Replant technology How to Choose the Right CMS For Your Campus Nathan Angell and Wende Morgaine.

replant technology

How to Choose the Right CMS For Your Campus

Nathan Angell and Wende Morgaine

replant technology


Background

Based on our experience serving as decision-makers and implementers in several key university technology choice processes– Course management, eportfolio, web content

management, digital repository, portal, identity management, events management

– Based on case studies at Portland State University, corroborated by experience at various universities

Lessons learned could be applied to any technology choice

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How Not to Choose

How are candidates chosen? How will you choose between the chosen candidates?

– The functional requirements checklist approach• Proprietary functionality promises are suspect• For open source systems, no salesperson will call

and it can be difficult to find current functional information

– The sandbox approach• Not a real field test

– The piloting approach• Apples vs oranges• Should be a dress rehearsal

– Survey results not helpful

replant technology


Driven by Institutional Vision, Goals, Mission

Purely functional criteria for choice are often disguised personal or political preferences rather than being strategically motivated

Technology will not choose itself; there will be no obvious choice, but rather tradeoffs. Given that there is no ideal choice—no perfect tool—what criteria will you use to choose?

Given that neither the technology itself nor personal viewpoints will lead to a good choice, the only long-term justification for choice will be vision/mission/goals alignment

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Technology Alignment

Include institutional technology preference criteria in your selection process– Proprietary vs. Open Source– Hardware– Operating Systems– Application Layer– Database

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Process

Establish selection process first– Documented– Communicated– Transparent

Align process with institutional timing needs. Don’t let vendors drive your process timeline.

Vision-driven selection committee

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Communication is Key

Participants in the process Stakeholders End-users (faculty, students, staff)

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Questions?

replanttechnology.com503.616.2697

[email protected]

Replant technology How to Choose the Right CMS For Your Campus Nathan Angell and Wende Morgaine.

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