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EDUCUASE Live:Selecting & Implementing a Course Management System

for Your Campus

Implmenting Moodle atSUNY Delhi

Patrick MassonChief Information Officer

State University of New York at Delhi

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

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Did we look like you?Campus Profile: 2004 - 2007

Over sixty, one, two and four year programs Approximately 2,500 students Predominately web-enhanced courses

Locally hosted on WebCT One asynchronous program

Remotely hosted through SUNY Learning Network

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Impetus for Change...

Increasing interest/use of on-line resources New on-line programs:

Bachelors of Science in Nursing Satellite campuses

WebCT license to expire January 2008 Increasing costs

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Assessment CriteriaBusiness, Functional & Technical Requirements through APM

Meet existing functionality and processes Story-telling: document repository, quizzes, forums

Define desired functionality Use cases: asynchronous tools, collaboration

Identify technical requirements Data center re-design Student Information System (Banner) integration

via Luminis Message Broker

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Final Selection

Remotely hosted Moodle instance at Moodlerooms.

Staffing Two administrators (one new hire)

Program Development Instructional Design Moodle administration

0 Technical staff 0 PHP, MySQL, etc. staff

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On-line Courses (Sections)

Fall 2006 Spring 2007 Fall 2007 Spring 2008 Fall 2008 Sping 20090

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

EnrollmentsCourses

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Moodle Adoption

Fall 2008 Spring 20090

50

100

150

200

250

300

InstructorsCoursesEnrollments

6000

5000

4000

3000

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Moodle Total Cost of Ownership

2006 - 2007 2007 - 2008 2008 - 20090

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

100000

LMSSoftwareHostingStaffingTCO

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At SUNY Delhi our total costs for running Moodle for 2007-2008 was $57,500 and includes:

$6,000 for remote hosting through a 3rd party provider: This provides access for all 3,000 students and 150 faculty to SUNY Delhi's complete catalog of courses and sections. Includes development, test and production environments, back-ups and archives, 24/7 support, SIS integration.

$49,000 1.0 FTE annual salary for Coordinator of Online Education: This position provides support for creating content, developing online courses and programs, functional end-user training (in the LMS as well as other educational resources used in online courses: course capture, podcasting, etc.), and LMS application administration. NOTE: LMS application administration does not include any programming (e.g. PHP), DBA (e.g. mySQL), system's administration (e.g. Linux, Tomcat, VM, etc.) or networking duties. The position only administers Moodle via the native administrative functionality available through Moodle handling password resets, learning module configuration, user interface design, etc.

$2,500 for other online learning specific costs: NetTutor License ($1,500), Luminis Message Broker license to integrate Moodle and Banner ($300), HostMonster account providing Moodle sandbox ($100), Travel and Professional Development for the Coordinator of Online Education ($600).

Total costs for running WebCT for 2006-2007 was $78,350 and includes:

$19,350 WebCT license: Provided access for all 2,800 students and 150 faculty to SUNY Delhi's complete catalog of courses and sections. Each course was created in the LMS whether that was an in-person course (where the LMS simply provides access to course materials) or an asynchronous course (totally online).

$2,500 ($10,000 over four years) for local hosting (dedicated hardware) of WebCT: Includes production environment, back-ups and archives, 8/5 support, SIS integration.

$5,000 .1 FTE Systems Administration: This position provides server/systems administration and network administration for local WebCT support.

$49,000 1.0 FTE annual salary for Coordinator of Online Education: This position was staffed by our current Coordinator and provided analogous support, creating content, developing online courses, LMS functional end-user training, and LMS administration. LMS Administration did not include any programming, DBA, system's administration or networking duties. The position only administered WebCT via the native administrative functionality available through WebCT handling password resets, configuration, user interface design, etc.

$2,500 for other online learning specific costs: NetTutor License ($1,500), Luminis Message Broker license to integrate Moodle and Banner ($300), HostMonster account providing Moodle sandbox ($100), Travel and Professional Development for the Coordinator of Online Education ($600).

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Outcomes...

Downsides Performance less than in-house* Access to support

Upsides Immune to campus availability Moodle expertise 24/7 technical support Reduced service load

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Benefits of Open Source

Rich community of user forums, tutorials, resources, bug tracker Less Cost - at all levels Luminis Message Broker Digester - $0 WebCTimport tool - $0 Pace of development More social networking capability Web 2.0 More customizable Did I mention cost?

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Timeline

March 2007 - Hostmonster account set up with multiple instances of Moodle for training development, experimentation, etc. ($75 /year splurge)

May 2007 - Course development server established

June 2007 - Initial training modules developed and delivered

July 2007 - Begin test Luminis Message Broker / Banner integration

Fall 2007 - initial courses developed for Spring 2008 production server

October 2007 - establish and test production server

Spring 2008 - offer Nursing BSN and Vet Tech courses on production server

Spring/Summer 2008 - additional training offered, Summer courses migrated

Summer 2008 - Fall courses migrated from WebCT/SLN

Fall 2008 - additional training and J-term/Spring course migration

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Faculty/Staff Acceptance

Training Concerns: Easier to learn Easier to use More features Exciting new possibilities

Migration Concerns We do that for them Webctimport plugin from

moodle.org

Another channel to reach students

Involved with Moodle Orientation for students

No noticeable difference for registration, enrollments, etc.

More interested in using the LMS for training and staff development

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Student Opinions

Love the new system:

Easier to navigate than WebCT Like having images of fellow students Easier to follow discussions

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Online Coordinator

Faculty are more self-sufficient More fun to administer More focus on training Hosted in expert environment High level of customization More funds for faculty development

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Administration

Left research and decision in our hands Appreciate “international-ness” Bottom line: Furthering educational mission “Pot of Gold”

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Thank you to...

Clark Shah–NelsonCoordinator of Online Learning, SUNY Delhi

Steve Worona,Director of Policy and Networking Programs, EDUCAUSE

EDUCUASE “Live” audience

Patrick Masson(970) 4MASSONmassonpj@delhi.edu