An Outsourced Open Source LMS and a Pot of

Gold?

Clark Shah-Nelson,

Coordinator of Online EducationSUNY Delhi College of Technology

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike: Clark Shah-Nelson, 2008.

Background

SUNY Delhi:

over sixty 1, 2, and 4 year programs approximately 2700 students In house WebCT server since 2004 Also hosted courses on SUNY Learning Network Predominantly web-enhanced courses Small but increasing number of fully online /

asynchronous courses

Online Courses and Enrollments

Growth:

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Courses Students

Spring 2006

Spring 2007

Spring 2008

Online Coordinator

Began December 2006 Past experience teaching with

E-Education (Jones) (1999-2001) eCollege (2001-2007)

Past experience admin/support for: Blackboard (2006)

Position described working with WebCT and SLN…

The Task…

Research and select a new system Migrate courses Train users Develop orientations, documentation, etc. By end of 2008…

No time for lengthy focus group sessions, LMS comparisons, etc.

Documentation

Agile Project Management Requirements Gathering in Confluence wiki Business, Technical,

Functional Requirements: Integration with Luminis Message Broker for

course setup, user enrollment via Banner Match current functions of WebCT

Upload and store media files Online quizzes, discussions, etc.

Total Cost of Ownership

Total Cost of Ownership3 year cost A Hosted A LocalLicense Year 1 $12,169 $12,169License Year 2 $12,169 $12,169License Year 3 $12,169 $12,169Membership $15,000 n/aBanner Connector $9,000 $9,000Server n/a $10,000Support Softw n/a IIS, SQLserverInit. Setup Fee n/a n/aRemote Hosting (3 years) $23,898 n/aSupp. Staff: Sys Admin (3 yrs) $19,227* n/a*Supp. Staff: Developer (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: MID (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Training (3 yrs) n/a*Supp. Staff: Help Desk (3 yrs) $19227 + Delhi Staff

Total $142,086 $45,507TCO Rating 0 1

Total Cost of Ownership3 year cost B Hosted B LocalLicense Year 1 13,100 (b); 40,100 (e) $32,470License Year 2 13,100 (b); 40,100 (e) $34,094License Year 3 13,100 (b); 40,100 (e) $35,717Membership n/a n/aBanner Connector np npServer n/a $10,000Support Software n/a IIS, SQLserverInit. Setup Fee $10,000 n/aRemote Hosting (3 years) $126,000 n/aSupp. Staff: Sys Admin (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Developer (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: MID (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Training (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Help Desk (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*

Total $225,300 (b); $306,300 (e) $112,281TCO Rating 0 0

Total Cost of Ownership3 year cost S Hosted S LocalLicense Year 1 $0 $0License Year 2 $0 $0License Year 3 $0 $0Membership $15,000 $15,000Banner Connector ? ?Server n/a $10,000Support Softw n/a IIS, MySQLInit. Setup Fee n/a n/aRemote Hosting (3 years) ? n/aSupp. Staff: Sys Admin (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Developer (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: MID (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Training (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Help Desk (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*

Total $15,000 $25,000TCO Rating 4 5

Total Cost of Ownership3 year cost M Hosted M LocalLicense Year 1 $0 $0License Year 2 $0 $0License Year 3 $0 $0Membership $0 $0Banner Connector $903 $903Server n/a $10,000Support Softw n/a IIS, MySQLInit. Setup Fee n/a n/aRemote Hosting (3 years) $9,000 n/aSupp. Staff: Sys Admin (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Developer (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: MID (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Training (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*Supp. Staff: Help Desk (3 yrs) n/a* n/a*

Total $9,903 $10,903TCO Rating 8 9

Final Selection

Outsourced Open Source LMS: Moodle hosted by Moodlerooms, Inc.

Do we need to hire more personnel? No.

Is the LMS stable and secure? Yes.

Out vs. In

Downsides: A bit slower than in house (bandwidth) Help - contact another company rather than the

tech around the corner

Upsides: Campus outages not affected Sys Admin focused ONLY on Moodle They purchase and maintain/replace

software/machines

Open vs. Enterprise Rich community of user forums, tutorials, resources,

bug tracker Less Cost - at all levels Luminis Message Broker Digester - $0 WebCTimport tool - $0 Just as stable and more feature-rich

More social networking capability, Web 2.0

Quicker to gain new features More customizable Did I mention cost?

Timeline March 2007 - Hostmonster account set up with multiple instances of

Moodle for training development, experimentation, etc. ($75 /year splurge)

May 2007 - Course development server established June 2007 - Initial training modules developed and delivered July 2007 - Begin test Luminis Message Broker / Banner integration Fall 2007 - initial courses developed for Spring 2008 production server October 2007 - establish and test production server Spring 2008 - offer Nursing BSN and Vet Tech courses on production

server Spring/Summer 2008 - additional training offered, Summer courses

migrated Summer 2008 - Fall courses migrated from WebCT/SLN Fall 2008 - additional training and J-term/Spring course migration

Faculty Members

Concerned about training: Took much less time than WebCT to learn Easier to use More features Exciting new possibilities iPod training program

Concerned about converting courses: We do that for them Webctimport plugin from moodle.org

Students

Love the new system:

Easier to navigate than WebCT Like having images of fellow students Easier to follow discussions

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

Staff

More interested in using the LMS for training and staff development

See LMS as a way to reach students Involved with Moodle Orientation for

students No noticable difference for registration,

enrollments, etc.

Administration

Left research and decision in our hands Appreciate “international-ness” Bottom line:

Furthering educational mission

$$$: The Pot of Gold

The End

Questions? Clark Shah-Nelson nelsoncs@delhi.edu www.delhi.edu - Confluence wiki documentation http://blogs.nercomp.org/blogs/nac2008/

2-3-98 - Open Source Conferenceand Moodle Moot at SUNY DelhiJune 19/20, 2008

www.delhi.edu/2-3-98/