Before Fall 2012, I knew there were plans to retire WebCT this April. These plans left me with two options for the next two terms: (1) keep going with WebCT until it was no longer an option or (2) start using cuLearn now that it was available to me. The first option was appealing insofar as I knew the system and had already taught the same class in it the previous year. The second option would require a bit more work with getting to know and use a new LMS.

I spend a bit of time each spring/summer reflecting on the previous year with a class and using such reflections as the impetus to make a few changes for the upcoming year. I was already putting energy into the course redesign while working a new job at the EDC, which involved designing programs for teaching and professional development. In other words, I was already learning a lot of new things and found myself wondering if it was wise to add yet another item to my list. At the same time, I had two recurring thoughts. First, I felt that since I teach a first year seminar, it made perfect sense to get these incoming students started in their post-secondary educational experience with the new system. Second, since I worked at the EDC, I wanted to be able to answer questions faculty, contract instructors and teaching assistants might have about the new LMS. These two recurring thoughts finally won out and I decided that it made the most sense for me to switch to cuLearn.

Once I made this decision, I gave myself a weekend to play around with my course in cuLearn to find out what I would or would not be able to figure out without any training. I used the material to set up a course page arranged by date: each day had a description of what we would be doing, including content, activities and items students would need to bring with them. I also included all due date and reminders about assignments in the appropriate date section as well as in the course calendar. I was very proud of myself when this design seemed to work really well. Halfway through the fall term, however, I realized that it had become less than ideal; as the semester progressed, students in the class and I had to scroll through a lot of material – the class was offered twice a week – before getting to the appropriate class for the day. While this was clearly not an “end of the world” situation, it was certainly annoying and tedious. I realized that while I might have been able to figure out some of the technicalities of using cuLearn, might have helped me to anticipate these kinds of issues.

Over the month of December, I designed the Winter 2013 cuLearn page for my FYSM. This time, I had the benefit of training as well as the benefit of having seen various ways of setting up cuLearn pages from speaking with colleagues at the EDC and in FASS. I divided the page into a welcome section where I listed all assessments, due dates and grade weighting followed by one section for PowerPoint slides for the term and a section for each assessment item, which included the directions and rubric. I also added some colour to the page by inserting a one-by-one table for each topic. I was able to colour-code the cuLearn environment so that students and I knew to look for the blue section to find all relevant deadlines, the pink section to find information about the paper outline assignment or the green section to find anything related to their reading responses, for instance. This meant I had a page with only six sections which students found much easier to navigate.

I encourage anyone to sign up for the EDC’s training or to email any of us here to ask questions about cuLearn. The transition may be difficult at times, but it can also be invigorating!

For the last year, the Educational Development Centre (EDC) and Computing and Communication Services (CCS) have been collaborating to transition the university from (actually Blackboard Campus Edition 8) to (actually Moodle). We are now in the final couple of months of our transition and �Ӱ�ԭ��’s long history with WebCT (beginning in 1997) is coming to an end in just a few weeks.

After May 10, our WebCT license expires and we will lose our ability to directly access content and information stored in it. A large part of our initiative to move to the new system has been the efforts to extract all the content and grade information stored inside of WebCT and convert it into a format that cuLearn can use. Thanks to the cuLearn migration team, we are almost done extracting all this material.

As we get closer and closer to May 10, it is important that we think about our next steps for cuLearn. How should we improve it? Are there tools that we should integrate to make it more helpful for teaching and learning? When should we upgrade to a newer version of Moodle (we are currently using Moodle 2.1; Moodle 2.5 is about to be released)? Can we better integrate cuLearn into existing �Ӱ�ԭ�� systems (i.e., e-grades)?

A key part of the decision to select Moodle as �Ӱ�ԭ��’s LMS was the ability to customize it for our teaching and learning needs and to extend and grow with it. The first steps to improve cuLearn will begin on April 25, 2013 with the kickoff of the LMS Advisory Meeting. This group has been formed with representation from all five teaching faculties, undergraduate students, teaching assistants, staff and senior management.

The group will meet throughout the summer to identify and prioritize our roadmap for the LMS. Some priorities have already been identified: integrate cuLearn’s gradebook with e-grades to improve the workflow for final grade reporting, improve the performance and upgrade to a newer version (but which version 2.4? Or 2.5?). Should we add a plugin that would facilitate online marking of assignments ()? What about ways to improve how the list of courses is displayed in the course menu page? It’s these types of questions that this group will help answer.

Would you like to provide input to direction of cuLearn? Please do not hesitate to contact the committee at edc@carleton.ca or contact one of the committee members.

Meet the committee:

Andrew Barrett – Assistant Director, Educational Development Centre
Scott Bennett – Faculty Member, Political Science, Faculty of Public Affairs
Brian Cousens – Faculty Member, Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science
Devin Fraser – 1st Year Undergraduate Student, Accounting
Ryan Katz-Rosene – Teaching Assistant, PhD Candidate, Geography
Denis Levesque –Chief Information Officer, CCS,
John Logan – Faculty Member, Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Patrick Lyons – Director, Teaching and Learning, OAVPTL – Committee Chair
Pat Moore – Associate University Librarian, MacOdrum Library
Osman Naqvi – 1st Year Undergraduate Student, Criminology
Cheryl Schramm – Faculty Member, Systems and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Design
Vacant – Faculty Member, Sprott School of Business

While WebCT has served �Ӱ�ԭ�� well in the past, the product is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated. After an extensive review and evaluation, cuLearn was selected as �Ӱ�ԭ��’s new Learning Management System and was introduced to the campus in Spring 2012.

Important Information �Ӱ�ԭ�� Content
All core course content has been migrated from WebCT to cuLearn, however, you need to request access to older content. Get more information and .

You will need to back up personal content that you have stored in WebCT, including student assignments, individual grade records, email history and stored files. Find out more about the .

Take a look at the about WebCT’s retirement and our for more information.

cuLearn Training
Need help transitioning to cuLearn? The EDC is there to help with a variety of training sessions and workshops. Get all the details .

Learn more about the .

While WebCT has served �Ӱ�ԭ�� well in the past, the product is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated. After an extensive review and evaluation, cuLearn was selected as �Ӱ�ԭ��’s new Learning Management System and was introduced to the campus in Spring 2012.

In preparation, all course content has been migrated from WebCT to cuLearn. Get more information about content migration and request access to older course content .

Need help transitioning to cuLearn? The EDC is there to help with a variety of training sessions and workshops. Get more information about training .

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