To the Amherst campus faculty:
I am writing today with information concerning an important change the
campus will be making in its instructional technology over the next two
years. As outlined in previous emails, the Blackboard company will
cease support for the current system behind SPARK, Blackboard Vista, in
January 2013. Over the past seven months, a committee of faculty and
staff has been evaluating options for the next learning management
system (LMS) on campus. Based on their evaluations and further
discussion in Academic Affairs and OIT, the Provost and I have decided
that UMass Amherst will move to Moodle, an open-source LMS, over the
next two years.
While recognizing that the transition to Moodle will be more complicated
than moving to the alternative Blackboard product for both the faculty
and the support staff, I believe Moodle better positions the campus for
the longer timeframe. We did well in WebCT and its derivatives for
approximately fifteen years, but the direction Blackboard has taken does
not, in my opinion, offer a strong positive future relative to the needs
of the campus. Moodle offers us opportunities for more local control and
innovation. To use a geographic analogy, I see moving to the Blackboard
product as moving deeper into a “box canyon”; going to Moodle may
require some effort to get out of the canyon now, but will place us on a
more expansive fertile plain for future benefit.
SPARK currently supports more than 1,100 instructors working in over
2,100 classes involving more than 23,000 students (each of whom likely
is taking several SPARK classes). Converting to an open-source product
such as Moodle will be a lengthy and complex project, requiring some
reorganization within Academic Computing and elsewhere in OIT as well as
the establishment of new oversight and advisory procedures. We are in
the process of developing a transition plan and hope to be able to put
out at least the first steps in such a plan to the campus over the next
few weeks. Fred Zinn and Bo Mack of OIT will be leading the transition
with Fred focusing on the application and Bo on the technical underpinnings.
Blackboard Vista will remain in service until the end of Fall 2012. In
Spring 2011, OIT will operate a very limited pilot in Moodle to assess
its features and determine what needs to be adjusted in order for it to
match, and in some cases surpass, the features of the current Blackboard
Vista system. Faculty interested in participating in the pilot and
evaluations should contact Fred Zinn via email at
futurelms@oit.umass.edu. Updates on the pilot and the development
process will be posted on the Future LMS blog
(https://websites.umass.edu/futurelms).
I recognize the continuing concern over possible divergence of direction
between the campus and UMassOnline (UMOL) regarding choice of LMS
platforms. Unfortunately, we felt the urgency to make a decision for the
campus did not allow us to await completion of UMOL’s review. I am
confident that UMOL understands the dilemma of faculty who wish to teach
in both systems so that, whatever direction UMOL takes regarding a LMS,
they will work closely with us to make the transition between those
worlds as seamless as possible.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Provost and
myself to thank the Future LMS Committee for their efforts in our review
of LMS possibilities. We recognize the magnitude of the effort and also
feel that the level of review was appropriate and highly informative.
John Dubach
Chief Information Officer