Sara Marcketti, Ann Marie VanDerZanden
In fall 2016, it was decided that our University’s 10 year contract with the Learning Management System (LMS) would come to an end and a new LMS would be adopted. The University decided upon a fast track adoption of the new LMS: Canvas, with the product on campus July 2017, a group of 300 early adopter instructors utilizing it in fall 2017, and the entirety of campus adopting the system in Spring 2018.
Our midwestern university’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) was placed in charge of the implementation. The poster will provide detailed methods of how we smoothly transitioned the campus. The framework guiding many of our decisions was that of the five-stage model of change (Prochaska & Norcross, 2001).
While most of the university was not considering adopting a new LMS (pre-contemplation), CELT worked with the Associate Deans of each of the seven colleges to appoint a College Coordinator. The coordinators worked on sub-committees including vendor finalist evaluation committee and the technical migration committee, as well as serving as an important outlet for communicating to CELT as well as their college.
Once Canvas was selected as the LMS (contemplation), the decision was made to allow for as many early adopters as possible to teach in the LMS during fall semester 2017. While the Canvas community typically suggests 10 to 15 individuals as early adopters, we allowed 300 instructors to teach 17,000 students. These early adopters provided knowledge and positive word of mouth regarding the new LMS. Each was recognized at the end of fall semester with a “Certificate of Merit” and informally became a mentor within their programs and departments.
To prepare campus for the transition (preparation), CELT offered 30 personalized departmental workshops; taught 65 university-wide workshops; and provided over 400 hours of “open labs” and individual consultations. We developed and delivered an exhaustive communication plan. To further excite campus about the change, we posted a Countdown Clock to the existing LMS interface.
In spring semester 2018, CELT continued to offer open labs, individual consultations, and training workshops (action). Informed by a campus wide survey, CELT designed an intensive summer workshop focused on course design/redesign. To celebrate the innovative work around the new LMS (maintenance), CELT coordinated an on-campus Canvas conference for fall semester 2018 and designed more complex workshop sessions.
