21 April 2023

Moodle Implementation at The University of Waikato

The Good, The Tough & Lessons Learned

21 April 2023© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 2

Outline of presentation

•Where we are now

•Why we changed

•What we did

•Critical decisions

•Success factors

•Lessons learned

Where we are now• Production Moodle Environments

• elearn site + back-up environment

• Moodle Innovation site

• Moodle Train staff professional development site

• Range of Moodle customisations

• Users and Courses• 17,000 users (12,000 active)

• 2,500 papers / courses (750 active)

• 800 Editing Teachers

• Waikato Centre for eLearning• 4 permanent staff

• Mostly happy people21 April 2023© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 3

Why we changed

• Previous LMS - ClassForum • In-house system built on webcrossing platform

• Negative reasons• Limited functionality

• Unstable

• Problems with performance

• No longer supported

• Positive reasons• Re-capture standard of eLearning practice

• Re-establish The University of Waikato as leaders

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What we did - overview

• Moodle Implementation Phase 1: March 07 – March 08• Objective: Deploy Moodle as the University’s LMS with

appropriate support structures, develop policies and practices around management of the LMS and provide staff with adequate training

• Moodle Implementation Phase 2: March 08 – March 09• Objective: Complete transition to Moodle, enhance the

environment, increase usage and decommission ClassForum

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Expected Challenges

• Performance problems• The Great ClassForum crash of 2001

• Inability to migrate content

• Resistance to change

• Insufficient support

• Gap in functionality• Differences in structure

• Less functionality in some activities

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Project Milestones – Phase 1

Milestone Completed by

Establish project and team 6 March 2007

Test Environment deployed 13 April 2007

Exploratory Workshops 11 May 2007

Live environment deployed (1.8) 31 May 2007

Live Pilots During B semester

Upgrade live environment (1.9) August 2007(?)

Academic staff training (for setting up papers in Moodle)

During B semester

Moodle live for all online papers 1 November 2007

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Project Milestones – Phase 2

Milestone Completed by

Establish project and teams 28 March 2008

Complete transition to Moodle 11 July 2008

Implement Innovation and Staff Development Moodle sites

16 May 2008

Innovation Pilots B Semester 2008

Establish Professional Development programme

16 May 2008

Report on institutional eLearning Practice

1 October 2008

Complete Moodle development 15 December 2008

Decommission ClassForum 1 December 2008

Work Breakdown & Project Teams

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Critical project decisions during Phase 1

• Full university-wide rollout - not phased implementation• Staged approach

• Exploratory workshops -> pilots -> summer school -> semester A

• Developed to ensure no loss of functionality

• No migration of content

• Delayed encouraging changes in teaching practice till Phase 2

21 April 2023© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 11

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Stage 1 – Exploratory Workshops

• Two hour sessions over two weeks

• 75 staff from across all schools, Library and ITS

• Goals• Not training but listening

• Gather User requirements for initial configuration of Moodle

• Gather User requirements for feature enhancements

• Map ClassForum use to Moodle environment

• Familiarisation

• Gain a feel for training requirements

Stage 2 - Pilots

• Moodle 1.8 with no customisation

• 25 papers from all schools

• One-to-one assistance

• Gathering feedback• Student surveys

• Interviews with staff

• Research project

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Stage 3: Full roll-out

• Summer School (starting after 1st November 07)• Smaller number of papers

• Semester A – all go!

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Decision: to not lose functionality

• Why?• Limited resources for support

• Painless as possible

• Required 1.9 functionality• Groupings

• Headache !!! - creeping roadmap dates• When to upgrade current production?

• Which version of 1.9 beta?

• One Moodle environment or two?

• Action: Go-live with 1.9 beta & cherry pick bug fixes

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What we developed

• Contracted Catalyst

• Groups• Groupings

• Automated creation

• Interface options

• Workbook – dialogue• Course based individual dialogue between teacher and student

• Automatic creation of open dialogues for each student

• Automatic update when course membership changes

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What we developed - continued

• Assignment submission• Assignment receipting

• Bulk download

• Forum changes• Reference numbers in chronological view

• Snippet of previous post

• “Show replies” link

• Anonymous posts

• Turnitin integration (Phase 2)• Assignments submitted via Advanced File upload assignment

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Group allocation

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Assignment Receipting

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Decision: No migration of content

• Why?• Difficulty of task

• Moodle has a very different structure

• Positive spin• Encouraged staff to learn the new system

• Provided one-to-one assistance

• Vital importance of managing expectations

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Decision: No pedagogical change

• Why?• Limited support resources

• Spread disruption

• Provided mapping of functionality

• Delayed focus on teaching practice till Phase 2• Via department review processes

• Via Professional Development

• Hosting opportunities to share experiences

• Sponsoring staff to MoodleMoot!

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Success Factors

• Hand picking team members

• Contracting Catalyst – sanity check, training, development

• Establishing high level Steering Committee

• Establishment of Waikato Centre for eLearning (Nov 07 – Feb 08)

• Minimised disruption by developing functional gaps

• Employment of additional staff during transition• 5 people (2fte) to provide one-to-one support during transition

• Constant communication of expectations

• Respecting academics as experts in teaching practice

• Involving distributed IT consultants

• Responsiveness to requests for change

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Lessons Learned

• Don’t trust Moodle roadmap time frame!

• Develop relationship with third party consultants as early as possible

• Establishing trust with staff is vital

• Involve key institutional decision makers

• One-to-one support is greatly appreciated

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