Migrating to Moodle: Lessons Learned from Recent CSU Migrations

In this presentation from the US West Coast Moodle Moot 2011, leaders from California State University that have recently migrated to Moodle discuss their campus decision-making process, the processes and technologies used to migrate content, and their process of implementation. The speakers represent campuses migrating from both Blackboard and WebCT, and a mix of small and large FTE campuses. Activities that benefited from multi-campus coordination and resource sharing are also be discussed.

Presenters:
David Levin, CSU Northridge
Barbara Taylor, CSU San Marcos
Moderator: John Whitmer, CSU Office of the Chancellor

1. Migrating to Moodle: Lessons
Learned from Recent CSU Migrations
Presenters
Barbara Taylor, CSU San Marcos
David Levin, CSU Northridge
Facilitator: John Whitmer, CSU Office of the Chancellor

2. CSU San Marcos
Barbara Taylor, MS., MA
Instructional Developer
Instruction and Information Technology Services
[email protected]

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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. Timeline
Decision to move to Moodle: October, 2010
Actual migration:
–Courses: 2.5 weeks
–Assessments: 3 weeks
Pilot: Spring 2010
Fully Live: Summer 2010

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. CSU Northridge
David Levin, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Academic Technology
[email protected]

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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%)

16. Lesson One: Planning
Team Approach
–Instructional design
–Instructional technology
–Authentication team
–Student Information systems
–Moodlerooms
Project management
Weekly meetings and reporting

17. 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.

18. Lesson Three: Open Source
Licensing fee versus added support cost
Vendor support versus community support
Flexibility and supportability

19. 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

20. 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

21. QUESTIONS?

22. Contact Information
Speaker Campus Email
Barbara Taylor CSU San Marcos [email protected]
David Levin CSU Northridge [email protected]