Adopting a new Course Management System Michael Wilder, Assistant Dir. Instructional Design Joel...

Adopting a new Course Management System

Michael Wilder, Assistant Dir. Instructional Design

Joel Johnson, Instructional Designer

Northwestern College, St. Paul, MNCenter for Distance Education

distance.nwc.edu


Quote of the Week

"For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If you hit a tuning fork twice as hard it will ring twice as loud but still at the same frequency.

That's a linear response. If you hit a person twice as hard they're unlikely just to shout twice as loud. That property lets you learn

more about the person than the tuning fork."-Neil Gershenfeld, When Things Start to Think, 1999

ACCESS ConferenceNorthwestern College’s

Center for Distance Education March 7, 2008

Workshop AGENDAWorkshop AGENDAIntroductionsDiscuss your institution’s current status with an CMSStats and Definitions Benefits of and Opportunities for using an CMSNorthwestern College’s experience with it’s CMSLessons LearnedDemonstration of Moodle

Systems StructureCourseSite Tour

Q and A


Describe your CMS experience

Introduce yourself to 2 other people and describe your CMS status

Share with the group your unique experience



Stats and DefinitionsStats and DefinitionsCMS – Course Management SystemLMS – Learning Management SystemOpen Source and Commercial

The LMS market was worth $500 million in 2005 with the top 6 players taking 43% of the market

Open Source (GPL license) is taking ground People are moving away from BlackboardMore people are using Moodle. See stats



Stats and DefinitionsStats and DefinitionsCMS and LMS provides a repository for

learning content and manages all learner interactions

Comparison chart of Features



Benefits of Using a CMSBenefits of Using a CMSConsistent presentationAllows multiple users to access same dataRole basedContent can be stored, linked and released

sequentially



Benefits of Using a CMSBenefits of Using a CMSCommunication record is consistent and

resides inside the universityVulnerability of external systems Legal issues and FERPA issues

Establishes a record of validation for assignments and interactions

User logs track user participation, including the instructor’s



Opportunities for Teaching with a CMS

Opportunities for Teaching with a CMS

Discuss with your small group how you’re institution is using a CMS

Northwestern uses an Instructor site to disseminate information

We host a group site for Certificate studentsStudents in various geographical locations can

all interact with the same course



Northwestern’s ExperienceNorthwestern’s Experience

BLACKBOARDAdopted Blackboard in 1999License Level and CostUsage LevelOther NWC Activity




The SwitchTask Force CreatedNeeds AnalysisCost Analysis




The SwitchTask Force CreatedNeeds AnalysisCost AnalysisFeature Comparison




The SwitchTask Force CreatedNeeds AnalysisCost AnalysisFeature ComparisonRecommendation Pros VS Cons




MOODLESwitched to Moodle during SU 2006Ongoing TrainingUsed Both Systems during 06/07 YearCampus Wide Adoption by FA 2007 Current Support Structure



Lessons LearnedLessons LearnedKnow your institution - it’s users and needsTop-down buy in Define roles and usage levels early onClear communication is the key Manage expectations

Faculty may expect to hang on to old systemIncremental rollout


Look under the hood

Define Your System ArchitectureHardwareUsers and Roles CategoriesNaming Convention


Look under the hood

CourseSite TourTopics Content typesParticipantsThings to do and submit


Questions ?

Time for Q & AHand out CD of resources

THANK YOU!

[email protected]@nwc.edu

Adopting a new Course Management System Michael Wilder, Assistant Dir. Instructional Design Joel...

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