Piloting LMS
environments in the
Higher Education sector
Mark Drechsler
Professional Services Manager
NetSpot Pty Ltd
© 2009 NetSpot Pty Ltd

Today’s Presentation
• A bit about NetSpot
• Open Source pilot experiences in
the last year
• Supporting the case for change
• Critical success factors for LMS
pilots
© 2009 NetSpot Pty Ltd

About NetSpot
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Sakai Commercial Affiliate
Mahara Partner
Moodle Partner
Wimba Authorised Reseller
Partner
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Pilot experiences
in 2009
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2009: Increased interest in piloting Open
Source learning technologies.
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What do we classify as a „Pilot‟?
“...small scale preliminary study conducted
before the main research in order to check
the feasibility or to improve the design of
the research”
- Wikipedia
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Different kinds of pilots
Evaluation focus
• to support LMS selection process
Pre-implementation focus
• to help plan production deployment
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Integration
Functional Content
evaluation migration
Pilot
considerations Technical
Support
evaluation
Hosting
Stakeholders
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environment

Common trade off
Increased:
• Scope
• Stakeholder participation
• Integration
• Configuration
• t, $
• Evaluation data
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Open Source vs Proprietary:
The flexibility of Open Source
means that far more options
are available for a pilot
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A note on Sakai
In our experience, some
technical configuration
effort is required to
showcase its true potential
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The value of partnering
Partnering with an experienced services
provider can:
• Reduce implementation time
• Avoid common mistakes
• Utilise existing knowledge
• Assist evaluation of partner services such as
managed hosting and technical support
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Supporting the case for
change
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An Open Source LMS can lead to...
... a re-think of teaching practice
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An Open Source LMS can lead to...
... the use of the LMS for more than just
teaching and learning
• Research
• Collaboration
• Networking
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An Open Source LMS can lead to...
... an alignment of
institutional culture to a
community-driven product
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Critical success factors
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1. Clear governance
Including
• a Business Owner
• a project definition
• clearly defined roles and responsibilities
• Executive buy-in
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2. Sound evaluation framework
Consider
• Pedagogical
• Support
• Integration
• Financial
• Strategic
Instruments such as surveys, observations,
interviews, feature lists, TCO estimates
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3. Stakeholder representation
Including
• Teaching and learning
• Technology
• Support staff
• Administrative staff
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The biggest challenge?
Simple pilot that
focuses on key
Complex pilot that aspects, but that
closely resembles may leave gaps in
the production the evaluation
environment, but process
that takes longer
and costs more
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Questions?
© 2009 NetSpot Pty Ltd