Abstract:

Learning management system (LMS) is a high-level, strategic solution for planning, delivering, and managing learning, including online, instructor-led virtual classrooms, and reusable resources.

The decision to implement a single LMS in 2007 at The University of the South (USP) was informed by the University strategic plan which committed the university to improving learning and teaching and mainstreaming distance and flexible learning. The implementation of a university wide LMS provided an opportunity for USP to reinvigorate its learning and teaching through the engagement with new learning environments since all aspects of course development and delivery had to be reassessed. Spread across 33,000,000 km2 of Pacific Ocean, the transactional distance between students and teachers represented a multitude of challenges that the implementation of the LMS would help to mitigate. In addition it allowed a re-evaluation of the modes of delivery and the development of more efficient and effective courses and programmes. It also enabled USP to utilise its scarce human resources more productively. Seven years on, the challenges, the affordances and the potential for even more access to affordable and sustainable learning and teaching resources are examined in this paper.

Keywords:

LMS deployment, management, Moodle.