Migrating to Moodle: Lessons Learned from Recent CSU Migrations

PresentersBarbara Taylor, CSU San MarcosDavid Levin, CSU Northridge

Facilitator: John Whitmer, CSU Office of the Chancellor

CSU San Marcos

Barbara Taylor, MS., MA

Instructional Developer

Instruction and Information Technology Services

btaylor@csusm.edu

Campus Environment

Centralized Technology FTE students – 9722 (Fall 2010) Full-time faculty: 230 (Fall 2010) Instructors using Moodle: 524 (Spring 2011)

How CSUSM Uses Moodle

Academic Courses– Create containers for all courses

Spring 2010: 2086 created– ~1200 actually were used

Fall 2011: 1736 Non-academic

– Departments, Committees, Campus Organizations 138 containers

CSUSM Switch to Moodle

What lead to switching from WebCT to Moodle? Process for making the decision

– Compare process of converting to Moodle/BB– CIO formed a team to evaluate Moodle

Database admin Server admin Programmers Instructional Developers

– Faculty Pilot (Spring 2010)

Timeline

Decision to move to Moodle: October, 2010 Actual migration:

– Courses: 2.5 weeks

– Assessments: 3 weeks Pilot: Spring 2010 Fully Live: Summer 2010

Migration From WebCT 6 to Moodle

Tools– None for WebCT CE 6 to Moodle 1.9

Now what?– What did we really need from WebCT?

Determined we needed all files, Learning Modules, Folders, Discussions, Links, Glossary, Assessments

Video extracted to be streamed in Mediasite Didn’t need student data

– What can we put together to migrate material? APIs Respondus

Migration Process

Developed a website for instructors Website for conversions Converted about 50 courses

– Quality assurance for course– Tweaked script

Converted ~150 courses – Quality assurance– Everything was as good as we could get it

Begin converting newest version of each course for all instructors going back 6 semesters

Finished Conversion

Timeline– Approximately 2.5 weeks to complete conversion

Statistics– Migrated ~1800+ with less than 100 errors

– Courses with video: 171

– Courses with assessments: 391

Lessons Learned

Team approach is critical Create a project plan – realize it will change

throughout the process – be flexible Training is vital to success

– Database admin– Server admin– Instructional Developers– Instructors– Students

Lessons Learned

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate– Keep everyone on the team updated

– Inform instructors on how to pull out student data they might want later (ie: assignments, DB)

Test, test, test before moving to production

CSU Northridge

David Levin, Ph.D.

Senior Director of Academic Technology

david.levin@csun.edu

CSUN Campus Overview

Third largest California State University campus Almost 36,000 students Large commuter population Over 2000 faculty members

– Approximately 50% part-time Lecturers

– Instruction six days a week

– Classes from 6:30 AM – 10:00 PM

CSUN Migration Timeline Pre-Moodle LMSs – WebCT and Blackboard July 2008-June 2009 – Evaluation June 2009 – Selection of Moodle and decision to host

with Moodlerooms Summer 2009 – Build environment, begin migration of

content, begin training Fall 2009 – Spring 2010 – Run both Moodle and

WebCT in production; complete migration of course content

Summer 2010 – 100% Moodle

Some Migration and Implementation Details

2545 WebCT courses migrated to Moodle Create Moodle shell for all courses Integrated Elluminate, Respondus, TurnItIn,

ASCIIMathML 1668 courses using Moodle in Spring 2011

(35%)

Lesson One: Planning

Team Approach– Instructional design

– Instructional technology

– Authentication team

– Student Information systems

– Moodlerooms Project management Weekly meetings and reporting

Lesson Two: Communication

Early and often Listen to your users – students as well as faculty Keep faculty informed of upcoming dates The fact that you said it does not imply that it has

been heard– Although we have been telling faculty for two years

that WebCT would not be available after June 30, 2011 we had a faculty member turn up last week asking for access to a WebCT course.

Lesson Three: Open Source

Licensing fee versus added support cost Vendor support versus community support Flexibility and supportability

Lesson Four: Collaboration

Major key to our success Within our university Within the California State University System Within the Moodle community With our hosting provider

Lesson Five: Support and Training

Provide a variety of support and training options For different groups: faculty, students, support

staff In different modes: workshops, QuickGuides,

user guides, videos, webinars, etc. Sandboxes for faculty

QUESTIONS?

Contact Information

Speaker Campus Email

Barbara Taylor CSU San Marcos btaylor@csusm.edu

David Levin CSU Northridge david.levin@csun.edu