Transforming the Instructional Landscape Scott Delinger

IT Strategic Initiatives Officer Office of the AVP and Vice-Provost (Information Technology) Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) BLUF: moving to Moodle Transition from Blackboard Vista to Moodle 2.0

LMS use at UAlberta Process & Reasons for Choosing Moodle Results of Our Moodle 2.0 Pilot (Winter Term 2011) Migration Process from Vista to Moodle 2.0 Migration Process from ‘mini-Moodles’ to Moodle 2.0 Outcomes (Needs Arising, Next Steps) Transition from Blackboard Vista to Moodle 2.0

WebCT centrally supported since ,000 course sections in Vista since 2007 AB School of Business: Blackboard since 2004 Moodles since 2005 Moodles: Campus St Jean, CS, English, History, Augustana, Humanities Computing, Physics, Philosophy, Psychology, Engineering, Education Static Websites Publishers’ Websites LMS at UAlberta

LMS Review in 2009 Support for Bb Vista to end in January 2013 VPIT: arm's-length research, report Research: LMSes available, in use. Features. Reasons: o Local experience o Existing Moodles o Flexibility o AB School Districts o Other PSE Institutions o Respect the Students (an aside) Process & Reasons for Choosing Moodle

University of Alberta First Year Student Experience Victoria Smart

Biological Sciences - First Year Fall 2010 Winter 2011 Course Online Content Biology Chemistry Math EAS English CourseOnline Content Biology Statistics EAS English

Systems Accessed O EAS O Department Site O eClass O Chemistry O Department Site O eClass O Math O Publisher Site O eClass O Biology O Department Site 1 st Term

A closer look……………. Systems Accessed O EAS O eClass eClass O Stats O eClass O Department Site Department Site O Publisher Site Publisher Site O Biology O Department Site Department Site O English O Moodle Moodle 2 nd Term

Advantages Disadvantages O Accessibility of content O Electronic copy of content O Examples of correct work O Multiple IDs and passwords O Trying to remember where different content is located O Many systems to learn O Have to print most things U of A

Wish List O More organized content O Not so many places to login O Clearer instructions O Practice exams that we can take online O No moving of content during term O More help for instructors who don’t understand the tools

Steps: o Choose a platform that instructors would embrace o Easy to use o Pre-populate required material o Grade book o Maintain consistent yet not slavish design layout o Provide training materials and workshops for instructors o Encourage tool use Addressing Student Concerns

Pilot parameters: o Must be positive experience allowing for transformation o Must represent wide variety of class types o Must inform our design of production environment o Must help us develop training resources o Must reveal Vista to Moodle translation needs o Must offer all Vista tools and more Project Team: o Ownership o Project Manager o CTL Tech team, AICT Managed Services o CSJ Moodle Dev o Communications o Training o Oversight cmte Moodle 2.0 Pilot, Winter Term 2011

Very positive feedback* Concerns: o Forums o File management o ‘Linearity’ or scrolling o Elluminate (oops) Next Steps: Spring Term 2011, project plan o Plan includes work packages, comm plan, training plan Results of Moodle 2.0 Pilot

Migration from Bb Vista to Moodle 2.0 Look at course complexity o How many are simple courses? o How many will be manual conversions? o How well do commercial migration tools work? o A number of instructors prefer starting from “scratch”. o How many Moodle instances will be used? Faculties may want admin rights. o Will unit(s) move as programs or individual courses?

Migration from mini-Moodles (Moodle 1.x) to Moodle 2.0 Many Faculties have their own instances of Moodle ranging from 1.5 -> 1.9 that need to be migrated to Moodle 2.x o Any third-party plugins must be converted first o How many use third-party plugins? o What Moodle version do Faculties run? May imply many steps. o Migration process document provided by CSJ. o New Moodle 1.9 -> Moodle 2.x conversion tools o Help from CTL/CSJ provided to all Faculties

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate University communications challenges o Five campuses, other outlying sites o Decentralized structure o 18 faculties, 78 departments, many non-academic units o not universally read o Google Apps project o 8,400 faculty, librarians, grad assts, other academic staff o 6,500+ support staff o 37,600 undergrad, grad students; 14,300 extension students

Outcomes: Needs Arising o Themes - Default and Faculty-specific o Forum management o Grade book modifications - allowing 10ths* o E-portfolios - Mahara o Google integration - groups, sites etc. o Peoplesoft o IMS and SSO o Elluminate Live web conferencing o Lecture capture

Outcomes: Next Steps o Spring Term and Summer Term o Set up production hardware environment o Automate data conversion o Invite instructors to transition courses for Fall Term o Continue to develop training materials, workshops o Celebrate stellar adoption and uses in Festival of Teaching

Questions? Thanks to Victoria Smart, UAlberta student