Date of Completion

Fall 11-29-2017

Document Type

Campus Access Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

First Advisor

Carol Ann Sharicz

Abstract

The need to change the current Learning Management System (LMS) within a medical and graduate school has been identified due to high cost and inability to meet some of the end users’ needs. The current LMS has a clunky, confusing, and visually displeasing user interface. The leadership is considering changing the Learning Management System (LMS) from Blackboard to a new LMS, Canvas. Whether or not this is feasible is being questioned by the upper administration and the consensus to switch to another LMS has not been agreed upon. The main reason why the switch has not yet happened is because most of the users are already used how the old LMS functions, and they feel comfortable with it. Switching over to a completely different system would require everyone in the school to relearn how to use a LMS. If the transition to a new LMS would occur, there could potentially be an increase in service tickets, phone calls, and in-person visits to the Academic IT department, which will need to resolve technical issues caused by the new system. The pros and cons between three different learning management systems have been researched, and Canvas was found to best suit the school’s needs. To make the transition from the old LMS to the new LMS, an online learning module was developed for students, who will be able to learn how to navigate through Canvas at their own pace. An in-person training program was also developed for the faculty members, which will help them get oriented to Canvas. By the end of this project, a pilot was conducted for a group of users who gave feedback on what can be improved for the training experience and transition.

Comments

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