Announcement of new course management system
May 12th, 2008 by ekeohaneDear Community,
After more than a year of testing an alternative course management system, the IT Steering Committee has approved the adoption of Moodle, an open source learning system, to replace Blackboard. This decision was made with input from more than a dozen faculty members who pilot tested the product with their students, the Educational Technology Advisory Group, the Academic Affairs Council, ITS and Educational Technology staff, and current Blackboard users. We feel that Moodle offers many benefits, including more varied course tools, better product support, open standards for integration of add-on functionality, and significant cost savings.
Faculty will receive more information in the coming week about workshops and other training opportunities that will show them how to use Moodle. They may also request assistance in moving course materials from Blackboard. “Organizations” will also need to make the transition, and assistance will be provided to them as well.
The transition to Moodle will follow a phased approach. We hope to have 75 faculty using Moodle by the fall semester, including those who are teaching in the Montserrat program and all faculty who will be new to the College. We invite other interested faculty to contact us about adopting Moodle this summer. Blackboard will continue to be available throughout the 2008-2009 academic year but all course content must be moved by Summer 2009.
We want to thank those who participated in the evaluation and gave us valuable input. We are excited about the new system, although we realize that it will be a busy summer with the Montserrat program and other projects underway. Please let either of us know if you have any questions or concerns. We want this to be a very open process. You’ll be hearing more in the coming weeks.
Sincerely,
Ellen Keohane Mary Morrisard-Larkin
Director, ITS Director, Educational Technology