So You Want to Switch Course Management Systems? We Have! Come Find Out What We’ve Learned. Copyright University of Okahoma This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author. Information Technology University of Oklahoma

Background Current product no longer supported Faculty dissatisfaction with performance and features of existing product Why the need for a new course management system? Provost-appointed task force –Upgrade or adopt new system Faculty survey – Pilot program Recommendation to purchase Desire2Learn and implement by Fall 2005 Selection Process

Expectations A fully operational Desire2Learn staging instance ready by April 4, Staging system to be used for training, developing summer intersession and fall courses, and course migrations from the current Blackboard 5.6 environment. (No mass migration.) This system was only to be used by faculty until summer intersession began. (No student access) This system will only be used for courses available through online enrollment on the Norman and Tulsa campuses. The project plan was built upon the following expectations:

Project Assumptions The budgetary estimate for hardware and software was approved. The Project Blueprint was approved. The Course Management System Task Force was the “owner” of this project and drove the timeline decision. This implementation only impacted the existing Blackboard environment. WebCT is still available.

Project Team Roles

Project Deliverables Staging System Plan – March 1 Staging System – April 4 Production System Plan – April 11 Train the Trainer sessions – April 11 & 12 External D2L Training Materials – April 11 Production System – July 8 Staging System becomes Test/Development System – July 8 Knowledge Base Articles – July 8 Support Staff Training – Summer Transition Plan - Summer

Project Risks Hardware not arriving on time Resource contention with other projects Shifts in timeline coordinated by CMS Task Force Delays with the Desire2Learn Team’s piece of the implementation

D2L Network Diagram

Training and Communications Training & Publicity coordinated through the Task Force –Point of Contact appointed from each of the 13 colleges Serves as trainer Provides initial support Distributes system updates Training Coordinator from Information Technology led the group in coordinating training efforts, developed materials and provided “overflow” training.

Training and Communications (cont’d) Training Plan –First meeting of college reps March 11 –Train the trainer training led by D2L April –Intensive training within colleges April 18 – 29 –Continue training as needed, determined by individual colleges May 1 – August 7 –Intensive training effort August 8 – September 2 –Training for support staff Summer

Training and Communications (cont.) Communications/Marketing –Provost sent announcement to faculty & published ads in the campus paper –College of Arts & Sciences prepared project website– –College contacts sent introductory & posted fliers providing contact information, training schedules, and project update –Login page of Blackboard changed, linking to project update site Concern with faculty on sabbatical who might have content in Blackboard

Project Milestones IT and D2L build Staging system –March 28 through April 4 Staging Environment Ready –April 4 Train the trainer training –April 11 & 12 Upload summer intersession and fall courses into D2L (spring intersession and summer courses will continue in Bb) –April 11 Training blitz –April 18 through April 29 Ongoing training –May through August D2L Production system ready –June 17

Project Milestones (cont.) D2L Production testing and data migration from Staging system –June 20 through July 1 D2L Production system finalized and launched –July 8 Summer intersession began on production system –August 2 Fall classes began on D2L –August 22 5,400 users accessed on day one 20,400 unique users in first two weeks with no performance issues encountered Blackboard service ended –September 30

Keys to Success Task Force was a collaboration of multiple academic and administrative units This paved the way for campus-wide buy-in, in part due to high level administrative support

Keys to Success Clear and Regular Communication –Documented meetings were essential –Knowledge is power – never too much communication to the faculty Distributed Training Team Work –Clearly defined responsibilities

Thank You!