Our LMS options are great

11/1/2021

  1. Office & Department Directory
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  3. Our LMS options are great

Happy Monday, all,

Why do we need such an aggressive deadline for faculty to review the vendor demos and fill out the survey?  We don’t. 

The survey will be live until after the Thanksgiving holiday:  [see link in email or contact IT] 

We will have received and begun reviewing the vendor proposals by this Friday, November 5.  The LMS selection committee can attest that either platform (D2L or Canvas) would be an improvement over Sakai.  Sakai has served St. Lawrence well for more than 10 years, but the tools and resources offered by both platforms under consideration would enhance our faculty’s ability to deliver and manage course content, communicate with their students, facilitate student engagement, and track their achievement.

The last question of the survey is “if you would like to be part of the LMS Transition Team, please provide your name.”

The LMS Transition Team will work with our selected vendor to implement our new LMS.  This wonderful opportunity will involve:

  • reviewing and recommending course templates
  • informing default configuration and toolset decisions
  • reviewing documentation
  • assisting the vendor in creating training materials
  • recommending communication channels
  • helping to formulate LMS policy including, but not limited to:
    • the archiving of course materials and tenure & promotion sites
    • best practices for 3rd party integrations
    • annual LMS satisfaction review/assessment process
  • and, so much more! 

The above might sound like it would require a big time commitment.  But, if we can get enough faculty involved, we can create working groups to focus on different areas.  And, there is great opportunity to have a substantial impact. 

There’s no need to wait until you’ve submitted the LMS survey linked to above, please feel free to reply to me (don’t reply-all) and I’ll add your name to the LMS Transition Team list.

For complete information on the LMS Transition, visit our webpage: https://www.stlawu.edu/offices/information-technology/lms-transition-project

Smiles and laughter,

R

René M. Thatcher
Executive Director of Services and Outreach
Information Technology
St. Lawrence University
Pronouns: She, her, hers
WOO & Includer