Ron Bonig, Gartner

Gartner will present an overview of their global higher education research into trends in eLearning technologies and learning management systems. This will include: General eLearning trends in higher education. The trend towards open source learning management system. Challenging the dominance of Blackboard. Emergence of the ‘hybrid’ learning management system Global statistical eLearning data Outsourcing of hosting and support for eLearning.

The slideshow for this presentation is not being made available at the request of the author.

Associate Professor Richard Constantine, Chief Information Officer and Director, Information Technology Services and Matthew Smith, Associate Director, IT Governance Strategy and Planning

For many years Swinburne has used separate and independent LMS’s in our TAFE and Higher Education sectors. In response to a management directive that all Student and Staff should use a single, unified LMS, Swinburne looked to Blackboard Hosting as a way to deliver this project. In addition to financial benefits, Swinburne’s use of a hosted solution delivers significant non-financial benefits. These benefits include outcomes such as resource flexibility, service level improvements and removing the distraction of managing technical issues allowing staff to remain focused on the main challenge of implementing a single LMS solution.

This presentation will outline Swinburne’s progress to date including the decision making process, key benefits and risk considerations, the experience to date and way forward as Swinburne progresses towards a single hosted LMS.

Click for the video and slideshow.

Blackboard at Blackboard – Swinburne’s LMS migration from VDIT eLearning on Vimeo.

Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington, Pro Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching, Monash University

This presentation will outline how close collaboration between ITS, the Monash Education Centre and the Education Portfolio transformed an LMS review into a Virtual Learning Environment in which staff and student education, virtual and physical and virtual environments and existing and new software and hardware were drawn together to express Monash’s goals for research-inspired education.

Click below for the slideshow and video.

The Monash Virtual Learning Environment from VDIT eLearningForum on Vimeo.

Dr Enrico (Ric) Canale, Associate Director for Flexible Teaching & Learning, Curriculum,
Teaching & Learning Centre La Trobe University

La Trobe recently completed an evaluation of Blackboard Learn 9.1 and Moodle 1.9.7 that took into account a number of different LMS perspectives. Ric will cover the different evaluation perspectives in terms of the main issues that are common to all institutions and summarise the specific findings as they apply in the La Trobe context by way of example. The La Trobe LMS evaluation included:

System functions and features, assessed as software capabilities, Usability or ease of use, Accessibility, assessed by Vision Australia, Content migration, assessed in the interest of minimising staff time on migration of existing LMS subjects, Comparative costs, including in-house and externally hosted options for both Blackboard and Moodle, Technical fit with La Trobe IT infrastructure and future directions, Vendor responsiveness and support levels, including evidence of their capacity to support the Design for Learning Project (or replace DFL with your institution’s major T&L strategy). These and other considerations supporting La Trobe’s rationale for adopting Moodle in 2011 will be discussed.

Click for slideshow and video.

La Trobe University’s LMS Selection Process from VDIT eLearning on Vimeo.

Steve Pallett, Flexible Learning Technologies Officer and Adam Barbary, Systems Analyst/Trainer, Ballarat University

The University of Ballarat is in the middle of a transition to Moodle from Blackboard CE8. The transition to Moodle is taking place over 2010 with Blackboard to be switched off at the end of Semester 2, 2010. We are running two Moodel production instances, one for TAFE and one for Higher Education. It has been a ‘smell of an oily rag’ project with all the challenges that entails.

Steve will speak about the LMS evaluation process, selection of a system and the early implementation issues. Adam will talk about the integration of our Moodle instances with Campus Solutions (HE Students Systems) and APTUS (TAFE Student System) and the training program being delivered to teaching staff.

Click below to see the slideshow.

Michelle Selinger, Director Internet Business Solutions, Cisco and Glenn McPherson, Solutions Sales Manager, Cisco

Cisco will present their new Connected Learning Environment solution. Cisco will provide an overview of the relevance of this Connected Learning Technology for Universities, with a specific focus on how this solution:

Adds rich interactivity to the curriculum Encourages student-produced multimedia content Enables collaboration within the university, and with other universities & industry Supports virtual classroom – both on campus & remotely Supports the goals of increasing enrolment without building new classrooms And aids with 21st century teaching and learning techniques.

Click below for the slideshow and video.

Cisco Connected Learning from VDIT eLearning on Vimeo.

Rebecca Wilson, Project Manager, Australian Catholic University

ACU required an ePortfolio solution for accreditation, embedding graduate attributes, and to provide a repository for Students and Academic staff’s electronic artefacts. The presentation will provide an overview of the selection criteria, evaluation of products, Desire2Learn implementation experiences, and pilot outcomes.

Click below for the slideshow and video.

ACU – ePorfolio selection, and pilot outcomes from VDIT eLearning on Vimeo.

Dr Gary Williams, Co-Head, Centre for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning

Mr John Parry, Director, Information Technology Resources, University of Tasmania

UTAS has over the past 12 months considered its virtual learning environment from various angles including consultation with staff through an enterprise ‘Your voice’ (staff satisfaction) survey, and consultation around, and development of, an eLearning strategy. Additionally UTAS has operated the Blackboard WebCT product since 2001, and with the emergence of the Learn 9.1 integrated product, is now considering LMS options through an environmental scan process. The presentation will summarise the overall key elements of UTAS’s strategy and direction of our virtual learning environment, including major service developments, our overall product suite, and the current review process around the LMS refresh.

Click below to see the slideshow and video.

University of Tasmania virtual learning environment – Strategy and Direction from VDIT eLearningForum on Vimeo.

Deborah Jones, Program Manager, LMS Academic Support, University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne is currently reviewing strategies for our learning environment options, in the context of a university-wide LMS renewal process. Alongside this is an external review of eLearning at Melbourne, and workshops with stakeholders from faculties, learning and teaching centres and ITS. This presentation will provide an overview of the process, and highlight some key areas of interest.

Click below to see the slideshow and video.

Melbourne – Strategies for renewal of eLearning environments from VDIT eLearning on Vimeo.