Desire2Learn WP_How to Choose and Implement a New Learning Management System

7/29/2019 Desire2Learn WP_How to Choose and Implement a New Learning Management System

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How to Choose and

Implement a New Learning

Management System

AUGUST 2011

Charlene Douglas, EdD

Higher Education Marketing Manager


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2011 Desire2Learn Incorporated. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying prohibited.

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www.Desire2Learn.com

AUGUST 2011

Charlene Douglas, EdD

Higher Education

Marketing Manager.

HOW TO CHOOSE AND IMPLEMENT A NEWLEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMBECAUSE LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ARE MAJOR INVESTMENTS IN TIME AND MONEY, THEPROCESS FOR CHOOSING A NEW LMS SHOULD BE THOROUGH.

The process of choosing a new Learning Management System includes defining

business requirements and a realistic projection of costs (in dollars and time)

for the new application for present needs and into the future. The following

information will walk you and your institution through some of the major

decisions that are typically considered during the implementation of a new LMS,

including: defining the objectives, strategies, resources, functionality, support

and technical aspects required. A typical scenario for choosing a new LMS is

provided; not every educational institution is required to follow this procedure

(please check with your Purchasing Department to determine how such

acquisitions have to be done in your organization).

Institutional Considerations

Have the reasons why a new LMS is being considered been clearly

identified (i.e., new to eLearning, outgrown the current system, outdated

or lack of functionality, too expensive, dissatisfied with vendor, need to

expand current online offerings due to budget constraints)?

What are the key issues, problems, and/or challenges that a new LMS

is to address?

Have the staff and budget associated with the task of selecting, implementing,

supporting and maintaining a new LMS been identified and earmarked?

The broad use of Learning Management Systems1 (LMSs) across education has become an ingrained component of most

educational institutions learning strategy. Educational institutions find the need to move from first generation and even second

generation applications to newer systems that provide the latest functionality demanded by an increasingly sophisticated and

experienced faculty and user community

1 Also called a Virtual Learning Environment or Course Management System .


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www.Desire2Learn.com 2011 Desire2Learn Incorporated. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying prohibited.

LEARNING STRATEGY

A learning strategy should reflect how you plan on delivering learning programs

to the users who need them to accomplish your educational goals. What is the

makeup of your learners are they distributed learners or mostly/exclusivelyon-campus learners? What are the areas of emphases for your LMS? What new

learning processes would you like to add? How will you measure the success

and calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of your new LMS?

Furthermore, it is important to focus on pedagogical approaches and models

that are important to your institution (e.g., collaborative learning, problem-based

learning, case-based learning and experiential learning). Additionally, it is

important to determine the emphasis given to student-student interaction and

quality teaching materials (i.e., text, audio, video and multimedia).

REQUIREMENTS

Most successful LMS implementations include a selection process that engages

all stakeholder groups including faculty, staff and students, representatives

from different divisions, departments, or lines of business that will be most

affected by the new initiative. Once the selection committee has been selected,

prioritization of requirements can be made in order to find the right LMS that

will meet your core needs initially and grow to meet your expanded needs in the

future while remaining stable with regard to cost. Requirements will include

functional and technical as well as business relationships. This information can

be gathered a variety of ways such as holding a series of meetings, conducting

focus groups, and/or using a survey. The overall process and broad directives as

well as the detailed functionality need to be considered. Clear, unambiquous

critical needs statements and highly differentiated qualification checklists

and documents are invaluable in this process. It is also helpful to consider the

following in the analysis of your requirements:

Functional and Technical Requirements

Functional

What features are mandatory vs. what are optional?

How does the system support the learner, instructor, administration and the

overall learning process?

Are grading and reporting formats easy to use, exportable, and support

customizable views?

Does the system provide a user interface for all level of users to easily

interact with LMS?

What language support do you need?

Does the LMS support a variety of pedagogical approaches to instruction

and assessment including social learning/media?

Is instructional design guidance available to aid in the creation and sharing

of content?

Does the LMS support the alignment of educational standards to key

teaching and learning outcomes?

Is the solution supported by an active community of users?

How important is accessibility guidelines and compliance?

Is a mobile application available so that learners can access their courses

anytime, anywhere?


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Administration

What administrative and reporting/analytics capabilities do you need?

Can the solution be tailored to meet your institutions specific organizational

needs and branding requirements?

Does the LMS provide administrative functions to customize permissions

and securities at various organization levels?

How scalable is the solution?

How reliable is the solution?

How interoperable is the solution?

How important is the ability to migrate/convert existing courses/course

content? And how easy is it to exit the system?

Training and Support

Will your institution provide its own help desk support or will this need to

be provided by the vendor? If by the vendor, what are their response and

resolution times? How is the Service Level Agreement structured?

What kind of training is provided by the vendor? How easy is the new LMS

to understand and use?

Technical

Will the solution be self-hosted or vendor-hosted?

Is the hosting environment secure and reliable?

How easy is the solution to upgrade and maintain?

How efficient is the implementation of the solution?

With what standards does the LMS comply?

What are the dependencies on and support for other learning or

administrative systems?

What are your institutions disaster recovery policies and can the new LMS

comply with these policies?

What third party integrations are available and how easy are they to

accomplish (e.g., SIS, Central Authentication Service, portal, library,

content providers)?

Business Relationship Requirements

Functional

How committed is the vendor to supporting the educational community?

How responsive is the vendor?

Can you obtain and review current client testimonials?

Does the value of the solution justify the cost?

Does the vendor welcome client input into the R&D process?

What is the vendors history in the educational software market?

Is the vendor financially stable?

Is the vendor likely to be a reliable partner for the foreseeable future?

What will be the initial investment and long-term Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)?

How will the new LMS affect the alignment, development, engagement and

retention of staff and students specifically think about the impact the LMS

will have with respect to productivity, revenue, satisfaction and compliance.


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The LMS needs to be a

product that can scaleto keep pace with your

growing enrollments.

Moreover, you need an

adaptable and complete

solution that is flexible and

customizable enough to

meet your unique needs.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL PROCESS

Requests for Proposals (RFPs)2 are a common mechanism employed by

organizations to objectively select products from the open market.

Education providers frequently use RFPs as part of their procurementprocess. A well written RFP will outline specific information about your

institution, the services and products you need, and the specific requirements

vendors mus t meet. Prep are the RFP, if required, bas ed upon your requi rements

(see above sections for basic requirements) which are reflected as

specifications. Try to be as specific as possible for each requirement so that

the vendor can respond d irectly to your requirement rather than provide a general

response. Including scenarios in your RFP is a good way to obtain a clear indication

as to how the LMS vendor can meet your needs as they respond to very specific

situations they will need to accommodate. Requesting a proposed project plan is

a good practice. A sample list of basic LMS features is included at the end of this

white paper for consideration.

In order to obtain the required buy-in and to ensure user engagement in

the selection process, establish a task force with members from appropriate

business and academic units to review the RFP submissions. Based on their

importance, you may weight sections of the RFP differently. Establish a rating

system and use it during the review of each proposal for consistency. Each rating

can also include a comment section for specific and/or general impressions. In

this manner, you are not only acquiring a quantitative measure but a subjective

impression of each specification for each vendor.

Focus on the core or highest priority requirements. These are the requirements

that you have determined are central to consideration of the vendor. If one or

more of the core requirements cannot be immediately met by the LMS, you

may consider eliminating that vendor from the list of those being considered.

Alternatively, you may keep the vendor in the process until an overall view is

obtained of best fit.

Following the creation of a short list, many purchasing institutions schedule

onsite meetings and demos so that vendors can answer specific questions and

demonstrate their responses. It is important for vendors to make clear what

part of the functionality is included out-of-the-box with minor configuration

changes and what parts require customization. It is more informative to have

vendors resp ond to well- defined use c ases inst ead of simply g iving a gen eral

demonstration of their system. The use case is a list of action-based t asks that

will demonstrate the systems ability to meet your specific needs. Use cases

can be sent to the short- listed vendors ahead of time. This way the onsite visit

will force the vendor to focus on tasks and issues that your institution has to

face instead of the bells and whistles normally shown.

Hands-on access to the demo site is imperative in order to enable your faculty

and staff the freedom to really put the proposed solution through its paces. The

use case document can be used once again for validating and double-checking

that the vendors application meets your critical requirements. After careful

consideration and review, a decision can be made

2 Other types of information gathering documents include a Request for Information, Request for Quote, Request

for Tender, and/or Request for Bid. The determination of what one applies depends on Purchasing Department

requirements of your institution and the desired outcome. This process may result in a single award or multiple awards.


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PROJECT MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES

While there are many important decisions to consider during the evaluation

process, it is equally important to have a good overall project plan for the LMS

implementation. There are several proven steps to follow:1. Formation of a steering group to manage the entire initiative including

vision and s trategy

2. Formation of a management team for day-to-day operations and

administration

3. Development of a comprehensive project plan, deliverables, timeline,

and ownership

4. Management of budgets

5. Management of technology, including the softw are to be implemented and

the hardware on which it will be installed

6. Management of the training, expectations, and support of end-users

7. Planning for the uploading of content into the LMS or migrating/converting

of existing content

8. Content creation standards, process, and approval

9. Development of both print and online help and documentat ion for

the system

10. Change management procedures while the implementation is underway

11. Management and training of all personnel involved in the project

12. Testing and quality assurance procedures

13. Process to expand and scale program through growth or inclusion/

creation of additional programs as success is experienced.

CONCLUSION

Choosing and implementing a new LMS is a long-term, mission-critical

commitment. The LMS needs to be an extensible product that can scale to

keep pace with your growing enrollments. It should be an adaptable andcomplete solution that is flexible and customizable enough to meet your unique

needs yet also be affordable. Careful planning and review of vendors solutions

can result in an LMS implementation that can serve your stakeholders for

years to come . And, if you ar e not sure wher e to star t or need examples , there

are plenty of project plans and templates that can be shared to help get the

process started.

ABOUT DESIRE2LEARN

Desire2Learn Incorporated is a world-leading provider of enterprise eLearning

solutions that enable institutions and other organizations to create teaching

and learning environments that reflect their vision, goals, and branding.

Desire2Learn and its subsidiaries support more than six million learners

worldwide. Clients include: Higher Education, K-12, and Healthcare as well as

Associations, Government and other leading organizations. Founded in 1999,

Desire2Learn has personnel in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,

and Australia.

For more information, visit: www.Desire2Learn.com or

Call 1.888.772.0325 or 1.519.772.0325.


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Web 2.0 integration

File Management

Foreign Language Support

Accessibility

Communication Features (e.g., discussion forums, chat, etc.)

Assessment Features (e.g., quizzes, competencies, rubrics, ePortfolios, etc .)

Assignment/Dropbox

Reporting

Student Tracking

Conditional/Adaptive Release

Gradebook

Social Networking

Mobile Application

Help

Search

System Administration

User Data

Scalability

Security

Maintenance

Backup/Restore/Upgrades

Software as a Services (SaaS)

Vendor Infrastructure Requirements

Institutions Architecture providing the vendor with a clear understanding of the

architecture in which their product will function

Ability to integrate with third party systems (e.g., SIS, library systems, content

providers, etc.)

RESOURCES

b online learning, LMS Evaluator Tool,

http://www.bonlinelearning.com.au

Charter for Enterprise Learning Systems and Applications Procurement(ELSAP), April 16, 2009. IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc.

e-Learning Engineering, Learning Management System Selection,

http://www.elearning-engineering.com/lms/index.htm

Ivertech Software Central, Learning Management Systems: What You Need to

Know Before Choosing a Learning Management System,

http://software.ivertech.com/_ivertechArticle27841_

LearningmanagementsystemsWhatyouneedtoknowbeforechoosingalearning

managementsystem.htm

LMS KnowledgeBas e 2011,

http://www.brandon-hall.com/store/knowledgebases.html

Michael Feldstein blog, The.

http://mfeldstein.com/advice-for-small-schools-on-the-lms-selection-process/

TheAcademy.com, LMS Selection,

http://www.theacademy.com/faqs/lms-knowledge-center/lms-tips-and-tricks/

lms-selection-tips

LIST OF COMMONLY REQUESTEDLMS FEATURES

Support of educational and technical standards

Course Development and Content Authoring

Course Management

Collaborative Learning

Content Distribution Features

Customization Features


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NA | LMS | 0811 2011 Desire2Learn Incorporated. All right s reser ved.

About Us

Desire2Learn includes Desire2Learn Incorporated and its subsidiaries.

Desire2Learn is a global provider of enterprise eLearning solutions enabling leading

institutions and organizations to create teaching and learning environments that support

them in realizing their vision.

Desire2Learn Incorporated

Phone: 1.519.772.0325 (Worldwide)

Toll Free: 1.888.772.0325 (North America)

0.808.234.4235 (United Kingdom and Europe)

0.800.452.069 (New Zealand)

1.800.656.210 (Australia)

Fax: 1.519.772.0324

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.Desire2Learn.com

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CONTACT US
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Desire2Learn WP_How to Choose and Implement a New Learning Management System