So this was interesting. Today someone at a partner organization contacted me to get my impressions of Moodle verses the system I am currently using. Apparently some of my posts from months and actually years past may have given the impression that I completely dislike my LMS. That is not true. Who doesn’t dislike there LMS a little. However, overall it’s not that bad. Sure there are some things I would like to see differently on it. An upgrade next week may do just that. The meeting I have with the CEO of the company may bring along even greater changes. I’m excited that he likes to get together at least once a year to discuss potential changes that we can make to the system. How many LMS CEO’s come to you, in person and ask “So what can we do better?”
So just to clarify some of my earlier postings, please ensure if you refer back to them, that you take the date of the posting into context. This was a long journey for us and that was mostly because we started from the bare minimum to the elabourite system it is now. Also, if anyone every wants more clarification about any point I’ve made about our LMS implementation, feel free to contact me directly and I will give you the honest truth. I’ll hold nothing back and let you know the good, bad and ugly of implementing an LMS and going from a paper world to an electronic one.
Here are some thoughts on my old postings (a letter to my CIO):
The blog indeed has been a place for me, personally, to capture, vent and share my experiences with an LMS and its implementation in general. A great deal of the items mentioned stem from the initial implementation of the system. As you know, when we first got on board with the system it was not even close to the system we have now.
The close working relationship I have had with the vendor, my tech support there and even the CEO is one of the strongest points for the system. As for my blog, if one is to put in “LMS” to search for items that I have posted I am happy to make some clarifications.
- October 21, 2010 – is a about how I would have started implement the system and in fact start the entire project differently. This was a lessons learned post that other’s might find interesting if they were starting from where we started. This was more about getting staff on board and not the system itself.
- September 16, 2010 – Is about our core curriculum roll out and some of the issues regarding staff completion.
- August 31, 2010 – similar to above, including “After some time with the system now live and working more with the vendor most of these issues have now been resolved and any further issues seem to be more user error than anything.”
The next one is from 2009
- Dec. 10, 2009 – upgrade was install and some issues were present. My tech support and I have a perfect reporting system for this and I have actually shared this document with several other elearning professionals around North America. It is an Excel document, but the process works perfectly and any issues like these do get repaired quickly.
- Sept. 28, 2009 – about creating tutorials online (an info posting only)
- Sept. 23, 2009 – the launch of the LMS – this is more of a complaint by me that not as many people were as excited about the launch as I was….hence the later posting in Oct. 2010 of lessons learned.
Anything prior to this would be during the initial implementation where we were I was in fact working for months with the vendor to create the system that is seen today. A very different system then from back in 2007 when we first started this project.
If there are any other points within the blog that anyone would like clarification about, I am more than happy to expand on them and give a personal account.
Comments, feedback and discussions that I have had with other elearning professionals, using other LMS have enlightened me to know that no one system is perfect. Neither is any one vendor. My issues of the past, present and future with the system are not uncommon. The fact that I have a support team that will fix any issue in a timely manner, is willing to and implements suggestions for improvements virtually every time I give them, is a company and LMS that I am happy to back up.