Abstract:

Transitioning from one Learning Management System (LMS) to another is a complex, multi-phased process that causes changes in the business process, impacts operational procedures, and has a potential to cause disruption in the teaching and learning processes. In the spring of 2017 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) started the migration process from Moodlerooms, based on the open source moodle platform owned by Blackboard, to Brightspace by D2L. In retrospect, the entire process has been successful and free of any major issues, however the student on-boarding strategy has proven to be challenging. Student support needs were not addressed until much later in the implementation process despite the fact that multiple mechanisms were put in place to ensure successful transition for faculty and administrators. Driven by the feedback from the faculty and students at various stages of transition, and based on the strategy derived from the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework, the educational technology team developed an online on-boarding course to support students transitioning to the new learning environment. What started as a short interactive online introduction into the new learning management system quickly expanded into the the student educational technology support platform. Five hundred ninety five students (n=595) have accessed the course over the period of 12 months for the total of 2260 interactions with the course content. The preliminary data analysis has demonstrated that students have been engaging with various course modules and the chosen strategy has had a positive impact on student support services. The on-boarding model discussed in this article has the potential to assist other institutions of higher education as they consider different approaches to supporting students during the LMS transition.

Keywords:

LMS, Student Support, Learning Management System, LMS Implementation, LMS Migration, student educational technology.