Today we hosted our first Preview of Moodle, UMass Amherst’s new Learning Management System. (We have three more previews in the coming weeks if you’d like to attend one, check our workshop schedule.)
What is Moodle and when do I have to change?
Moodle is a widely-used open source learning management system (LMS), that can be used to deliver course content and host online learning activities. UMass Amherst is transitioning on-campus courses with an online component to Moodle by January 2013. Instructors can begin converting their courses to Moodle as soon as Fall 2011. SPARK will be available for teaching until the end of Fall 2012. More information about Moodle is available on the Moodle site: http://moodle.umass.edu.
Choosing Moodle
The campus did an evaluation of options for a new LMS after Blackboard Inc. announced that it would discontinue support for Blackboard Vista, the software behind SPARK. A committee of faculty and staff made a recommendation to the CIO and Provost in October 2010. The Provost and CIO chose Moodle because it offered more local control and the best opportunity for future growth and innovation. Details of the evaluation process and decision can be found on the Future LMS blog (http://websites.umass.edu/futurelms).
Note that this conversion to Moodle applies only to on-campus courses at UMass Amherst. Continuing and Professional Education hosts its courses on UMassOnline’s own instance of Blackboard Vista. UMassOnline is currently evaluating its options and has not yet announced what they will be using.
Changing to Moodle
There will be limited spots in the Fall 2011 pilot. You can volunteer for this pilot by submitting a request via your Faculty Center in SPIRE. Courses will be selected for the pilot by the end of April 2011. Throughout the change to Moodle, OIT Academic Computing will be offering workshops and one-on-one consultations to help instructors convert their courses and get started using Moodle.
While we are exploring possible conversion processes for some portions of courses, there is currently no way to automatically migrate a course from SPARK to Moodle in its entirety. Some manual migration by instructors will be necessary in order to best fit Moodle’s unique structure.
In the near-term, OIT Academic Computing staff are available to give demonstrations of Moodle to departments or groups. To schedule a departmental presentation, please contact the Instructional Media Lab (instruct@oit.umass.edu | 545-2823).
Timeline for the Transition to Moodle
2011 Spring Limited pilot of Moodle (8 classes).
2011 Summer Content conversion and training for Fall 2011 Moodle Pilot.
2011 Fall Pilot semester of Moodle (limited number of classes)
2012 Spring First semester on Moodle (voluntary).
2012 Summer Content conversion and training for final exit from Blackboard Vista (SPARK).
2012 Fall Last semester for teaching in Blackboard Vista (SPARK).
2013 Spring Blackboard Vista (SPARK) closed to teaching.