There could be an argument that says you are to a certain extent 'double
charging' for some of the items you have listed. For example, most FE
Colleges will have a large turn over of students and by arranging any
transfer to coincide with the end of a course / year a large amount of
user creation / movement would be avoided. As a Sixth Form College we
loose half our students every year so this would represent a
considerable saving on transfer costs as we have to create the accounts
anyway.
In the same vain, implementing a new VLE should not require the creation
of new packages as by definition they are transferred (I suspect at a
large cost in time and effort). New packages will be being produced
anyway and are done so for any system. Presumably, if all the
interoperability issues are discounted, it should not take any longer to
load a new package onto a new VLE than it does an old one.
I suspect that most institutions would need to keep the original system
running in parallel if only as a safety net and a mechanism for
retrieving 'old' data. I have recently implemented a new MIS within our
College but the old one (and its related web site) is still live as they
are used by staff for historical data. To transfer that data would be
extremely complex and expensive and would not justify the cost. This
does raise the question of whether it is actually worth transferring
data between systems. The real point of the comment was that you may
need to add 'maintaining old system whilst students finish courses /
leave' to your list of costs.
Tim Harrison
(Not really wanting to change VLE at the moment but wondering whether I
can justify the current costs)
-----Original Message-----
From: Virtual Learning Environments [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of James Clay
Sent: 19 November 2004 16:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VLES] Blackboard to Moodle
I posted this message to the ILT Champions (FE) list back in March which
asked the question of
transition costs, hopefully you may find it useful. Note I didn't get a
single reply, except from one
person who thought it would be useful for a total cost of ownership
project website.
One thing I would be interested in and this is aimed at everyone and not
just Daniel, but what do people do about the transition costs when
moving
from one VLE to another.
For example
Transition costs moving from old VLE to the new VLE
Transition can costs involve:
Creating the relevant course structures on new VLE
Creating the relevant learning packages
Uploading and organising learning content
College Content
NLN Materials
Commercial content such as ECDL
(this of course implies content created for one VLE will
work on another,
even with standards this is not always the case)
Transferring communication tools (not to mention previous
communications)
Creation of Staff User Ids and distribution
Integration of MIS system with new VLE
Creation and distribution of student user ids
Training VLE staff and VLE Manager
Re-training staff on new VLE
Re-design of support network and materials (re-training support
staff)
What strategies do people use?
What are the driving factors behind the change, are these used to
justify
the transition costs?
How do you cover the costs od are they "hidden"?
For those that have done it, how long did it take (I know a how long is
a
piece of string question, so put it in context).
James Clay
Director Western Colleges Consortium
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
www.westerncc.ac.uk
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:27:03 -0000, Holmes, Clare <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>Dear all
>Here at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts we're currently
using Blackboard Basic Edition
- 6.0.11 but we're considering a move to Moodle. We currently have
Moodle 1.4.1 installed on our
server and have been experimenting with ways of transferring content
from Bb to Moodle, using a
conversion programme we found through the Moodle discussion boards. This
does work, but
requires a lot of work reorganising the content once it has been shifted
into Moodle.
>Has anyone else attempted converting from Bb to Moodle? Could you offer
any tips or advice on
the practicalities of doing this, or any pointers on the wider issues of
changing VLEs? We're new to
this so any advice gratefully received!
>Best wishes, Clare
>
>Clare Holmes
>Learning Services Manager
>Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts
>Mount Street
>Liverpool
>L1 9HF
>
>tele 0151-330-3111
>email [log in to unmask]
>
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>The Ferl VLE Focus Area is at
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***************** List information: *****************
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