1 EDUCUASE Live: Selecting & Implementing a Course Management System for Your Campus Implmenting Moodle at SUNY Delhi Patrick Masson Chief Information Officer State University of New York at Delhi Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

2 Did we look like you? Campus Profile: Over sixty, one, two and four year programs Approximately 2,500 students Predominately web-enhanced courses Locally hosted on WebCT One asynchronous program Remotely hosted through SUNY Learning Network

3 Impetus for Change... Increasing interest/use of on-line resources New on-line programs: Bachelors of Science in Nursing Satellite campuses WebCT license to expire January 2008 Increasing costs

4 Assessment Criteria Business, Functional & Technical Requirements through APM Meet existing functionality and processes Story-telling: document repository, quizzes, forums Define desired functionality Use cases: asynchronous tools, collaboration Identify technical requirements Data center re-design Student Information System (Banner) integration via Luminis Message Broker

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6 Final Selection Remotely hosted Moodle instance at Moodlerooms. Staffing Two administrators (one new hire)  Program Development  Instructional Design  Moodle administration 0 Technical staff  0 PHP, MySQL, etc. staff

7 On-line Courses (Sections)

8 Moodle Adoption

9 Moodle Total Cost of Ownership

10 At SUNY Delhi our total costs for running Moodle for was $57,500 and includes: $6,000 for remote hosting through a 3rd party provider: This provides access for all 3,000 students and 150 faculty to SUNY Delhi's complete catalog of courses and sections. Includes development, test and production environments, back-ups and archives, 24/7 support, SIS integration. $49, FTE annual salary for Coordinator of Online Education: This position provides support for creating content, developing online courses and programs, functional end-user training (in the LMS as well as other educational resources used in online courses: course capture, podcasting, etc.), and LMS application administration. NOTE: LMS application administration does not include any programming (e.g. PHP), DBA (e.g. mySQL), system's administration (e.g. Linux, Tomcat, VM, etc.) or networking duties. The position only administers Moodle via the native administrative functionality available through Moodle handling password resets, learning module configuration, user interface design, etc. $2,500 for other online learning specific costs: NetTutor License ($1,500), Luminis Message Broker license to integrate Moodle and Banner ($300), HostMonster account providing Moodle sandbox ($100), Travel and Professional Development for the Coordinator of Online Education ($600). Total costs for running WebCT for was $78,350 and includes: $19,350 WebCT license: Provided access for all 2,800 students and 150 faculty to SUNY Delhi's complete catalog of courses and sections. Each course was created in the LMS whether that was an in-person course (where the LMS simply provides access to course materials) or an asynchronous course (totally online). $2,500 ($10,000 over four years) for local hosting (dedicated hardware) of WebCT: Includes production environment, back-ups and archives, 8/5 support, SIS integration. $5,000.1 FTE Systems Administration: This position provides server/systems administration and network administration for local WebCT support. $49, FTE annual salary for Coordinator of Online Education: This position was staffed by our current Coordinator and provided analogous support, creating content, developing online courses, LMS functional end-user training, and LMS administration. LMS Administration did not include any programming, DBA, system's administration or networking duties. The position only administered WebCT via the native administrative functionality available through WebCT handling password resets, configuration, user interface design, etc. $2,500 for other online learning specific costs: NetTutor License ($1,500), Luminis Message Broker license to integrate Moodle and Banner ($300), HostMonster account providing Moodle sandbox ($100), Travel and Professional Development for the Coordinator of Online Education ($600).

11 Outcomes... Downsides Performance less than in-house* Access to support Upsides Immune to campus availability Moodle expertise 24/7 technical support Reduced service load

12 Benefits of Open Source Rich community of user forums, tutorials, resources, bug tracker Less Cost - at all levels Luminis Message Broker Digester - $0 WebCTimport tool - $0 Pace of development More social networking capability Web 2.0 More customizable Did I mention cost?

13 Timeline March Hostmonster account set up with multiple instances of Moodle for training development, experimentation, etc. ($75 /year splurge) May Course development server established June Initial training modules developed and delivered July Begin test Luminis Message Broker / Banner integration Fall initial courses developed for Spring 2008 production server October establish and test production server Spring offer Nursing BSN and Vet Tech courses on production server Spring/Summer additional training offered, Summer courses migrated Summer Fall courses migrated from WebCT/SLN Fall additional training and J-term/Spring course migration

14 Faculty/Staff Acceptance Training Concerns: Easier to learn Easier to use More features Exciting new possibilities Migration Concerns We do that for them Webctimport plugin from moodle.org Another channel to reach students Involved with Moodle Orientation for students No noticeable difference for registration, enrollments, etc. More interested in using the LMS for training and staff development

15 Student Opinions Love the new system: Easier to navigate than WebCT Like having images of fellow students Easier to follow discussions

16 Online Coordinator Faculty are more self-sufficient More fun to administer More focus on training Hosted in expert environment High level of customization More funds for faculty development

17 Administration Left research and decision in our hands Appreciate “international-ness” Bottom line: Furthering educational mission “Pot of Gold”

18 Thank you to... Clark Shah–Nelson Coordinator of Online Learning, SUNY Delhi Steve Worona, Director of Policy and Networking Programs, EDUCAUSE EDUCUASE “Live” audience Patrick Masson (970) 4MASSON