Previously, we used other LMSs: WebCT and a later version, called Vista (Microsoft Windows Vista was released around the same time, and boy did that lead to some confusion). At the time, the provincial government bought a license for WebCT for every post-secondary institution in the province. (I know: hard to believe. This was at a time when the government actually gave a shit about post-secondary education.) After everyone had gotten used to WebCT, the company was taken over by Blackboard, who wanted to phase it out. At that point, about 10 years ago, the University of Alberta faced a decision: force everyone to go with a new, unfamiliar Blackboard LMS or force everyone to go with a different, unfamiliar LMS. That's when we Moodled! (Ugh, sorry.)
In 2000, I taught a hybrid course (part online/part in-person), when we didn't have any LMS. I had to use a lot of hand-coded HTML. There were no lecture videos back then, just online notes and discussion forums. I wasn't interested in continuing that, and had no use for LMSs. I grudgingly learned how to use Moodle, but still relied mostly on my own hand-coded website. Again, this was before assignments were submitted online: students still handed in labs and term papers on, well, actual paper.
Grudgingly, I learned how to use eClass, gradually putting more assignments online. Some people used eClass to make MOOCs (massive open online courses) like Dino 101. But there was just no need for me to learn more. I mean, it would take something like a global pandemic to make me--and everyone else--re-examine boring old LMSs.
Oh, right. Pandemic. That's why we need an LMS.
When Covid hit, many of us instructors were in the same situation: I need to know how to do everything online, and I need to know it now. Lecture videos. Assignments. Exams. Grades. This was one of the most difficult aspects of the abrupt shift to remote teaching and learning. Many of us were constantly pinging eClass support, and when they became overwhelmed, we turned to each other for help.
By no means do I consider myself an eClass expert, but I was able to help a graduate student who was teaching their first class online. They even bought me a very nice bottle of wine as a thank-you present! So now that I'm fluent in eClass, now what? This is what: the email that sent a cold shiver of fear down my spine in September: "Transitioning to a New Learning Management System." Wha--?
That's right, starting in Fall, 2024 (and rolling out to everyone by Fall, 2025) is a new LMS. Moodle will be no more.
There are a few good reasons to ditch Moodle. There were several high-profile outages of eClass during the worst possible time: during online final exams. This even hit me in December of 2020, when eClass crashed right before my PSYCH 367 final exam. (Students were given the option to write the final at another time, or allow their term marks to serve as their final grade: 14 out of 123 students chose to write the final.) Also, even though Moodle is free open-source software, the university has to pay for servers to host it, and for developers to maintain it (fixing bugs, adding new features). All of these costs start to get pretty expensive, so going with a hosted option looks like a better option.
A company hosts the LMS, running and maintaining the servers. They may add features (maybe). And they will covert existing eClass sections to their new format so we don't have to create new ones from scratch. This last one is a verrrrrrry sore spot for a lot of instructors. We spent so much time over the last 4 years learning the ins and outs of Moodle, and now we have to learn something completely different!? There are some existing custom plug-ins that may not work in a new system. (Departments like math & stats and physics use custom software to manage their grading workflow, for example.) Most other universities in Canada that are similar to the University of Alberta have already moved to other, hosted LMSs. Even UCalgary uses D2L. I mean, c'mon. Even Calgary.
So, it's going to happen, no matter what. What's the new system going to be? I don't know; it hasn't been decided yet. But the timeline is pretty short--we should all know by the end of the month. And then the new learning curve begins. A note to students: please, please have patience with us. We're all going to be trying our best to learn this new system, and there are going to be glitches.
(One final thing. The University of Alberta provides tech support to MacEwan University, who are also using Moodle. If we ditch Moodle, it kind of puts MacEwan in a difficult spot. Maybe they'll end up hiring the eClass support staff who will inevitably be let go.)
Why aren't you studying?
Update 2/26/2024:
After much delay, it's finally been announced: we're moving to Canvas. Yay?
