1.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
USING THE LASO MODEL TO
REVIEW A LEARNING MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION IN
ENHANCING DISTANCE E-LEARNING
14th October 2015
Assoc Prof Philip Uys
Director, Learning Technologies
Slides available from www.slideshare.net/puys

2.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
Introduction
• Charles Sturt University
• Blackboard during 2014
• Overall aim all of university uptake by 2015
• Implementation process can be described and
reviewed using the Leadership, Academic &
Student Ownership and Readiness (LASO)
Model
• LASO Model emphasises the necessity for
integrated and orchestrated top-down, bottom-
up and inside-out strategies.

3.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
LASO model
• Managing change for institution-wide
transformation in general, and in higher
education in particular is problematic since
people are central to the process and higher ed
has a distinctive culture
• Proposes powerful bottom-up approaches
based on the Innovation Diffusion theory
(Rogers, 1995)
• Necessity for top-down, bottom-up and inside-
out approaches to be integrated and used in a
dynamic and adaptive way

4.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
Vision
Reward
Structure
Strategic
Framework
LEADERSHIP
ACADEMIC AND STUDENT OWNERSHIP & READINESS
Workgroups
Pilots
Training Teams
Dr Philip Uys
philip.uys@globe-online.com
http://www.globe-online.com/philip.uys
*LASO: Leadership, Academic & Student
Ownership and Readiness
September 2001
© Copyright Philip Uys
Student Interest
…
…

5.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
LASO model at CSU: Top down strategies
1. CSU vision was to “introduce a leading learning
management system and educational
technologies, integrated with other student
system plans, and considerate of student and
staff support and change management
requirements: to provide distance and on-
campus e-learning
2. sponsor of the project was a senior manager at
CSU namely the Acting PVC (Student Learning)
and later myself

6.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
3. Steering Committee widely representative of
general and academic staff of the University.
4. The presenter, who is Director of Learning
Technologies, was responsible for the change
management and communications program
5. Interact deliberately with middle-management
namely the heads of school and the course
(program) directors – both roles manage staff,
financial resources and workloads.

7.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
LASO model at CSU: Bottom up strategies
1. Change fatigue was uncovered during the
implementation of the new LMS at CSU due to
other major projects being carried out at the
same time namely a new way of designing
courses (programs), as well as a new
assessment and moderation policy in 2014.
2. Extensive help with the transition of learning
content from the previous LMS (Sakai) to the
new LMS (Blackboard)

8.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
3. A phased implementation was further used that
started at the beginning of 2014 and concluded
in February 2015 so that staff could learn from
each phase and also to ensure a gradual
uptake by staff and students
4. Educational Technology Reference Group
5. Professional learning program: training in the
functionality of the new LMS and integrating in
learning designs; ran workshops; regular drop
in sessions; one-on-one support; extensive
online help materials

9.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
6. emails were sent to all students, online banners
were placed on all student computers on the
campus and student-facing websites were used to
convey messages about the new LMS.
7. Regular and targeted communications were also
send to teaching staff using a variety of channels
including email; University news; general Yammer
use; a dedicated Yammer group; via the
educational designers; heads of school; course
directors; and a site in the new LMS called “About
Learning Technologies”.

10.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
8. The work of the LMS project team was another
bottom-up strategy to support the implementation
of the new LMS. This team included members from
the Library, the IT division, the office for students
and the Division of Student Learning.

11.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
Integrating top down and bottom up
strategies
“Guiding teams” was set-up in each of the four
faculties and the relevant divisions and had a
mix of senior and junior staff. The guiding
teams had to interpret the change and
communications for their constituencies that
regularly were sent to them.

12.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
LASO model at CSU: Inside-out strategies
1. Inside-out strategies acknowledges the central
importance of people in the transformation
process. As such it attempts to address
perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of
students, academic staff and project teams in
higher education.

13.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
2. Three unique aspects of educational change
(Bromage, 2006)
- mutual education: academics and EDs
- collegiate approach: academics and EDs
- providing high quality evidence: case studies
could have been provided
3. critical that an educational rationale as well as
the benefits of the change be provided to
academics to increase acceptance

14.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
Summary
-CSU-wide uptake of the new LMS with all distance
and on-campus students using the new LMS since
the beginning of 2015 to engage in e-learning.
-Some teething problems but the feedback in
general has been positive.
-Distributed change and professional learning
approach via a large number of guiding teams and
also having educational designers distributed
across all the schools in the University seemed to
work very well. Guiding teams variable.

15.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
-An extensive and deliberate change process as
described using the LASO model has proved to be
effective.
-The LASO model has again proved to be robust
as a guiding and review framework for institution-
wide technological transformation.
-Confirmed again during the implementation of the
new LMS at CSU for distance and on-campus e-
learning that it is critical that top down, bottom up
and inside-out strategies work in tandem

16.
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, DIVISION OF STUDENT LEARNING
Thank You
Assoc Prof Philip Uys (Director, Learning Technologies): puys@csu.edu.au
Slides available from www.slideshare.net/puys