Victorian Directors of Information Technology eLearning Forum

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.

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.

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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.

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