If We Build It, Will They JoinApril 29, 2014

Deanna Grogan

April 29, 2014

Today’s Agenda• Background• Where we started• Progress• Where we are now• Discussion

If we build it, will they join?

Background

If we build it, will they join?

April 29, 2014

Meet Deanna• eLearning technologist• work within the Information Technology

Services department (ITS)• part of the Instructional Technology

Resource Centre (ITRC)

If we build it, will they join?

April 29, 2014

Western• 21,000 full-time undergraduate students• 4,800 full-time graduate• 1,400 full-time Faculty• 2,400 full-time Staff

If we build it, will they join?

April 29, 2014

OWL• Powered by Sakai (open source)• Replaced WebCT in 2012• Only centrally supported LMS at Western• 12,500 course sites, 6,400 project sites• 395,000 section enrollments

If we build it, will they join?

WHMIS• Originally hosted in WebCT

• Staff/Faculty were automatically enrolled

• Completion was legislated and departments were provided reports on who still needed to complete the training

• Site contained content, a quiz and a certificate tool

If we build it, will they join?

WHMIS• By the end of WebCT we had over 65,000

participants enrolled but only 30,000 had completed the quiz

• Large number of enrollments made site hard to manage

• Also added courses for AODA, Safe Campus, Lab Safety, X-ray safety…

If we build it, will they join?

A New OWL in Town• As we migrated to Sakai, how would we

accommodate these sites

• We also had a OWL Register function to replace (allowed non-Western people to register for accounts in WebCT)

If we build it, will they join?

Where we started

If we build it, will they join?

Things we got for free• Project Sites

• Similar to course sites but with no rosters

• Can be created by anyone with a Western account

If we build it, will they join?

Things we got for free• Joinable Sites

• Allows anyone with an account on OWL to join

• Membership tool has a searchable list of joinable sites

• No admin intervention required

If we build it, will they join?

Things we got for free• Certification Tool (this one was less free!!)

• There was not an existing tool that would work in our instance

• We used a contrib tool created by Rsmart and customized it to work in our version of Sakai

If we build it, will they join?

So we proposed…• Using Project Sites, Joinable Sites, and the

customized Certification tool to host the training courses

• They weren’t that impressed…

If we build it, will they join?

Issues Identified• Visibility

• Too many steps to join sites

• Certificate tool doesn’t support expiry dates and reporting

• Didn’t want students to join the sites

If we build it, will they join?

Improvements Made

If we build it, will they join?

Joinable Sites• Added a join link in the joinable sites list

If we build it, will they join?

Joinable Sites• Added a join tool, so that users could join

within the site

If we build it, will they join?

Joinable Sites• Added Join Bar

If we build it, will they join?

Joinable Sites• Added the ability to restrict which account

type could join site

• Added email on join option

• Added remove from join list option

• Added join group option

If we build it, will they join?

Certification Tool• Customized reporting to provide

• Downloadable results

• Expiry Date

• Including Student/Staff Number

If we build it, will they join?

Certification Tool

If we build it, will they join?

If we build it, will they join?

So, did they join?

If we build it, will they join?

How did we do?• Several training courses are up and running in OWL

• Each uses a project site, with a joinable option and the certification tool

• Visibility is controlled by linking from high profile pages

• Much better matching between enrollment and completion (almost 90%)

• HR is happy and is rolling out more courses with this configuration

If we build it, will they join?

Coming Soon

If we build it, will they join?

Future Improvements• Tuning Certification Tool to improve reporting

efficiency

If we build it, will they join?

Discussion

If we build it, will they join?

Discussion• Lessons Learned

• Free is never free!

• Even when you don’t like what you’ve got, you don’t want to change

• Everyone loves certificates

If we build it, will they join?

Discussion• Any questions? Or thoughts?

• Anyone else using the LMS for required training?

• Anyone using your LMS for non-official course purposes?

If we build it, will they join?