In order to fulfill its academic mission, the ²ÊÃñ±¦µä requires a robust academic technology ecosystem that meets many needs; at a minimum, it must be easy to use, accessible, flexible, reliable, and secure. For the past five years, Desire2Learn (D2L) has served as our learning management system (LMS), a foundational component of our academic technology ecosystem. We wanted to share with you that the university is at the very beginning of a faculty- and student-driven initiative that seeks to evaluate D2L and other learning management systems to determine whether D2L is the best tool to meet ²ÊÃñ±¦µä’s teaching, learning and administrative needs.
The D2L platform currently provides a virtual space for faculty to provide content, administer assessments and communicate with students. Over half of the 5,000 courses we offer each fall and spring semester use D2L. On campus, we see a range of use: some courses make minimal use of D2L, some large courses use D2L in complex arrangements, and many do not use D2L at all. Other faculty use other LMSs on their own. Arguably, all faculty use a variety of methods to administer their classes as they deem appropriate.
We expect the campus academic technology environment to support the faculty in the most simple, flexible and robust manner possible, even as how and who we teach evolves and expands. A single LMS, however extensively used, will never cover all the features our faculty expect to use in teaching. The primary LMS is augmented by many other tools supported by the Office of Information Technology, as well as by what individual faculty choose to utilize. At the same time, our students look for consistency among the LMSs used in their courses, and such tools need to work with other administrative systems used by faculty and students.
Provost Moore has charged us to lead a project with the faculty to pursue an evolution of our campus LMS, whether the decision is to continue to use D2L or to move in a different direction. As we move forward, we are asking the team to consider our current use of D2L and our future use of learning management systems as part of an overall academic technology ecosystem.
The evaluation phase of this project will take place through May 2017. During this phase, a survey will be distributed to faculty so that the team can better understand their experience with D2L. A number of other efforts will occur over the following months to help the project team learn from students and faculty about what they need from an LMS. We appreciate youÌýtaking the time to provideÌýyour experiences and thoughts when they reach out to you.Ìý
If the decision is to move to another platform, the process will continue over two to three years. Work on this initiative to gather faculty and student requirements, and plans to execute any changes to such a widely-used system, will be undertaken judiciously, with thorough faculty and student participation. You can learn more about this project as it progresses and share any comments and questions atÌý.ÌýÌý
Best regards,
Mary Kraus
Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education
Larry Levine
Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer
