To: Bill Randall, Vice-President, North Carolina Community College System Office

From: Amy Brown, Director, eLearning, Guilford Technical Community College

Re: Moodle

Bill,

Per your request, I am sending you information about GTCC’s journey from Blackboard to Moodle. The following document consists of reasons, timeline, pros and cons and feedback gathered during this process.

GTCC began exploring its LMS options in the summer 2007 in response to a RFP from the system office offering free Moodle training and server space. At that time, we also became a part of the TLT collaborative to take advantage of free Sakai training and access.

Personally, I entered into this process with doubt that GTCC could make this jump from one LMS to another. GTCC has spent over 10 years on Blackboard and our faculty seemed happy with that product. We were doing great things as part of the NCLC Blackboard consortium working with Craven, South Piedmont and Cleveland Community Colleges.

During the 2006-2007, our school began experiencing major problems with Blackboard. Upgrades were failing. Content was lost. Our system was so slow that it often came crashing down weekly. Blackboard sent us a second invoice for over usage with little to no customer service to help us solve our problems. Faculty and students were frustrated.

Our journey consists of the following steps. This is an overview, more detailed in the document that follows.

eLearning explores a variety of systems over summer 2007 for fall pilot including Moodle, Sakai, Angel and Desire 2 Learn.

eLearning suggests Moodle for fall pilot based on faculty feedback from training, presence of stable tools that are used heavily in Blackboard and flexibility with other systems.

During fall 2007 pilot, faculty and students share their feedback on the system. ALL faculty members including adjuncts received access to the system to provide feedback. Our online degree students took classes in both Blackboard and Moodle to give us feedback on the differences of the two systems. Disability services reviewed the LMS for ADA compliance. MIS provides feedback on the functionality of Moodle with other systems.

eLearning presents research and feedback to Academic Leadership Team consisting of curriculum Division Chairs and Vice President of Instruction for

1

final decision. The decision was made to renew Blackboard for one year while purchasing Moodle server to give us time to migrate our content.

eLearning begins massive, on-going re-training program of faculty and staff on Moodle. By the end of spring 2008, almost 300 people at GTCC are Moodle proficient.

During summer 2008, eLearning facilitates the migration of content from Blackboard to Moodle. A team of faculty members are trained by Remote Learner and hired to move content. By the end of the summer, over 300 courses are moved from Blackboard to Moodle.

GTCC is using Moodle for 100% of its courses by spring 2009. On May 13, 2009, GTCC will have Blackboard erase all of its content off the

Blackboard server for it to be resized and upgraded for the consortium.

Overall, we consider the move to Moodle a success. Within one year, we have already created ways for Moodle to work with some of our other systems including iTunes U and the Library databases. When the decision was made to move to Moodle, we did not have 100% favorability from the faculty for the move. No school will achieve a consensus on a project like this. Most of the faculty concerns about the move centered on how migration would be handled and not Moodle itself.

You asked about successes. Here are a few of our successes with Moodle:

Moodle allows us to explore more team teaching than ever before. For instance, in Blackboard if you combined multiple sections of courses together, you would have difficulty keeping the sections apart including the grade book. In Moodle, faculty can work together to create content while keeping their individual sections apart. This allows faculty members to communicate directly with just their students. We just finished our peer review project where online faculty reviewed all of our online courses. Online courses that were team taught received some of the highest scores of our online courses.

One of our best decisions was hiring faculty to move courses. Some other community colleges had their distance learning offices move the content, but we are too big of an institution to do that. Others hired Remote Learner to move the content, but that model proved costly plus it lacked contact between the person moving the course and the person teaching the course. Over a three-month period, six faculty members plus members of the eLearning staff moved the content of the courses. Team members often talked directly to the faculty members about their course and how they wanted the migrated handled. In the end, our faculty felt like we had respected their time since we did not ask them to move their content and gave them time to learn the system.

After using Moodle for a year as a school, many of the faculty members who were negative about the switch have since changed their mind. Knowing the system and having their content intact made them more confident about Moodle. As their peers began to embrace the new system, they fears about the limitations about Moodle were laid to rest.

2

Spring 2009 was the most calm start of a semester that I have EVER experienced at GTCC. Our phone calls were minimal. I actually called MIS during the first week of school to have them check our phones since I thought something had to be wrong. Moodle was proving to be more student-friendly than we ever imagined. Due to its flexibility, MIS was able to provide us daily updates about registration so that students adding a course would see their Moodle sites within 24 hours. Before, students signing up during drop-add had to wait until the end of drop-add to see their course.

With every system, there are challenges. Here are a few of the challenges that we currently face with Moodle:

Moodle is LDAP ready, but not Datatel friendly. GTCC is slowly moving to LDAP and it may be some time before we can use this system to register students into our LMS. Since we are heavy users of the group feature and a large institution with many students, we hired a part-time programmer to create some in-house solutions for us around enrollment.

Publishers are slowly coming over to Moodle. Some are here, but many are not. Right now, our faculty members create hyperlinks in their classrooms to publisher resources. This is not the ideal. We rather have the content in the online classroom to streamline navigation. Ideally that content should be going into the NCLOR so that we can access it that way and avoid the need to find ways to integrate this content.

Only a handful of community colleges in North Carolina are on Moodle. This limits our number of resources considerably. Before with any Blackboard problem, you can find someone quickly in the state to help you solve an issue.

Our faculty members have specific requests for changes to Moodle that are coming eventually. Some of these faculty members can be vocal about these problems and misinform others that things are not working when really they are not working the way that person wants them to work. We have to stay on top of how faculty members perceive the system and make sure that they know that updates will come. This is common practice whenever you move from one system to another. Its natural human tendency to compare the present with the past and believe that how past systems worked as status quo.

What were our lessons learned and recommendations for other schools considering the jump?

A school’s eLearning staff and committee should explore several possible systems and narrow this down to one for a pilot. Faculty members barely have time to explore one system much less several. We did this, but we were not very public about stating this to faculty. In an effort to save time, we talked all about Moodle. Some faculty members believed that we did not review other systems. Make sure that your full evaluation process is as public as possible so that faculty members and others can explore this research if they wish.

3

The more faculty members you have involved in a pilot from diverse areas, the better. Realize faculty will have a hard time evaluating a new system without some training and some of their content already in the site.

Never stop stating the whys. Be clear about why you are switching. Saving money should not be the primary reason. For GTCC, it was not the primary reason, but we did not vocalize the other reasons enough. Faculty members were always convinced that it was because of the money. You can’t change technology just because of the money. It has to enhance learning, be student friendly and allow faculty members to create the resources and assessments that they need. We believe we did this, but we were not vocal enough about these reasons.

While talking to our students about what they liked and did not like about our LMS, I realized that GTCC had to make this leap. If I could go back in time, I would have found more ways to tap our students’ excitement about Moodle and had them talking directly to faculty and administration about it. Moving to Moodle made us more relevant to many of our students yet faculty members never heard this message directly from our students.

That in a nutshell explains GTCC’s journey from Blackboard to Moodle. The pages that follow are the documents used during the presentation to the Academic Leadership Team in fall 2007 to help them make their decision about whether use Blackboard or Moodle.

Please let me know if you need anything else from me about Moodle.

4

Our LMS(Learning Management System)

Overall Approach

As we approached the end of our three-year contract with Blackboard and the NCLC consortium, GTCC needed to explore its LMS options. Several reasons motivated this exploration.

Service from Blackboard ASP hosting is not high quality even though GTCC pays around $50,000 a year to host our server. Some of our upgrades failed. Content was being corrupted or lost. Problems were occurring that Blackboard could not explain. Help tickets were taking months for attention and sometimes were not answered. Faculty members were vocal about the slowness of the system. GTCC received a second bill during 2006-2007 for over usage.

The NCLC Blackboard consortium model that worked so well for us in 2005 is no longer meeting our needs. GTCC has requested an increase in faculty privileges such as changing student passwords that was not approved by the consortium. Scheduling upgrades means working around the calendars of four schools instead of just one.

Costs for our LMS were increasing due to the growth in eLearning and the use of online classrooms. This fall (2007), 65% of our sections use Blackboard either as their primary or supplementary means of instruction. Our current server configuration can not handle our current growth pattern resulting in slowness issues.

Our LMS must:

1. Have quizzes, discussion boards, assignment links, announcements, a clear way to upload files, reporting features for auditing purposes and a grade book. These are the most used features of our current LMS.

2. Be flexible so that it can be integrated with our existing systems.

3. Grow with us as online sections increase without large jumps in price. Costs should be sustainable over a long period of time.

4. Be student, faculty and learning friendly.

5. Have a regional host who has experience in hosting this platform, offer 24/7 customer service and 99% uptime guarantees.

5

Summary of Steps

Applied to become a NCMUG school

See Comparisons of systems page 4

See Moodle Pilot page 4

Joined the TLT Collaborative

See TLT Collaborative page 17

See System Office page 18

Attended Moodle and Sakai Training (Faculty and ELearning)

Created Fall Pilot

Announced Moodle Pilot to Faculty (via email in July 2007)

Presented at the Faculty Association Meeting in September

See Results page 4

Collect feedback from faculty, staff and students about Moodle

See Comments from Faculty page 5

See Comments from Students page 11

See Comments from DisAbility Services page 11

See Problems Encountered page 12

See Frequently Asked Questions page 13

Contacted current clients of our potential vendor

See Conversations with Clients page 21

Talked to book publishers about Moodle

Moodle Training, October 22nd

Present to Academic Leadership Team

See Possible Moodle Structure at GTCC page 12

Options for GTCC

1. Complete Blackboard contract 6/30/08, Migrate to Moodle by 5/08.

2. Renew Blackboard contract for one year as part of the consortium, Purchase

Moodle server now, Migrate by 5/09.

3. Renew Blackboard contract for one year alone, Purchase Moodle server now, Migrate by

5/09.

4. Renew Blackboard contract for three years as part of the consortium.

6

Pros/Cons of Blackboard and Moodle

BlackboardPros

1. Most of our faculty members are already trained in Blackboard. This eliminates the need for massive re-training.

2. Course content currently resides in Blackboard. This eliminates the need for a massive migration of content.

3. The system office is currently paying our license fees for Blackboard. 4. Blackboard currently works and integrates with several of our publishers including

Thomson and Pearson.Cons

1. Hosting at Blackboard has not met our expectations. Data heavy areas of Blackboard such as grade books are very slow. Some past upgrades have failed and content was lost.

2. System office may not continue to pay our license fees in the future.3. Due to steady growth, costs are increasing for Blackboard usage. GTCC received a

second invoice this year for over usage. This is after massive housecleaning over the summer of our server.

4. To be able to afford Blackboard hosting, we will need to stay with the consortium meaning that scheduling of upgrades will not be up to us. Faculty must keep the same level of permissions that we have now. Students and faculty must continue to log into Blackboard using the “gtcc-“ prefix.

PricingYear 1 (05-06) $26,263, Year 2 (06-07) $35,020, Year 3 (07-08) $44,000 + $12,266 = $56,266

MoodlePros

1. Moodle is open source so that we can spend our money on additional space to stay ahead of our growing needs instead of license costs.

2. Moodle has the same features as Blackboard that our faculty and students use frequently. Moodle also offers additional features not in Blackboard such as blogs for everyone, built-in wiki, hyperlinks for glossary terms, lessons that allow for branching and advanced reporting features.

3. System office is Moodle-friendly. 4. The UNC system is exploring to an open source solution. North Carolina Community

College System is partnering with them to pool resources. This means GTCC could take advantage of new tools being developed by universities. Also, it means our college transfer students will be prepared for the online environments at the UNC schools.

Cons1. Changing systems means that faculty and staff will need to be re-trained.2. Changing systems means that content will need to migrated from Blackboard to Moodle.

This means the creation of a migration team made up of faculty and staff to move content during the spring semester.

3. Publishers are starting to create common course cartridges that work with any platform, but many are not there yet.

4. Structurally, Moodle looks different from Blackboard. Some faculty members cannot adjust to this change quickly.

PricingYear 1 (07-08) $38,000 (GTCC-specific customizations), Proceeding years $18,000

7

Comparison of systems

Blackboard is our current LMS that offers a license-agreement model. Blackboard can only be hosted either at our school or at Blackboard. Right now, the system office is paying our license fees and we are paying our hosting fees as part of the consortium. Educators can make suggestions of changes, but the final decision for upgrades rests on Blackboard’s Development Team.

Sakai is an open-source platform that began in 2004. Currently, Sakai is missing some core functionality, has an immature development process and many key tools are not stable at this time. The community management model is structured with an elected board of directors and defining voting process for conveying the community priorities for development. The board of directors consists of representatives from large research universities and corporations. Sakai requires the school to develop the missing core functionality. Its source code is complex and requires a programmer on campus to make it productive.

Moodle is an open-source platform that began in 1998. It is more mature and it offers more robust functionality than Sakai. The community management model for Moodle is an informal hierarchy and the core design group which decides development priorities receives suggestions for changes through informal discussion. Moodle development is led by the Moodle Foundation which is led by the Moodle creator Martin Dougiamas. All Moodle partners hosting Moodle must give 10% of their Moodle income to the foundation to keep it moving forward. All members of moodle.org have equal voting power in new Moodle tools. Moodle has richer and more stable functionality in the tools most commonly used by instructors. Its source code is not as complex as Sakai.

Moodle pilot

GTCC is part of the NCMUG project with the system office. We received free Moodle training the summer 2007 and 20GB Moodle server for a pilot. After attending training, several instructors requested their fall course in Moodle instead of Blackboard.

Courses now in Moodle (Fall 2007):

NOS 230-01, Windows Administration I, CIS-110-OL1, OL2, Introduction to Computers, ENG-111-OL1, OL2, OL3, OL4, Expository Writing, ENG-114-OL1, OL2, Argument-based Writing, COM-110-OL3, OL4, Introduction to Communication and GRA-153-01L, Computer Graphics III

Faculty Association Presentation (September 12, 2007)

Over 50 full-time faculty members attended this presentation to see Moodle and learn how they had access. Before the presentation started, the following questions were asked using the classroom clicker technology to gather anonymous feedback:

8

1. What are your thoughts about Blackboard?

14.29% Love it 54.29% Like it 14.29% Neutral 8.57% It’s not great 8.57% Hate it

2. What is your reaction to a possible change in Learning Management Systems?

14.29% Freaking out 22.86% Worried 17.14% Neutral 25.71% OK 20% Let’s go right now.

After the presentation of Moodle, the following questions were asked:

3. What is your reaction now to Moodle? 28.57% I like it better than Blackboard. 45.71% This looks interesting. 14.29% Neutral 11.43% Still a bit worried. 0% Still freaking out.

On October 22, 2007 - 59 faculty and staff members signed up and completed Moodle training. Departments that attended the training include: LRC, English, IT, Math, EMS, Surg Tech, Dental, Dental Assisting, Developmental Reading, HVAC, Accounting, Business Administration, Physical Sciences, Fire Protection, CFA, Communication, Social Science, ESL, Early Childhood, Aviation, History, OST, Heath, College Transfer Center, Assessment Center and Con-Ed.

Comments from faculty(Collection of emails, comments made on surveys and discussion board postings from faculty)

Received from Patty Cates In anticipate that the school might be moving to Moodle in a couple of years, I asked the book rep to see if there was an interface available for our web pieces for the ACC 120 book through Moodle. They do not. That will cause a significant problem for us. We have a great deal of course materials, interactive homework, etc. built and all the classes are web enhanced. Truth be told, we're a little scared. Do you have any insight?

Replied to Patty CatesI understand completely that you are scared. You guys do have a lot of content with your publisher. Frankly, I haven't seen the Thomson Now Building Block in action so I don't know how integral the process is.

There are a handful of departments that are heavy users of course cartridges and Blackboard integrations and your department is one of the main ones. Yes, we need to meet together to figure out a strategy for you. Before the integration, were you relying on simply course cartridges or links in Blackboard to the publisher's websites?

9

The Moodle decision is still out until October 19. I am waiting on faculty to jump into Moodle and share their thoughts with us via the survey and discussion board. If the majority of the faculty say, don't go, we will sign a one-year contract with Blackboard. If they want to jump, then the shift will be faster than a few years. Our present Blackboard contract expires June 30, 2008 - meaning that we will have to leap as soon as summer 2008.

BEFORE October 19, is there a way that the four of us can sit around a table with your publisher on the phone and talk about some strategies? They may not be able to create a Moodle cartridge by the timeframe but maybe we can figure out other ways to get the content into Moodle.

This transition (if it happens) will be a scary one, but honestly it is quite overdo for GTCC. We need a LMS that is more flexible than Blackboard. We are growing too fast and we have too many unmet needs. This summer, we did look at other systems like Sakai (which is one that I believe Thomson does work with), but the system is not stable - it was created in 2004! Many of its key features are not working properly.

Let me know when we can get together. Amy

Received from Connie CarrollAmy,Once again it appears that the math department is going to be labeled as the opposers. There is much concern among department members about switching to Moodle because it appears that using TestGen for online tests is an issue in Moodle. With the push for online instruction, this will be a major concern. A couple of math instructors have mentioned this and we discussed the potential change to Moodle in our departmental meeting yesterday. For math instructors to do online and/or web-enhanced classes, there needs to be the capability to do online testing for quizzes and tests. Many of our textbooks have testbanks that use Test Generator for the online tests.Will you please let us know what you have found out about Moodle and TestGen.Thanks.Connie

Replied to Connie CarrollYes, Lynn Scott has been working with us to troubleshoot Test Gen. Our Moodle contacts have told us that Test Gen works with Moodle. We are trying to figure out the right combination of settings to make it work. Is there a way that Michael and I can borrow one of your Test Gen discs to load it to our machines so that we can use it ourselves and figure it out?

Received from Michelle JarvisI just wanted to let you know that I received the e-mail from Michael about Moodle and the content migration concerns. I can speak only for myself, but I imagine that other faculty feel the same way, and I think it's fair to let you know. I understand that we will have support for the migration, and that's a good thing, but if we faculty encounter problems that cause content to nonetheless be lost or just experience a huge time obligation to get courses set up again, this is a concern and a problem.

Please understand that this isn't an objection to going to Moodle but rather a concern that really hasn't been allayed by reassurances of support. If I could hear from faculty at other schools who have already gone through migration, it would go a long way to making me feel better about what we are about to do.

10

Just as an aside, I probably won't be personally affected by the migration as I don't plan to teach the web enhanced course after the spring. I did, however, think it was important to let you know what might help faculty to feel better about the change.

Replied to Michelle JarvisThanks for telling me Michelle and believe me, I understand those concerns and hear them. Part of the risk of migration is that we can lose content. But realize that we face that risk all the time just in Blackboard. Michael and I encounter problems every semester just moving a Blackboard course into another Blackboard course. That is why we want to use this transition to reinvent how we do things so that we don't have to keep moving around content. Instead, faculty should have a set place to store their courses so that they can work on them 365 days a year without waiting on us. That is our mission with Moodle.

I prefer Blackboardby Carol Schmid - Friday, 5 October 2007, 11:42 AM---------------------------------------------------------------------I also prefer Blackboard for some of the same reasons at Rita. I find Moodle too busy. All the content (instead of a textbook) is on the Course Documents on Blackboard. I have much better control of this with Blackboard that I would with Moodle. I also use the Announcement board a lot, especially for my three merged large Intro Sociology classes (also 150 student). I personallyprefer Blackboard after going through all of the Moodle examples.

Received from Danielle RichardsonI went in and looked at Moodle and it seems easy, but different. Anything with change is going to take time to learn. I actually have the opportunity to use Moodle at Randolph in the spring and would like to use it at GTCC as well. I feel the only way to learn is to actually use the program. (That is assuming that you all are going to go with Moodle).

I spoke with David Smith and he wanted my impressions of Moodle since I know Blackboard so well, but I feel I need to know/see more before I can give him an honest opinion.

Also, I think it is great that you are giving the faculty the opportunity to see Moodle and play in the course. I think it is sad though that so many people have not even logged in to see what Moodle is about or for a refresher from your presentation.

Oh well. I just thought I would give my opinion. I feel that you do look out for what is best for the faculty and trust your judgement.

I prefer Moodleby Lori Robertson - Friday, 12 October 2007, 12:02 PM---------------------------------------------------------------------Moodle seems much more cognitive and easier to navigate. I like how it allows us as instructors to be highly interactive with the students in various formats and for the students to be interactive with others in the same ways. One of the bonuses that Moodle has that Bb does not is the ability to teach one course with multiple sections, but have separate grade books for each section. I like that everything is housed on the main page of Moodle and content isn't buried within the course, which can sometimes make content hard to find for students in Bb. Often studentsget frustrated by having to dig for content in Bb and excessive clicking throughout the site. The editing is wonderful and requires a lot less clicking and navigation for the instructor. There seem

11

to be more options with the sticky blocks in Moodle to personalize your course. The only downside I've seen of Moodle so far is the Announcements capabilities that Bb has, but I think that can be fixed by adding a Topic at the top of the page and/or by using the News Forum.

Moodle vs BlackBoardby Kathy Willard - Saturday, 13 October 2007, 06:22 PM--------------------------------------------------------------------- I can see advantages to both BB and Moodle. Moodle appears to be more user friendly to students. It is easier for them to find assignments, etc without needing to drill down several times. I have read several comments from instructors who have actually used Moodle during the semester and am concerned that the instructor will need to alter some of their current methods of doing business in BB in order to fit Moodle. I can adapt to Moodle and understand the economic/other reasons that force us to look for another system. My main concerns are transferring content and maintaining iTunesU availability.

Received from Virginia TunstallThank you for the demo Friday.I do have a question - of course did not think of this Friday. I know you said that with Moodle we do not have to store assignments in a designated ASSIGNMENTS location but can we set up our courses that way with Moodle? One of the things my students like about the ARC online courses is the organization.

Lovin' Moodle!!!by Megan Simpson - Tuesday, 16 October 2007, 12:43 PMI really am enjoying working with Moodle this semester. It is so much fun. I love how I can see my student's activity- each time they click on an assignment, each time they view a resource, and when they submit their assignments, etc.

My students love Moodle too. They like to be in on the cutting-edge of technology. I even overheard students talking about it: "Oh, are you taking that online class with Moodle?"- kind of bragging about it.

I like how I can see when my students are participating and when they are online in the course. I like how Moodle shows, in Participants, how long it's been since the student's last log in.

I think we definitely should migrate to Moodle. I love the technology and am thrilled that maybe some of our students in Computers and IT can create code to modify and enhance our Moodle sites.Megan

Received from Amanda RiversI have only briefly visited Moodle. It seems to have several cool options to it. I have two concerns. My first is with the amount of work that will be required to switch classes from Blackboard to Moodle. Tied in with that, I am also concerned that the classes I have archived that I might currently not be teaching will be completely lost to me in the future as I do not have time to switch them over in a semester when I am teaching them. (For example, I taught English 114 online for the last time in Fall 2006; I currently do not have time to move it over by myself. What happens to that content if I cannot move it from Blackboard to Moodle in time?)

12

My second concern is for the students. I mentioned that GTCC was looking at a new platform option for online classes and/or supplements. The students' immediate response was "Who else (meaning other universities) is using this" and "I just became familiar with Blackboard - how am I going to learn another platform".

I think that there will be some student (as well as faculty resistance) for these two reasons.

Again, I have not had as much time to get into Moodle as I would have liked, but these are the two major problems I foresee.

Take care,Amanda

Received from Joan MoranThe faculty I have talked to are in favor of Moodle. I don't think most of our content should be difficult to switch.

Joan Moran, Chair/Associate ProfessorEarly Childhood Education Department

Received from Debbie AllisonI'm game with moodle. Just need help switching over. Also let me know if anyone cancels Monday for 'moodle training' if not, can I stand in the back and just listen????

by Carra Miskovich - Friday, 19 October 2007, 11:00 PMI am open to Moodle, indeed. It appears to be user friendly and if it isfaster than blackboard, I am all for it!

Received from Ron GreeneUntil our faculty meeting Wednesday I was on the fence about the moodle move. I am now not in favor of the new system because it is awkward to use and not intuitive. Learning this system would be very time consuming and probably even stressful at times. Since I do not teach distance courses anymore, I do not want or need so many options and confusions.Blackboard has it faults, but it is simple and meets my needs as a supplement to my five courses. Ron Greene, English/Humanities

Kay UnderhillI don’t like Moodle. Stay with Blackboard.

Rita GressWhen I first created my Bb course, I logged over 80 hours during the summer months when I was not teaching to enter content and organize it the way I wanted.   How will I ever get this much time to work on Moodle during Spring semester without tons of  reassigned time? I also like the way Bb looks--I can set a color scheme and organize it in areas & modules of assignments and lectures. Moodle looks too generic, plain and BUSY! I can't find stuff in Moodle.

Ron Hamilton

13

Blackboard is a part of text now. It is important we can continue to use online exams and test banks.

Randy LudingtonJust make it easier, faster and more reliable than Bb. Not knowing anything about Moodle, there are many concerns. Not the least of which is all of the Bb content in my courses and how that is going to "migrate" to anything, let alone Moodle. Who is going to "migrate" this work?

Elaine SimmonsI am neutral. I leave it up to the majority.

Amy HuffmanWill anything be lost? Is there anything available in Blackboard now (except, of course, the snail-like pace of the Grade book) that isn't available in Moodle?

Sue CanterDoes the college have the necessary infrastructure (band width, etc.) to support on-campus access to Moodle?  We have such a slow response time from some campus buildings with Bb that it would be a shame to experience this with a new package.

Lynn ScottMoodle should have an organization that supports both weekly assignments and materials for reference.  For example, if web-enhanced classes meet once per week, there should be a way to organize assignments by week to present them in an organized manner to our students.  There should also be a reference area, similar to Course Documents in Blackboard, in which chapter / unit reference documents can be organized so that if students miss class, they can print the documents they need.  This is also pertinent to those classes which meet totally in the classroom.  There is still the issue of missed classes and the need to provide copies of documents. 

Second, Moodle should meet the needs of all programs on campus.  Blackboard is not perfect, but it has been used and adapted to meet needs.  If we cannot offer quizzes, labs and tests generated by a test generator and/or port the quizzes, labs and tests we have created on Blackboard (those which have pictures, images, etc.) in them, then Moodle is not going to work for those departments which depend on these resources.  This is particularly important for web-enhanced and online classes, in which online labs and quizzes are essential.  

Third, there should be sufficient testing to make sure all the functionality is there and it works before simply cutting over to Moodle.  If we cut over to Moodle and the functionality is not there, we will either have to cancel web-enhanced and online classes or we will have to find a method of delivery outside the Moodle system to reach our students.   The problem with another method is that it won't be consistent with the other departments who may not have these issues.  

Tiffany HunterI just want to be reassured that all of my course content will be migrated over without any problems.

14

Kent LangenwalterThe ease of faculty learning the new system, how 3rd party software will work with the new program, (respondus and such), and overall stability of the system and hardware. Loss of data, and programming of classes. I know a team will migrate all of the BB classes over but will it remain as it is set up or will things shift around?

Comments from students

I like both of the systems, but I think that I prefer Blackboard. From my experiences blackboard seems to be easier for students who may not be as computer savvy.

I am currently using both Blackboard and Moodle, and I agree that it is difficult to compare the two. There are things that I like about both. However, if I must give my preference, I will say Moodle - as long as the gradebook is readable! ;)

I really like both blackboard and Moodle, so it would be very hard to decide, I think that Moodle is easier to move around in but the test taking seems to be easier in Blackboard. I dont know I am really torn. I have 3 classes on blackboard and only one on Moodle.

Moodle, 100% all the way. Blackboard is as outdated as its real life counter-part.

I actually prefer Moodle. Moodle is more like an actual classroom and takes some of the frustration of "what do I do next" out of your work. It is also easier to contact your instructors in Moodle than blackboard. I really like being able to see that my instructor is online and can get immediate help sometimes. I've taken online classes in both formats. Neither is bad. I just prefer Moodle's style better.

For the limited amount of contact that I have in both systems I would state my preference at this time for Moodle, perhaps because I have actually spent more time in it due to the amount of online work in this Communicationsclass. :-) I do not have any issues with Blackboard and I found it fairly easy to move around for previous classes and for this semester as well.I have only used Moodle with GTCC (this is my first class at the college) and like it alot. I am very impressed. I can compare it to RCC and WSSU and probably like it the best.

Comments from DisAbility Services

From Kent Cowan, DisAbility Services I have reviewed Moodle using screen magnification software (ZoomText) and screen reader software (Jaws) and have found that it is accessible to persons with disabilities; primarily people using Assistive Technology to access the computer. In addition, I reviewed Moodle's current Accessibility Specifications, as well as the processes they have in place to address future accessibility issues, and have found them to be quite impressive. One suggestion that I would make, regardless of which course management system the college decides to go with, is that we provide detailed navigation instructions for AT users. From an accessibility/usability standpoint, I would support a decision to move to Moodle. From a personal standpoint, I really liked Moodle’s design/functionality.

15

Problems encountered

During our pilot, we encountered several problems.

1. Wimba Tools would not load properly. Solution: Install CURL and DOT XML to our Moodle server.

2. Respondus was not loading tests to Moodle. Solution: Respondus maintains a free plug-in to a Moodle server that allows Respondus to work with Moodle. This was loaded to our server.

3. Moodle has no math equation editor allowing faculty to easily insert mathematical symbols. Solution: Remote Learner suggested an equation editor that has been loaded to Moodle.

4. Test Gen is not working properly. Solution: Our eLearning programmer has created an in-house solution to this problem.

5. Grade books can me exported but not imported. Solution: This was solved with an upgrade to a newer version.

Possible Moodle structure at GTCC

Due to the growth and demand for online classrooms, eLearning at GTCC keeps growing. We need more than one instance of Moodle in order to meet this need. If Moodle comes to GTCC, ELearning proposes the following structure. We need 5 instances of Moodle on our server.

1. Curriculum Over half of all classes, eLearning and others, are using Blackboard. The number of Blackboard sites from last fall has increased by 20%. We need one instance of Moodle to meet the needs of our curriculum students. This instance must be integrated with Datatel so that student enrollment is automatic, automate the course creation process so that all faculty can create their future Moodle sites when they are ready and integrate with our other systems such as the online library databases, iTunes U and Cruiser.

2. Continuing Education Over the past year, there has been a steady increase in the number of Blackboard sites for Continuing Education sites. These courses run on their own calendar and operate differently than curriculum courses. Continuing Education needs its own instance so that it can adjust to their needs.

3. Public Potential students need access to our online classrooms to explore what GTCC has to offer and to find out if they are suited for eLearning courses. For instance, the online version of New Student Orientation is a perfect fit for this instance of Moodle. The general public can freely create their own accounts and come and go as they please. All we would require is an email address. On a regular basis, information would be purged and forwarded to marketing to alert these potential students about opportunities at GTCC.

4. Testing Having an instance of Moodle just for testing would allow us to show the newest versions of Moodle to faculty and staff before we updated our other instances.

5. One to grow on. We cannot predict the future, but having one extra instance of Moodle allows us to be ready to meet future needs.

16

Frequently Asked Questions

If we move to Moodle, will I lose all of my content from my Blackboard site? No. Our Moodle host will send people to our campus to teach us how to move content.

Why do we have to move anyway? We are approaching the end of our Blackboard contract on June 30, 2008. With all technology, it's important to step back and make sure that our tools are relevant and meet the needs. Blackboard has served us well over the past 10 years, but not great.

Blackboard was first hosted on campus, but after experiencing long downtimes since our MIS department does not work over the weekend, our school decided to pursue off-site hosting in 2005. In order to afford this expense, we had to partner with three other schools to save money on the hosting costs. As we near the end of our contract, we are learning quickly that we are outgrowing our consortium arrangement. Our number of Blackboard sites outweighs the needs of the other schools. Faculty need more control over student data such as changing passwords, but several schools in our consortium do not allow this.

We are also experiencing difficulties in getting new students in our system. The time has come to allow potential students access to our Learning Management System so that students can learn firsthand if a eLearning course is for them. Blackboard and our current systems at GTCC do not allow us this flexibility. Moodle will allow us to have a separate system just for the public and allow potential students to create their own account when they are ready.

These reasons and more make this time the best time to explore the possibilities of moving to another system.

Moodle is an open source Learning Management System. What does open source mean? Are we getting this for free? Nothing is free. We will always have to pay hosting costs for whatever system we choose. Open source means that the source code for the software and open to the public. Anyone can download Moodle to their computer right now. We pay a hosting service make sure that our service is up all the time and to make programming changes. Paying a hosting service also allows us to create an infrastructure for our systems to meet our growing needs.

If we switch to Moodle, will everything just operate like before in ELearning? I hope not. ELearning is a two-person operation that spends most of its time creating, maintaining and troubleshooting Blackboard sites. We hope that a switch to a more flexible system will allow us to automate some of our major processes such as course creation and student enrollment. This would give us more time to assist faculty to meet their online instruction goals and to embrace innovation.

Does a new system mean that I have to go through training again? Yes. During the spring semester, training sessions will be ongoing.

How is GTCC using Moodle during the fall semester? GTCC was one of five schools chosen to receive access to a free Moodle server and training for the next year. During this time, ELearning staff and faculty from various departments attended training and created their fall courses on Moodle. During the fall 2007 semester, we

17

have 15 active courses using Moodle. We are also using this server to give faculty and staff access to pilot this system.

Is there any chance that it could replace both GTCruiser and Blackboard? Moodle, if chosen, will replacement Blackboard. Hopefully Moodle and GTCruiser will be intergrated closely so that students can move nicely from one to the other.

What have other schools (and instructors specifcally) found when they migrated course content from Blackboard to Moodle? I know that we will have a team trained in migration, but things don't always go as smoothly in real life as they do in training.

True. Migration will be the most time-consuming and challenging task. That is why we plan to hire professionals to come to our campus and work with our faculty to migrate their content. Since everyone does something different, the answer to this question is "it depends". Several colleges have already taken the plunge and we are trying to find a way to have their faculty talk to our faculty.

What is the possibility that Moodle will cease to be open souce? As more schools implement it, I just wonder if there will be a movement to charge for Moodle, either outright or in the form of upgrades. It would not be good to be in the middle of a hosting contract and then get slapped with unanticipated fees from Moodle.

This is a great question. I have two answers:

1. The open source movement in regards to software is going full swing. Nowadays, the tools that we are using have free alternatives. This represents a changing mindset on the Internet. It's that concept of flat and free - keeping innovation and technology available to many people.

2. There are several open source solutions in Learning Management Systems. Michael and I looked at several of them. Most did not compare in infrastructure and approach to Moodle and Sakai. Sakai is leading away from the open source approach as businesses like Thomson and Apple invest huge amounts of money into them. Moodle was established very differently. It was created by one man, but it is supported by a foundation. Anyone who hosts Moodle commercially must give 10% of their income from hosting back to the foundation. The foundation then pays programmers around the world to create new tools for Moodle. So, it's has a sustainable model for growth and support without the need for commercial investment. That speaks volumes about the foundation's committment to stay open source.

The demo screen you showed yesterday seemed a little visually busy to me for developmental students who tend to need as few distractions on a screen as possible. I know that the sticky blocks can be customized to remove as many as needed, but then how hard is the information to find? Where would students find this information? Developmental students tend to want very easy access to everything or they just won't look for it.

I did have a lot of things on the screen, but realize that I put them there. As an instructor, you can create your Moodle site with fewer things so that your students do not get distracted. Realize also as ELearning Coordinator that I subject my students to all the new technology that we have at GTCC to gauge their reaction for the school. You were seeing a

18

bit of that on the screen.

Rest assured that you could easily have just one or two things on that page and make the course looked VERY STREAMLINED. What I think is that I no longer have to tell my students to click this button for this and this button for that. It's just right there - either that one assignment or hundred.

Does it have a gradebook component? Yes, Moodle does have a gradebook component. It works very similar to the Blackboard gradebook with either individual percentages for assignments or categories. One feature that I really like about grading in Moodle is that when I grade an asssignment (listed under activities), I can add a comment and a grade. As soon as I save it, the student receives an email alerting them that I have graded it. Of course, it looks a little different from Blackboard initially, but with anything new, once you know what to touch and what everything is called, you are off and running.

What kind of flexibility do the "stickies?" offer? Sticky blocks can be added and removed constantly and you have several options. We are working with our potential vendor to explore other ways we can use sticky blocks at GTCC. For instance, we use iTunes U a lot. Access to iTunes U will take the form of a sticky block. The library wants to work closer with faculty to push articles from the online databases directly into the online classrooms. This would be a sticky block. The possibilities are endless.

Speaking of flexibiility, since Moodle is much more flexibile than say Blackboard or Cruiser, we have some real opportunities to tailor the environment to meet the needs of GTCC. One of the challenges that we have given our potential Moodle vendor is to create an online attendance roster for all faculty where he/she can keep attendance. Then, after the 10% point, Michael and I click some buttons and generate the attendance forms for every class at GTCC. Death to the green bar forms! It's a big goal, but one that we are working on thanks to Moodle.

How does the user organize material so that some is highlighted and some is meant to be used at later dates? There are a number of strategies to highlight material. The easiest is closing the eyeball of everything that student should not see right now. When an assignment is over, I hide it from a student's sight. You also have the option of different outlines to use such as social, topic and weekly. I am a fan of the weekly outline where I allow students to see only one week at a time. Also, you can make text larger and add color to direct their attention.

Beside cost what are the advantages of using Moodle over GTCruiser, which is already in place and used by some faculty. Are we paying for the simplicity that Moodle offers over the more complex Cruiser? GTCruiser is GTCC's communication portal and it does offer several handy course-specific functions like tests, gradebook and a place to keep documents. And it's tied in nicely to Datatel thanks to the marriage of WebAdvisor and Datatel. But, because of it's level of integration and some of our internal processes here, faculty do not have access to their course sites until 24-48 hours before the first day of class. Online instructors start working on their online classrooms months in advance.

GTCruiser's real gift to GTCC is giving students a branded email account and a school-wide

19

approach to communication. The LMS tools are still a bit basic and evolving since TimeCruiser is now trying to get in the LMS market. Realize though that our school uses Cruiser only for curriculum students. They are the majority of our students, but they are not the only ones who use our LMS. Our next LMS needs to be a GTCC-wide, long-term, sustainable and flexibile solution. I think Moodle fits that need nicely. Before we use a new system at GTCC though, realize that it must talk to Datatel and streamline the process of loading students.

Is there a class roster component in Moodle like Bb? If you are talking about the List/Modify Users function in Blackboard, then the Moodle equivalent is called Participants in Moodle. Look for it in the top left-hand corner. If you use your grade book, then you can use your grade book in Moodle.

20

Appendix

From the TLT Collaborative

GTCC ELearning is part of the TLT Collaborative. The TLT Collaborative was formed by the UNC schools to find an open-source LMS solution per the request of Erskine Bowles. The collaborative invited several community colleges to join their group. Their goal is to explore the two primary open-source solutions and make a recommendation based on technical and academic merit.

Most campuses of the UNC and Community College systems make use of commercially available course management systems. With the exception of the common hosting of Blackboard Vista through a consortium of four campuses, the majority of the implementations are unique to individual campuses. Depending upon the course management system being used, on the individual campuses there can be expenses related to initial licensing, ongoing annual maintenance fees, hardware, software, server administration, application administration, training of staff, workshops for users, support of users, backups, disaster resistance, etc.

There are two major avenues of efficiency and cost effectiveness that can be:

1.     • Replacing commercial course management systems with open-source versions.

2.     • Hosting from central locations.

This project phase will focus on number one, the replacement benefits.

Objectives

The first part of this project will need to be an evaluation and viability study of Moodle and Sakai, the leading open source products, in comparison to Blackboard’s systems, which are currently in production across the state.  The current plan to complete this study is to establish a statewide team divided to accomplish the following:

1.    Functional Evaluation: Evaluate the teaching, learning, and administrative functions of these systems.  This evaluation may draw on research and assessments already undertaken by other universities as well as evaluators’ experience of the programs.

2.    Evaluation in Practice: Gather data from faculty and students’ experiences meeting their teaching and learning goals with Moodle and/or Sakai in comparison with their experiences with their home campuses’ CMS.

3.     Technical Evaluation: Evaluate the integrity of these products as production-level software products.

4.     Cost Analysis: Analyze TCO for course management systems and the costs associated with switching from one system to another.

21

From the System Office

From Bill Randall, Vice President, Learning Technologies, North Carolina Community College System Office

The NCCCS commitment:The System Office is committed to exploration of an alternative enterprise course management system that is affordable, meets our instructional/learning requirements, and customizable. We think Moodle is that alternative.

To that end, the System Office established the NC Moodle Users Group through a $40,000 contract to Remote-learner, Inc. in 2006, and resigned in 2007, to provide training, support, and hosted courses for 10 of our community college.

Based on the success of the NCMUG and that of Appalachian State University, the System Office entered into a contractual agreement with the University of North Carolina to establish the "Open Source Collaborative: Moodle Pilot" to further research the capabilities of Moodle as a potential North Carolina Higher Education e-CMS solution. The $170,000 expenditure of 2+2 funding to establish the Moodle collaboration was approved by the NC State Board of Community Colleges July 2007.

The Open Source Collaborative is consistent with NC e-Learning Commission recommendation #13, section c: Invest in resources for appropriate “open source” learning technologies to eventually replace proprietary systems and avoid escalating costs.

Open Source Collaborative: Moodle Pilot

Contract ServicesThe North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) will contract with the University of North Carolina (UNC) to provide:

Appropriate hardware consisting of servers and peripheral equipment; Branded, customizable Moodle access for each participating UNC constituent institution

and North Carolina community college; Security; Appropriate backups of content & databases; 24/7/365 support; Latest version of Moodle software; System administration; Application administration (Moodle) support; Programming for critical customization of Moodle software to accommodate needs of

NCCCS and UNC administration, teaching, and learning; Budget and administration of funds directed to Moodle Project; and Project staff to collaborate with NCCCS staff in drafting recommendations, policy,

project expansion, and reports.

A sum of $170,000 will be paid the University of North Carolina for the services indicated for a term of 12.5 months as specified in the Agreement. This contract will support a total student enrollment of 100,000.

Specific deliverables and anticipated costs are detailed below.

22

Hardware to include: Moodle rack servers capable of supporting a total of 100,000 learners Moodle instructor training conducted at several locations around the state Moodle administrator training conducted at several locations around the state Moodle training and support Annual support contract on purchased hardware

Servers each designed to support approximately 10,000 learners with the following specifications:

1. 2x dual-core Woodcrest Xeon processor server running Linux OS2. 2 GB Ram3. 2x 250 GB HD’s in RAID mirror configuration4. Custom Moodle theme for each participating school5. Monitoring software (includes RL monitoring)

10 rack servers target service to 100,000 students. Each server to run both the Moodle application and the database.

Servers will include a one-year support contract.

Both phone and Help Desk support. Technical support to include: Moodle installations, upgrades and additions of approved add-on’s Assistance with user authentication/enrollment setup (e.g. LDAP/AD, Banner, Datatel) Nightly backup configuration and monitoring Remote server monitoring (Cacti, Nagios)

Professional development services for campus teaching staff, which includes onsite 2-day training.

Provision of on-going staff development and help desk access. Include subscriber service ticket provision and scheduled virtual real-time and archived training sessions. Training topics to include:

How to use Moodle features New features introduced into the Moodle core Best practices in online learning Emerging trends in online learning How to use 3rd party tools for creating rich learning activities

Moodle administrator training for Moodle server technicians, including onsite 1-day training.

Moodle code review and consulting services for campus programming staff. This service will be available to named users within NC higher education who are designated as e-learning employee’s supporting Moodle. Each named user must be a qualified PHP programmer having a minimum of 5 years experience.

Costs Summary

Anticipated equipment, training, programmer consultation, system administration, support, and hosting costs.

Description Total $

23

Hardware Procurement, Hosting, and Support 96,000

Training 38,000

Moodle Programmer Consulting Support 5,500

Moodle System Administration and Support 20,000

Research Initiative Administration 10,500

Total 170,000

24

Conversations with current clients of potential vendor

Meredith Keene-WilsonLane Community CollegeOctober 15, 2007

Your name has been given to me as someone who is a customer of Remote-Learner as your host for Moodle. We are considering moving from Blackboard and Blackboard hosting to Moodle and Remote-Learner. Would you be willing to take some time and answer the questions below? Wewould be very grateful if you could. We are trying to make our a good decision based on lots of information and need the inside story fromsomeone like you.

1. Why did you decide to use Remote Learner to manage Moodle for you?

When decided to move to Moodle, faculty led, had 20 – 22 fully online courses at that time. Moved from WebCT. Did big conversion in summer 2006, a month prior to Fall semester. But on day 1, had 170 instructors using it. Have one Moodle administrator. Have 2. 5 faculty webmaster (learns to use innovative stuff and then teaches others) work more with pedagogy. Work better with other faculty. Have to teach ½ time in classroom.

Faculty webmasters are now full-time rather than with Moodle, but really supposed to be ¼ time. May hand this over to DL in future. Doing a Moodle forum online where faculty can post their own problems. DL now sets up all online courses – set up schedule, have a TV studio and doing telecourses. Have 3 people – a manager, an admin, a tech person – filming and TV classrooms.

Moved to 48 classes per term instead of 22. Some faculty need more support than others and 24/7 support. Faculty webmasters had been commissioned to help with conversion. CIS at their college was to have taken over Moodle. Started with Moodle 1. 6 seems to have lots of bugs. Found that they were doing too much fixing bugs – the webmasters. Don’t see the bugs in BB or WEBCT.

Faculty liked it. WebCT users did not want to use. Decided to outsource. Looked at 4-5 vendors. Looked at Moodle Rooms and Remote Learner. Someone at Humboldt was using Moodle Rooms, but felt that Remote Learner could handle servers better than Moodle Room.

Using LDAP for authentication using Banner. Using automatic course creation – Moodle does it. Faculty can choose to use or not. Had lots of problems in August when this started. Had lots of problems. Security needs were huge Use a secure socket layer and this caused problems. If did not have . LDAP would work fine but SSL made it really hard.

Now they are not on remote learner servers yet. Are on a test server with Remote Learner. Will fully move to RL in a week. Their difficulties were Lane CC’s problems.

Was a version of Moodle – wanted to go to 1.8, but wanted the grade book feature from Humboldt, so went to 1.9 where grade book already working. Working a beta version of Moodle – a BIG mistake, grade book still not debugged. Should not have been advised.

Secure socket layer – do we have.

RL very accommodating and working hard to make it work.

25

Work with several different folks

2. Do you use any other Learning Management Systems besides Moodle?

Not at this time, but use easy websites – they developed, can post grades, syllabus. For those faculty who are not used to online teaching. Not secure. Will phase out by end of year.

3. How long have you been a Remote Learner customer? Since August 1, 2008

4. What size of server do you have: level 1, 2, 3 or 4? Level 3

5. What is the total college FTE?

Right under 10,000

6. What is your overall impression of Remote Learner?

Pres reachable and approachable and a solution person. Faculty support is problematic – an email support system. Faculty go on line and put in a ticket and goes to RL help desk. 24 hour response time guaranteed, but have been working at a 4 hour response, but cannot answer questions on beta version. $99 per faculty for support. If a faculty is starting for first time, you automatically get a Remote learner account. One person in each dept who has an account and a “goto”person. Have a Moodle support community Cannot really give an evaluation of RL for it is too soon. Just moving to them.

7. Has Remote Learner conducted any performance upgrades (moving to new releases) for you? How would you evaluation their performance in this process?

Not really. On beta version only school on it. They do nightly updates. Everytime Moodle.org they do fixes over night.

8. Have you had Remote Learner do any customization work for you? If so, could you please describe what they did and your level ofsatisfaction with the work and the price.

Not yet. Have talked about it but not there yet. Would not hesitate to ask. They believe that RL will be happy to do. As far as turning on and off, they can do that at Lane. Have administrative rights at Lane. 1 server admin, 2 faculty webmaster, and one other webmaster who will be back in winter term.

Jeremy advised them to go with beta, Moodle 1.9

9. How would you evaluate their technical support services particularlyin regards to timeliness, competence and professionalism?

Highly professionalism. Very attuned to what they have been talking about and saying. Overall satisfaction – too soon to tell. Work with Bryan Williams to solve this.

26

10 .Do you plan to renew your contract with Remote Learner?will reassess in Spring term. Will assess situation with IT Dept in spring.

One of first to use Moodle and big advocates of open source. Open education resources modules. Fully support open-source community. Open Education Resource Modules. Trying to inform faculty about creative commons copyright.

Matt Hightower <mhightow@cerrocoso.edu> 10/12/2007 12:22 PMDirector, Cerro Coso Online

1) 1. Why did you decide to use Remote Learner to manage Moodle for you?

We've been using them for 4 years if I remember correctly. When we started, they may have been the only advertised hosting service in the US. We have continued to use them because they offer a service that is cheaper than we can realistically do it in house. 2) Do you use any other Learning Management Systems besides Moodle? Our District, but not our college, uses ETUDES. We used, and still do in some cases, some templates that we designed in Microsoft FrontPage. 3) How long have you been a Remote Learner customer 4 years, I believe. 4) What size of server do you have: level 1, 2, 3 or 4? I don't recall off-hand. They host a server for our use only. 5) What is the total college FTE? Our college is about 3,500 FTES. Our district is something under 20,000. Our college has about 2,700 students in our online program every semester. 6) What is your overall impression of Remote Learner?They've been reliable and prompt. 7) Has Remote Learner conducted any performance upgrades (moving to new releases) for you? How would you evaluation their performance in this process?hey've updated to new versions several times with no problem that I recall. 8) Have you had Remote Learner do any customization work for you? If so, could you please describe what they did and your level of satisfaction with the work and the price.They've done a little customization for us -- http://moodle.cerrocoso.edu, http://moodle.bakersfieldcollege.edu, http://moodle.portervillecollege.edu -- mostly in terms of branding. We use SCT Banner for our MIS and, at some point we will want to integrate it with Moodle. 9) How would you evaluate their technical support services particularlyin regards to timeliness, competence and professionalism? So far, so good. We've had some glitches and they've researched and repaired promptly with professionalism. 10) Do you plan to renew your contract with Remote Learner?will reassess in Spring term. Will assess situation with IT Dept in spring. More than likely we will renew until the point where we are able to host it ourselves. Because we would likely have to hire an additional staff person for $70,000 or so, the service that they provide is easily cost justified.

27