1. Moodle at DePauw:A Model for Managing Change Michael Gough& Lynda S. LaRoche DePauw University
2. About DePauw College of Liberal Arts and School of Music Enrollment 2,298 Faculty (FTE) 238
3. Rules of Thumb People don't like change Technology changes at warp speed Researching, relearning and training costs productivity IT can underestimate the impact of a change Recipe for strife between IT and the rest of the campus community
4. Our Model Bring stakeholders onboard Identify factors pushing for change Test and weigh options Pilot with early adopters Create a flexible roll out timeline Communicate via multiple channels Offer strategic support and training Gather feedback
5. Bring Stakeholders Onboard Who’s primarily affected by the change? Users: faculty and students Support: Instructional & Learning Services / Information Services Electronic Reserves: Library E-Services: Student information system Streaming Audio / Media Resources: School of Music Enable stakeholders to be an active part of the process
6. Identify Factors for Change Faculty Survey – Blackboard Basic How are you using Blackboard? What does it do well? How does it lack? What do you want to do with a learning management system? Results – Faculty Feedback on Blackboard Basic You cannot cross-link files or areas across courses. It is not easy to navigate – “it’s clunky”, too many “clicks”. It’s not reliable because it’s down a lot. It’s good for distributing my classroom handouts, but it does not have enough interactive features. It’s not learner-focused. I have to fit my pedagogy into the tool instead of fitting tools into my pedagogy…it’s compartmentalized.
7. Identify Factors for Change Administrative Factors Single sign-on capabilities (LDAP) Integrate with other university systems Sustainable and reliable Predictable cost structure Solid technical support from vendor or user community Cross platform functionality Customizable
8. Planning Strategy Faculty Driven Decision Partnership between Faculty Instructional Technology Support (FITS) and the Academic Technology Advising Committee (ATAC) FITS provided expertise ATAC openly communicated with campus through every stage ATAC made the final recommendation on what system best fit the needs of our campus
9. Test and Weigh Options Systems we originally researched: Sakai, Blackboard Enterprise System, Angel and Moodle After further research and evaluation, the decision to focus our attention on Blackboard Enterprise System and Moodle was made We already had experience with Blackboard and easily learned about the features of the Enterprise System Moodle was new to us, so we spent significant time extensively testing it
10. Focused Testing Again, we focused our attention on feedback received from stakeholders Usability of desired features Flexibility of the system – capability to make changes to code, licensing restrictions, etc. Integration with other campus systems All features supported by Blackboard Basic must be retained Robust support system Implicit and explicit costs – licensing, training, support, etc.
11. 1st Pilot with Early Adopters The Academic Technology Advising Committee (ATAC) recommended running a pilot on Moodle We sent a call out to campus and received several faculty volunteers
12. 1st Pilot with Early Adopters “Train the trainer” sessions were held to ensure we had sufficient staff available for supporting our pilot volunteers Considerable learning was done and important information was obtained The results of this first pilotwere positive, so a second pilot followed that wasequally successful
13. What We Learned No magic wand to easily convert courses from Blackboard to Moodle, but we did find bFree Design factor in creating Moodle courses Enable faculty and support staff to informally discuss what was going on – Moodle Users Group Assure faculty you will be there for them as they go through the transition
14. What We Learned Pilot testing provided an opportunity for support staff to gain a better understanding of what would be involved in training and supporting Moodle The Academic Technology Advising Committee (ATAC) decided to recommend Moodle be adopted as the sole learning management system on campus Over communication is better than a lack of communication
15. Create a Flexible Timeline The larger the change the greater the need for careful planning and flexibility Build enough time into your timeline so faculty members do not feel pushed into using a new system When issues arise, listen to faculty members, let them know you understand their concerns and adapt your timeline appropriately "I don't have time to upgrade right now."
16. Transition Timeline Fall 2006 – Research, build test servers, extensive testing, “train the trainer” sessions Winter Term 2007 – Training for faculty piloting system Spring 2007 – First pilot February 2007 – Faculty demonstrations for campus-at-large March 30, 2007 – Recommendation to transition Summer 2007 – Training for faculty participating in 2nd pilot 2007/2008 Academic Year – Provide both Blackboard and Moodle to campus Fall 2007 – 2nd pilot also begins the transition to Moodle Fall 2008 – Blackboard retired
17. Communicate Multiple Ways Open communication during every phase of this project was a key factor in making our transition successful Use every avenue of communication possible Newsletter published by Faculty Instructional Technology Support Informative emails Blog Campus Newspaper WGRE - our campus radio station Word of mouth from early adopters proved invaluable
18. Offer Strategic Support Training Target early adopters first Tiered training Be available! Moodle Transition Intro to Moodle Sessions Moodle User Groups (MUGs) Moodle Showcases Full-day Workshop FITS Summer Workshop "I don't know where to get help."
20. Gather Feedback Criticism is not a bad thing Implement tweaks based on feedback Reflect on the whole process Moodle transition process Feedback gathered from MUGs and Showcases Feedback from student workers “They don’t listen to me."
21. Lessons Learned from MUGs Adding items were automatically previewed Not able to edit gradebook, limited options Quiz timer not accurate Uploading a file to the advanced upload of files feedback removes grade and feedback
23. Conclusions – Lessons Learned The 5 Stages of LMS Grief 1. Denial or “I just figured out how to use Blackboard!” 2. Anger – Concerns over learning another system 3. Bargaining or “Give us one more semester!” 4. Depression – Low attendance at first 5. Acceptance or “Hey - this is cool!”
24. Contact Information Michael Gough, Instructional Technologist and Coordinator of Student Instructional Technology Support michaelgough@depauw.edu Lynda S. LaRoche, Assistant Director of Instructional & Learning Services and Moodle Support Coordinator llaroche@depauw.edu Thank you!
Notas do Editor
We’d like to give you our story of why we switched to Moodle and how we did it, then we’d like to discuss DePauw’s approach to managing change so that other institutions can apply this model to other major changes.
What we’ve learned from rolling out new technologies, upgrades ect.People like there routine and changes can frustrate themFew things change faster than technology – I like to think that it changes at warp speedThe upgrade/rollout process costs productivity and moneyIT often underestimates the impact a change will make on the users
From what we learned, here is the model we followed for the Moodle transition and one that we will use again for subsequent technology changes.
Ask who will be impacted by this change? Those are your stakeholders and they deserve to be given some input on the process.These stakeholders also can offer a wealth of information on how the system is currently used and what they wish it could do – Microsoft now offers to collect usage data in Vista, but they don’t ask what we wish it could do!Making the stakeholders a part of the process will take some of the guess work out of making the decision to change
This timeline was adjusted as we went through the experience. Originally, we planned to retire Blackboard during the summer of 2008; however, several faculty members were still needing to transition so we extended their access to Blackboard until the middle of the fall 2008 semester. Of course, Blackboard administrators were still able to access just in case there was a special need. In December of 2008, Blackboard was history.
Training early adopters first will allow for you to get a baraometer reading of the new solutionAlso – They will get excited and spread the word to their colleaguesOffer training that targets different audiences, try not to intimidate novice users or bore the more advancedLeave the door open for walk-in consultations, host open labs and post lots of support materialsFor the Moodle project we had several Intro sessions early on for early adopeters and support staffMoodle user group as already mentioned offered an organic discussion for faculty and staffShowcases were given where faculty emembers presented how they use moodle for their teaching how they believe it helps A full day workshop was offered for facutly to go from 0-60 in one day!FITS summer workshop explaination
Here’s a chart of the three types of audiences we targeted and the kinds of training offeredOpen labs were just announced times where we would be available to help (people feel more comfortable knowing they aren’t bugging you)Intro sessions – during the transition phase early adopters were past this point so this was catered more toward new usersFaculty showcases – great for starting a discussion of how moodles features can enahance pedagogy, but might be overwhelming for a minimal userMUGS – Only useful for folks who are using moodleWorkshops- proposal based – clients are coached through to accomplish their goal
Admit that the tool and the transistion is not perfect and listen to how you can make it better This also will help you later when you need to implement another large changeResearch the problems – some else might have fixed the issue or another solution might exist check out moodle.org or another community support forumReflecting on the whole process at the end will help improve the process next timeWe gathered this feedback via the MUGs and student workers and solutions were often found on Moodle.org or the NME forums
Results Hack implemented from moodle.org to disable the preview functionInstalled the Gradebook Plus module for Moodle 1.8Moodle’s server patched to keep better timeAdded a warning to the screen
Adoption over time, note that blackboard was retired in the Fall of 08. Most of our courses were already moved into Moodle before than. Also note how our efforts had the additional effect of boosting the number of courses in an LMS, this was encouraging and showed us that the new system was well received even from people who never used blackboard.
Can’t keep everyone happy, but following this roll out model did reduce the amount of strife.Denial – I just figured out blackboard!Anger – we took these concerned into consideration and offered lots of time and resources for changingBarganing – We listened and offered an extra semester for the change!Depression – Attendance was sparse at early training sessions and user group meetings; but, as time went on, more and more instructors came to training sessions. They soon realized that creating course materials in Moodle was not as hard as they imagined.Acceptance - We have seen many instructors catch on quickly to Moodle, and get very excited about the flexibility it offers. In addition, new tools such as WIKIs and course calendars have been explored. This enthusiasm has be passed on to their collegues who then benefit from the new tools.
Thank you, any questions? Do you have any tips that we might want to add to our model?
