During this short presentation, I will be sharing with the community the process of moving to Moodle 2 including the time plan, road map, problems faced, alternatives we found, enhancement we did on our Moodle 2 version, transition period, training faculty, piloting period, course migration, features missing, integrations with 3rd party applications and all obstacles we faced during the move to Moodle 2 and finally our success story. I want to share these issues to encourage others who are planning to move to Moodle 2 but still reluctant, to go for it on top of all these obstacles. Also to help them avoid the problems we faced. Presented by Wissam Nahas at Moodlemoot Dublin 2013 - http://moodlemoot.ie

1. Moodle 2to Move
To move, or not
Wissam Nahas / E-learning Manager American University of Beirut

2. Outline
• The American University of Beirut
• LMS at AUB
• Moodle 2 project
• Modifications
• Recommendations
• What’s next
• Survey results
• Q&A

3. American University of Beirut - AUB
• Founded in 1866
• Top university in the ME
• 64 buildings over an area of 61-acre
• More than 100 programs
• 8000 students representing 66 countries
• Faculty to students ratio: 1/13

4. LMS @ AUB
• Fall 2001: WebCT
• 2005: Sakai, Bb, Angel, WebCT & Moodle
• Summer 2005: Moodle
• Spring 2011 - Moodle 1.9 is no more supported
• Plug-ins & integration were not ready
• Slowness of 2.x
• Postponed the move for one year
• Spring 2012: to move or not to move
• Stay with 1.9
• Move to 2.x
• Search for another LMS

5. Moodle 2 Project
• Team
• One E-learning manager
• One system administrator/developer
• Two application analysts
• Three instructional designers
• Student work program
• Time plan
• Mid-April to Mid-June 2012
• Transition wasn’t immediate
• Two instances for one semester
• Change wasn’t imposed
• Piloting with 90+ courses

6. Moodle 2 Project - Tracks
• Promotional material and training
• Technical side
• Application side

7. Promotional Material and Training Track
• Campaign - Moodle 2 - It’s all about the experience
• 50 min workshop “Moodle 2 Walk through”
• Moodle self-training course - Moodle docs
• Flyers focusing on the new features
• Advertisement
• Social media: Facebook & Twitter
• SMS to faulty and students - mobile solution

8. Technical Track
• Hardware requirements
• Latest version 2.2.5
• Code edits and modifications
• Additional plug-ins
• Turnitin integration
• Parallel instances for the Summer 2012
• 1.9.15
• 2.2.5
• SSO didn’t work - duplicate profiles

9. Application Track
• Roles & settings
• Testing (application, plug-ins & integrations)
• Different thoughts for course migration
• Start from scratch - empty courses
• Ask faculty to move their courses
• Do the work
• 2600+ courses
• 101,000+ questions
• 94,000+ resources
• 8,100+ assignments
• 5,500+ forums
• 2,100+ quizzes

10. Application side: Course migration
• Bulk restore - didn’t work
• Time to clean the accumulated courses
• Gradual course migration - semester based
• Kept Moodle 1.9 accessible to faculty
• Minor problems
• Missing question types
• HTML coding error

11. Modifications
• Drag & Drop block vs. File picker
• Hide the Server Files in File picker
• Essay question - full screen toggle, save & rescue button
• Remove “upload a single file”
• Book & Attendance were not compatible with 2.x
• Replace Survey by (Questionnaire vs. Feedback)
• Integration with Turnitin
• Clock block (server time vs. user time)
• Maximum upload size 100MB3GB
• Mobile solution - IOS & responsive web design theme for all
platforms

12. Recommendations
• Time to clean - don’t move all courses
• Avoid moving during Fall & Spring
• Parallel instances
• Don’t force faculty to move - ask them for piloting
• Use online training material
• Focus on the new features - 50 min walk through
• Focus on the advantages of Moodle 2 - people are
resistant to change

13. What’s next
• Moodle 2.3 vs. 2.4
• Mobile app for all platforms
• Assignment receipt
• Missing question types
• Performance - cluster with load balancer

14. What’s next
• Compatibility with IE
• Bulk reset
• Movability of quiz navigation block / secure window
• Integrations
• Turnitin
• Mahoodle / Mahara
• Student system - Banner
• ID - center

15. Thank you!
Wissam Nahas
wissamn@aub.edu.lb
Information Technology Department
Academic Core Processes & Systems

16. Survey results
• What feature/function did you like most about Moodle 2?
Drag and Drop & Course Navigation - took the highest rank
• There is a major difference between Moodle 2 & 1 - 30% said yes
• There is a slight difference between Moodle 2 & 1 - 66% said yes
• Moodle 2 met my expectations as a course management system - 85%
• I am comfortable using technology on Moodle 2 - 91%
• Moodle 2 is straightforward and intuitive - 86%
• I would like to use Moodle 2 in all of my courses - 96%