Opportunities for Participation ~ Community Requirements Gathering:

LMS requirements survey:
http://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=1183817
Take a few minutes to respond to the survey. Collated survey responses will enable us to identify constituent group LMS interests across Tufts University. This survey data will help us to hone our focus group questions, which will be geared toward prioritizing requirements and wishlist items for the next-generation LMS platform.

Focus group meetings and LMS discussions:

Health Sciences focus groups with students, faculty, and staff happening currently (April and May 2009).

Thanks to all who participated in fall focus group sessions and LMS discussions for faculty, students, and staff on the Medford campus.

Let us know:
Email the LMS project team if you would like to share your perspective on "must have" and desired features of a next-generation environment for teaching, learning, and collaboration. Let us know, too, if you would like to propose an LMS interview or requirements discussion focused on a particular area of interest: lms-feedback@tufts.edu.
(NOTE: if the email link above does not launch your usual email client and open a new email message with the lms-feedback@tufts.edu address in the To: line, you can copy this email address and paste it into the To: line of a new message in your usual email client.)

Opportunities for Participation ~ Evaluation:

The core team will review information gathered through research and community-requirements gathering and will lead an evaluation of the leading alternative platforms to determine how well they meet Tufts next-generation LMS criteria. This phase will include both in-depth technical evaluation and usability testing.

Presentations and Discussion:

The LMS core team will schedule sessions to present what we've learned, to discuss the benefits and limitations of the leading LMS alternatives, and to solicit your feedback during this evaluation phase.

Explore the Tools:
You will have the opportunity during the evaluation phase to explore ANGEL Learning, Blackboard Enterprise, Moodle, and Sakai demo course sites set up by the core team. We'll also ask that you take a few minutes to complete a brief survey to provide the core team with feedback on your comparative experience with and perspective on the different platforms.

Request for Proposals:

Following our requirements gathering and analysis, the core team will be asking for detailed information from the leading LMS providers about their respective platforms, business and support models, and future development roadmaps. To frame and refine this request for proposals from the leading service providers, the core team will draw upon the input that we gather through the requirements survey, focus groups, and interviews with faculty, students, and staff this year.

Recommendation and Next Steps:

The project will culminate this spring in a recommendation for a comprehensive Tufts University LMS strategy that best meets Tufts' goals, including an appropriate service and support model to enable the transition and to facilitate meaningful use of the next-generation platform. This recommendation will be prepared by the LMS Advisory Team and reviewed by the project's executive sponsors. Together the LMS project team and our project sponsors will determine the best solution to meet Tufts requirements and will develop an LMS implementation plan as next step.