Pilot to Production: Lessons on a Successful LMS Change

On January 1, 2011, Pepperdine University fully transitioned from Blackboard to Sakai. We started this journey in the spring of 2009. That is, in less than 24 months we went from needs assessment to pilot to full implementation. Traditionally, changing a central platform is met with incredible resistance. However, our transition was remarkably smooth and silent. We want to share our story with our colleagues in higher education, detailing how we conducted needs assessment, how we engaged faculty in the evaluation process, and how we partnered with a hosting vendor. Regardless if attendees are interested in Sakai or another learning platform, we believe our process and lessons will help others in the academic community manage change at their institutions. Needs assessment: Faculty feedback at Educational Technology Users Group meetings and via surveys, focus groups, and Q&A sessions revealed that many professors were not satisfied with Blackboard, indicating that it appeared "clunky," required too many clicks to use, and was instructor-centric. A review of actual Blackboard usage statistics revealed that many use Blackboard primarily as a means of sharing syllabi and other files with students. We will share our findings from faculty and student feedback. Faculty engagement: Forty-four Pepperdine faculty members were recruited to participate in a pilot test of Sakai for the 2009-2010 academic year. Another 50 faculty members were using Sakai independently of the pilot, as it had been made available to all faculty on an "opt-in" basis. These 94 professors were surveyed at the end of the 2009-2010 academic year and 91% of survey respondents recommended that Pepperdine "discontinue the use of Blackboard and adopt Sakai." Vendor Relationship: We experienced a very successful transition by selecting a valuable and experienced partner that is focused on education and open-source solutions. We will share lessons from our RFP and project scope processes.