Memorial’s Distance Education and Learning Technologies (DELT) in partnership with the College of the North Atlantic and the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation (CDLI) is engaged in a process to purchase a new learning management system (LMS). The process, in line with the recommendations from the White Paper on Post Secondary Education in Newfoundland and Labrador, is the start of greater collaboration among the publicly funded education providers in the province.

Currently Memorial University, CDLI and the College of the North Atlantic, are all using a common LMS called WebCT.  This happened largely by coincidence. All three institutions will see their current licensing arrangements expire in the near future.

“In addition, our current vendor will not be supporting our present software after this year, so a move to a different software solution is essential,” said Gerona McGrath, LMS selection process project manager, DELT.

“We have also found that the current LMS is not meeting the needs of all the users and a more sophisticated product is necessary.”

To facilitate the selection process, the partners jointly developed a request for proposals. Thus far, the process has been guided by a Steering Committee composed of representatives of all three institutions, as well as working groups to evaluate each proposal from technical, financial and functional (user) perspectives. Two vendors were short-listed and asked to present, allowing interested stakeholders to offer their opinions to the Steering Committee in advance of the selection of a successful vendor. The first vendor, Desire 2 Learn (D2L), completed their presentation for their largest audience yet, on Dec. 14.  The second vendor, Blackboard, are scheduled to present on Jan. 10, 2007 in ED-5004 at 11:30 a.m.

Full implementation of the new LMS will take place in fall 2007 semester.

“The selection of a common LMS provides the ideal opportunity for the three public sector education providers to collaborate as per the White Paper directives,” said Ann Marie Vaughan, director, DELT.

“Where feasible, the use of common software and hardware systems can achieve synergies, reduce duplication of efforts, and ease transition and access for provincial students.”

In the 2003/04 academic year there were a total of 8,540 distance registrations in Memorial University’s LMS and 4,627 registrations for on-campus courses being facilitated to some degree by the LMS.  In the 2005/06 academic year distance registrations were 13,945 and on-campus usage had grown to a staggering 22,680 registrations (including MI and SWGC).

“These high usage numbers for both distance and on-campus registrations give a sense for the importance of having an LMS and the necessity to find a financially feasible product that meets the needs of faculty, staff and students,” said Ms.Vaughan.

If you have any questions on this process, please direct them to Ms. McGrath, geronam@mun.ca or 737-3246.