

Information about LMS strategy and the decision to switch to a single LMS on campus, Wolfware powered by Moodle (posted 7/6/2009) PDF

Moodle Pilot Survey, Fall 2008

Feedback from the Fall 2008 Moodle Pilot Students: Experiences in Learning with Moodle (posted 6/17/09) PDF

Moodle Pilot Team Recommendations

Following are some of the materials available from the Moodle Pilot Team

1. The presentation and Q&A session at the Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable on April 22, 2009 Log in with your unity ID and password
2. PowerPoint presented to the Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable on April 22, 2009 PDF
3. Moodle Pilot Team Report: Recommendations to the NC State Community PDF

Faculty and Student Feedback:

1. Moodle Pilot Student Spring/Summer 2008 Survey PDF
2. Moodle Pilot Faculty Spring/Summer 2008 Survey PDF
3. Additional Survey information (summary) for Spring/Summer 2008 PDF
4. Moodle Pilot Student Fall 2008 Survey (forthcoming)
5. Moodle Pilot Faculty Fall 2008 Survey PDF
6. Moodle Pilot Comparative Grad DE courses Fall 2008 Survey PDF

If you are interested in participating in the Moodle pilot, please send email to learntech@ncsu.edu.

If you are interested in creating web content that is LMS independent, you might want to sign up for this workshop Creating LMS Independent Web Content: Strategies and Techniques or send email to learntech@ncsu.edu.

If you want to give us feedback on the Moodle Pilot Team Recommendations, please send email, by June 1, 2009 to marty_dulberg@ncsu.edu.

Online Resources

Information on the Faculty Forums

1. Powerpoint presentation PDF
2. Live capture of the 9/27/07 session FLASH
3. Notes on the Q&A PDF

Related Resources

1. Vista - Moodle Fit/Gap Report PDF
2. Presentation file from the DELTA Moodle Workshop PDF
3. UNC TLT-C Open Source CMS Evaluation WEBSITE
4. Louisiana State's report on their decision to use an open source system PDF
5. Humboldt State's report on their decision to use an open source system PDF
6. UCLA's report on using open source PDF
7. Idaho State's information on their decision to use Moodle WEBSITE
8. Report from the Open University, United Kingdom, on selecting Moodle PDF
9. 2007 Distance Education Survey Results, Instructional Technology council, which has a section in their report about LMS usage trends at community colleges PDF
10. Moving to Moodle: Reflections Two Years Later, Ining Tracy Chao

Adopting an open source learning management system combined benefits and challenges, with lessons for change management WEBSITE

Communication Channels

1. Use the "discussion" tab on this wiki to post your comments
2. Post to the TLTR listserv
3. Email DELTA [delta@remedy.ncsu.edu]

NCSU LMS Updates – March 17, 2009 for the UNC TLT conference

Presentation (and accompanying documents) given as part of the March 17, 2009 UNC TLT Conference Program

1. Moodle Pilot Team PowerPoint presentation
2. NCSU LMS Timeline
3. Update on the Moodle Pilot At NC State University, Presented on March 17th 2009 via Elluminate Live at TLT

Document describing the LMS Committee structure we will use as we move out of the Moodle Pilot Team to a larger team of LMS collaborators and decision-makers.

1. NCSU LMS Committee Structure

Document describing LMSs used by other UNC System schools (as of March 2009)

1. UNC System Schools Current Plans for Open Source Investigation

Some initial guides related to Moodle

1. NCSU Moodle Guides

NCSU LMS Updates – November 17, 2008

1. As of today (November 17, 2008), there are 102 Moodle sections on the pilot server, with an estimated 51 sections being actual courses taught this semester, with the others in development/testing phases. Additionally, the 1563 Vista sections reflect the largest usage ever, while WolfWare is still widely used, with 1964 sections.
2. The Moodle Pilot Team sent surveys to fall 2008 pilot students and faculty the week of November 10. Assessment data for fall 2008 should be available in January, 2009.
3. The Moodle Pilot is continuing as planned, with the pilot expected to run through spring 2009, and a report/presentation of lessons learned to date ready to share with the campus by April, 2009, at which time stakeholders can review and recommendations for the future of Moodle at NC State be discussed.
4. If you (or your faculty/staff) need help using any of our tools (Vista, WolfWare, Moodle), please encourage them to call 513-7094 or email learntech@ncsu.edu. There are a few workshops remaining on the fall schedule related to LMS training, and additional workshops will be available in spring 2009 (see http://delta.ncsu.edu/workshops). If you require customized training (for Vista or other instructional technologies), please email learntech@ncsu.edu and we'll be happy to assist you.
5. Grade submission for Vista should be working for fall 2008.
6. Working with Blackboard, DELTA staff are currently performing a “health check” of our Vista system in preparation for an upgrade to version 8.x. However, due to several instabilities and bugs discovered in version 8.1, we do not plan to upgrade at this time. We will continue to reassess an upgrade as Blackboard releases hotfixes to address these issues. In the meantime, we will work on adding a PowerLink from our current version of Vista to SafeAssign, with current plans to have the PowerLink in place for spring 2009.

NCSU LMS Updates – September 26, 2008

1. As of today (September 26), there are 94 course sections in the Moodle pilot. In addition, we have the largest Vista usage to date, at 1528 course sections. See http://raleigh.delta.ncsu.edu/lms_reports/lms_by_semesters_chart.php for updated usage on all campus LMS systems.
2. The Moodle Pilot Implementation Team (currently comprised of CALS, CNR, DELTA & Education staff members) has led some assessment efforts in Spring and Summer 2008 and a draft report of their findings is now available. Additional assessment is planned for Fall 2008.
3. An LMS steering committee, as well as several standing committees and a larger interest group, are being formed as a longer term governance structure to help guide the current and future LMS implementations (beyond the Moodle Pilot efforts). More information about these committees as well as how to get involved will be available by the end of this semester.
4. The current plan for the Moodle pilot is to continue the pilot through spring 2009. The Moodle Pilot Team plans to have a pilot report/presentation of lessons learned to date ready to share with the campus by April, 2009, at which time stakeholders can review and recommendations for the future of Moodle at NC State be discussed.
5. There will be a brown bag session called "An Update on Learning Management Systems" which runs Oct. 15th and repeats on November 18th (noon-1pm.) We hope you can attend one of these sessions & participate in the discussion/planning about the future of LMSs at NC State. Registration for these sessions is available at http://delta.ncsu.edu/workshops.
6. If you (or your faculty/staff) need help using Vista or any of our tools, please encourage them to call 513-7094 or email learntech@ncsu.edu. Also, there are four Vista workshops and two Moodle workshops remaining this fall and faculty can register for these at http://delta.ncsu.edu/workshops. If you require customized training (for Vista or other instructional technologies), please email learntech@ncsu.edu and we'll be happy to assist you.
7. DELTA is planning to upgrade the Vista Section Management Tool with a grade submission function in time for grade submissions this Fall. This tool will allow faculty to export final grades from Vista and submit them to Registration & Records.
8. DELTA is still working to upgrade Vista to version 8.1. This upgrade doesn't include any major new functionality, besides SafeAssign (a plagiarism detection tool.) We hope to have this in place in time for Spring 2009 classes along with documentation & training for the campus.

Blackboard Vista Update - August 1 2008

1. As of today's (August 1) stats, there are a total of 591 R&R sections using Vista this Fall (with 19,454 enrollments and 13,419 unique students). Requests really start coming in closer to the start of classes, so visit the LMS Reporting Tool to get the latest numbers. http://raleigh.delta.ncsu.edu/lms_reports.
2. If you (or your faculty/staff) need help using Vista or any of our tools, please encourage them to call 513-7094 or email learntech@ncsu.edu.
3. We have scheduled six Vista workshops for the fall and faculty can register for these starting August 8th at http://delta.ncsu.edu/workshops. We also have a brown bag session called "An Update on Learning Management Systems" which runs Oct. 15th and repeats on November 18th (noon-1pm.) We hope you can attend one of these & participate in the discussion/planning about the future of LMSs at NC State.
4. If you require customized training (for Vista or other instructional technologies), please let us know and we'll set that up for your dept/college.
5. DELTA is working to upgrade Vista to version 8.1. This upgrade doesn't include any major new functionality, besides SafeAssign (a plagiarism detection tool.) We hope to have this in place in time for Spring 2009 classes, and throughout the fall term, we will be developing documentation & training for the campus.
6. DELTA is also working to enable a grade submit feature of the Vista "section management tool." This tool will allow faculty to export final grades from Vista and submit them to Registration & Records. We've been pilot testing this tool throughout the early part of this year, and plan to release it for general use this fall.
7. NC State secured (via UNC GA) our Blackboard Vista license through June 2011. If you have any faculty concerned that Vista is going to disappear soon, please let them know this. You can read a more below in the July Open Source LMS Investigation Update.

Open Source LMS Investigation Update - July 2008

Moodle Pilot: During Spring Semester and Summer I, 2008, 41 sections, involving 58 faculty and approximately 982 enrollments, were run. The pilot is still ongoing with a handful of courses in Summer II currently under way and additional courses planned for the fall 2008 Semester. In addition, the current pilot Moodle instance (http://moodlepilot.ncsu.edu) has been upgraded to version 1.9.1. Assessment data for these courses will be available by the start of fall semester. Pilot courses utilizing Moodle for interested faculty can be requested for the fall semester by emailing learntech@ncsu.edu.

CALS, DELTA, and Education staff members collaboratively attended a recent (June) Moodle Moot to glean information that might be useful to our considerations of how Moodle could be used at NC State. Blogs related to the conference attendance are:

http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/page/blern and http://transparentlearning.blogspot.com/2008/06/moodle-pre-conference-workshop-with.html

A Moodle Pilot Implementation Team, comprised of CALS/DELTA/CNR staff has been formed to move forward the initial hardware implementation, technical integration, faculty training and support during the Moodle pilot. A current challenge for the Moodle Pilot Implementation Team is to work with the larger NCSU community, via several working groups (currently being identified), to consider possible overall implementation models, related policies, best practices, challenges, etc.

UNC System & Beyond: Our colleagues in the UNC System continue to explore open source options, though most of them are currently Blackboard users. The following are the production LMSs on UNC campuses as of Summer 2008:

1. Moodle (ASU, UNCA, NCSSM)
2. Blackboard Vista (NCSU, UNCC, UNCW, WCU)
3. Blackboard Learning Suite (remaining ten campuses)

This year, the UNC System signed a three-year agreement with Blackboard to extend the Blackboard licenses until Spring 2011, as 14 of the campuses are heavily invested in Blackboard. East Carolina has been investigating Moodle and Sakai. Chapel Hill is piloting Sakai in fall 2008. Western Carolina, after conducting an open source study, has decided to remain with Blackboard Vista. In 2008-2009, the following campuses will run production courses in Moodle and/or Sakai on pilot production facilities provided by the TLTC Collaborative: ECSU, NCSA, UNCC, UNCP, UNCW, and one department at UNCG.

In addition, please note the links in the Online Resources section of this wiki to other universities/reports that note either an adoption of or exploration of open source LMSs.

Current State of Existing LMS systems at NC State: See the LMS usage reports available at: http://raleigh.delta.ncsu.edu/lms_reports/index.php (requires Unity ID & password). The Blackboard license signed by the UNC System extending to 2011 ensures that our Vista users will continue to be supported, and Vista will be upgraded and maintained as we evaluate open source possibilities. We are currently testing an upgrade to Vista 8 on our development servers, and once we work through any technical issues, will let you know when the upgrade will happen, and provide you links/information about what the upgrade entails. DELTA staff, as well as several NC State faculty who teach using Vista, attended the Blackboard conference together in mid-July to continue to keep a fresh and open perspective on this product, which is widely used on campus. Additionally, in early fall, we will be working with an analyst to do a comparative analysis between WolfWare and Moodle, to better understand how these systems might complement each other.

We will continue to keep you posted as the Moodle Pilot moves forward via wiki updates. In addition, upcoming fall information sessions regarding LMSs at NCSU will be held in the Library Assembly Room at the following dates/times:

1. 12 - 1pm Weds Oct 15
2. 12 - 1pm Tuesday Nov 18

Open Source LMS Investigation Update - February 2008

We are currently investigating the possibility of using an open source learning management systems (LMS) at NC State. After obtaining feedback from our clients through a number of channels, including two fall 2007 LMS forums, CALS and DELTA are currently supporting a small pilot of the Moodle open source LMS to understand the feasibility of open source as a strategic direction for NC State. We will continue our pilot testing throughout 2008, and we are actively partnering with other UNC systems schools that are exploring open source options at this time.

Please be aware that NC State's implementation of Blackboard Vista, as well as our current implementation of WolfWare, will continue to remain supported as we investigate open source LMS solutions. Should our efforts using open source prove successful, and we make a decision to transition away from current LMS implementations, we will provide migration support for all users, as well as a reasonable transition timeline.

Our current plan is to continue to provide training and support for Blackboard Vista and WolfWare through at least spring 2010. Faculty should continue to use the available NC State learning technology tools (e.g. Blackboard Vista, WolfWare, Elluminate, etc.) as we investigate other systems, with the knowledge that any future transition will be fully supported.

If you are interested in being involved in our pilot work, please email learntech@ncsu.edu and indicate your interest.

As our pilot work progresses, we will provide additional information at this site.

Blackboard Vista Status Report & Invitation to Participate in Forum - Fall 2007

DELTA staff would like to continue to keep the campus informed of the various activities surrounding Blackboard Vista, our commercial Learning Management System (LMS). During spring semester, 2007, we experienced a number of load issues with our servers, which led to very slow response times and pages timing out, and we experienced problems with the Vista software in general, such as the chat tool not working. We are very aware that our users were frustrated during this time.

Between May and July 2007, we have been actively identifying and addressing known issues with Blackboard Vista. We have continued to implement software upgrades for Vista this summer (see performance, functionality, and known issues information here: http://vista.ncsu.edu/upgrade.php). We have also been analyzing other factors that may have contributed to the poor performance in spring 2007 (e.g. hardware, support from Blackboard), and we are working on addressing these issues as they are identified.

We would like to invite instructors, as well as interested support staff and students, to attend one of two identical forums we are hosting this fall on LMSs. During these forums, we will specifically discuss:

1. factors that contributed to the problems encountered during spring 2007;
2. what we have specifically done or will need to do to address these factors; and
3. strategic goals/direction for LMSs at NC State.

Dates/Times:

• Thursday, September 27, Talley Student Center Walnut Room, 1 – 3pm
• Friday, October 5, Talley Student Center South Gallery, 1 – 3pm