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A College-wide Migration Blackboard to Moodle in 6 months

A College-wide Migration Blackboard to Moodle in 6 months. Alice Crisp Director of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning David Hutto Dean for Technology and Development BLUE RIDGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE - FLAT ROCK, NC. Adjusting to Current Technology.

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A College-wide Migration Blackboard to Moodle in 6 months

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  1. A College-wide MigrationBlackboard to Moodle in 6 months Alice Crisp Director of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning David Hutto Dean for Technology and Development BLUE RIDGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE - FLAT ROCK, NC

  2. Adjusting to Current Technology • State license required College to upgrade Course Management System – Blackboard 6.2 to 7.1 – 2007-2008 academic year • New hardware platform • New Oracle Database • Increased costs • Issues: • Increasing online enrollment • Growing number of courses for curriculum and CE • Expanding demands on personnel

  3. Options • Upgrade BRCC resources – hardware, software, etc. • External hosting: • Third Party • Blackboard.com • Move to “Open Source” solution – Moodle, Sakai, etc.

  4. Long Range Transition Plan • Use Third Party Provider to host Blackboard 7.1 for one year • Convert existing course and develop new courses in open source platform • Move to open source entirely by fall of 2008 • College had been “exploring” Moodle for about a year – a few early adopters

  5. Blackboard Hosting Problems • Signed contract with Private Hosting Provider • License issues emerge • No 3rd party hosting provision in state contract nor allowed by Blackboard • Blackboard agrees to host BRCC courses for $42,000 per year • Hosting problems irreconcilable

  6. Point-of-Paid • Future of Blackboard at Blue Ridge in doubt • Dissatisfaction with Blackboard • Moodle a known entity

  7. Gathering Resources • Polled faculty and staff leaders • Discussed options with BRCC “Power Users” • Explained the options • Openly discussed the process and challenges to follow our own course • Proposed a move to Moodle • Gathered the Faculty Council • Unanimous acceptance of the Moodle migration option!

  8. Get “buy-in” from Stakeholders • Presented the plan to the BRCC Management Team – Deans and President • Business Office support for spending less money • Provided support for: • Summer Institute (discretionary training funds) • Funds to outsource 18 course conversions • Online Instructors to Guide Migration • Eventual hardware upgrade

  9. Migration Beginnings • Small pool of Moodle users • Early adopters of Moodle and Open Source • Strong support from IT for Open Source • BRCC - Flat Rock, NC 9 • Member of NCMUG • Purchased and Installed Moodle Servers for Curriculum and Continuing Education Courses

  10. Migration Workflow • Used existing Moodle Dev Server • Built Templates • Located Trainers – scheduled training events • Organized Moodle “Boot Camp” • Setup online Moodle Development Course • Discussion Forums • Troubleshooting of Process • Investigation of Conversion Tools

  11. Migration Mechanics • Install, configure, create course framework • Determine actual # courses to convert (approx 380 in BB) • Determine Roles, Admins – responsibilities (keep Directors in the loop!) • Schedule Marketing, lock in training

  12. Moodle Expertise • D.I. VonBriesen, experienced Moodle instructor to provides assistance & leadership • History with BRCC Faculty • Expert Moodle Developer and Ambassador • Assisted us in developing the conversion course in Moodle • Then left for Africa

  13. Basic Developer Server set-up for Fall 2008 • Gateway P4 3 GHz • Single processor • 2 G RAM 2- 80 G hard drives mirrored • IMAP authentication w/ Open Source WebMail • Moodle 1.5 upgraded to 6 (avoid 7)

  14. Courses • 380 courses in BB (spreadsheet) • Multiple sections reduce to ONE course per section developed – then cloned • Total # of courses in Moodle: 260 • Curriculum: 146 • Continuing Education: 52 on one server and about 20 on another • Miscellaneous and Sandbox Courses: 62 (Each teacher has at least one and we have some faculty training and student demo courses included)

  15. Project Management • Locate & contract training • Establish a communication plan • Prepare Instructors – online, f2f, 1-2-1, • Prepare Students – marketing (web, BRCC - Flat Rock, NC 16 print), tutorials, FAQ’s, plan orientations • Prepare Help Desk • Take Off!

  16. Project Management…part 2 • Training Approaches and Calendar • Humboldt Univ., Moodle book by Rice, Cole’s Manual with local additions • Sandboxes for each instructor • Conversion training (bFree and SFSU – forget the import or do localhost ) • Online instructor and course – DEMO course • In-house BASICS (tools, editing, file mgmt.)

  17. Migration Tools • bFree • http://its.unc.edu/tl/tli/bFree/about.php • SFSU • http://welearn.sfsu.edu/ctt/index.html

  18. Web 2.0 Tools • Use del-icio-us – it will change your life! • (reference links last page) • Coordinate using Google docs /spreadsheets • SKYPE! Works great to Senegal!

  19. Cost Factors • Cost – Direct and Indirect: Total hard cash $11,175 • $6100: Direct Pay Out for Delivered Training, Stipends for adjuncts and 9 month employees, Hired Course Conversions for 18 courses • $675: Printing Moodle Manual for Faculty - • Time for conversion averaged about 40 hours per course (rebuild) • $4400 Hardware Server upgrade (1st courses ran on 1 server not redundant)

  20. Reporting before Take Off 8/23 • As of 8/13/07, we had 41 sections, • Internet Only, and 35 unique courses. • Of the 35 courses • 11 are 100% ready • 14 are between 50-- 98% ready • 11 courses (31%) are not ready to begin • classes on August 23 (0-20% completed).

  21. Reporting – Fall 2007 • Distance Education Curriculum • By Program Courses Students • ITV 12 78 • Full Internet Classes 46 550 • Hybrid Classes 48 372 • Online Con Ed 44 1412

  22. Lessons Learned • RESET ANY TEMPLATE or COURSE before copying it to a new course • Browsers act differently depending on type, version, and operating system • Running WinXP, SP2 with Firefox 2 – cannot • add a table in html editor – but CAN with IE 6 • WATCH your backup configs and monitor • hardware CLOSELY first 2 weeks after • classes begin

  23. Lessons Learned • START 18 months out • FLATTEN all previous LMS files as much as possible • Make an outline – in BB from Course Files in case you no longer have access to BB before conversion • Locate and utilize a champion with Moodle expertise & experience • Give your Early Adopters EVERYTHING they need – even if running multiple LMS

  24. Lessons Continued • UTILIZE Web 2.0 to advantage – including tutorials in You Tube and Google Video • Beef up your FAQ’s • Build or Remodel Student & Faculty Guides

  25. Award & Recognize • Recognize achievements of participating faculty and staff • Formally award achievements

  26. Examples of Moodle Resources • Framework and template • Faculty experiences • Moodle course pages • Integrating communication technology • Engaging students

  27. Current Server Specs (2) • Dual Quad core 1.8 GHz Intel processors with 8MB cache (essentially 8 processors) • 4GB RAM • 6 250 GB SATA II Hard drives • Drives are configured in RAID5 (1.5TB total) • Redundant power supplies • OS is CentOS 5 (Open Source version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux)

  28. Entire system is replicated to a second, identically configured system each night. • System is also backed up to an external storage (EMC 4 TB) system nightly, along with other servers. • Currently running 8 instances of Moodle, using approximately 68GB. • Current Moodle version is 1.8.3+ (2007021534) • Systems are Gateway/MPC 9525R – cost was less than $4500 each.

  29. Eduforge Guidelines for Migrating http://eduforge.org/wiki/wiki/eduforge/?pagename=Guidelines%20for%20MIgrating HSU Moodle Support Manual http://www.humboldt.edu/~moodle/instructor/manual/index.html bFree – BB file extractor http://its.unc.edu/tl/tli/bFree/about.php SFSU BB to Moodle Conversion Tool (new 09- big files can take up to 2 hrs to convert!) http://moodleconverter.lsu.edu/ Using Moodle Book 2nd Edition http://docs.moodle.org/en/Using_Moodle_book Cheap Moodle host &– Siteground http://www.siteground.com/moodle-hosting.htm References

  30. Blue Ridge Community College Flat Rock, North Carolina Contact Information: Alice Crisp alicec@blueridge.edu 828-694-1899 David Hutto davidhutto@blueridge.edu 828-694-1881

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