Strategic Planning for High-Level Learning Platform Performance and Organizational Structure in Desire2Learn. Presented July 2006, FUSION, D2L's Users Conference, Guelph, ON

1. How Do I Fly This Thing?
Strategic Planning for High-Level Learning Platform
Performance and Organizational Structure
Kyle Mackie Cory Gaber
eLearning Program Client Project Manager
Manager

2. Quick intro – Kyle
• eLearning Program Manager
– Technical support team, development
and maintenance of websites
– Training Instructors on D2L platform
– Maintaining DOME
– Setting Roles and Permissions
– Main contact with D2L
– “legacy client” (6+ years)

3. Quick intro – Cory
• Client Project Manager
– Client’s face of D2L, and D2L’s face of
that client.
– Key responsibilities:
• Project Management
• Scheduling and overview
• Ensuring overall client satisfaction
• “legacy employee” (2+ years)

4. The Players
• D2L Administrator
• Client Project Manager
• Implementation Service Consultant

5. What is strategic planning?
• A road map for D2L bliss
• Clear end results vs. current reality
• Involves both short and long term
planning
Note: D2L system is configurable and
can adapt to almost any business
model

6. Life Cycle of a Client
• Implementation phase (Phase I)
– setup and configuration of the D2L
website
• Maintenance phase (Phase II)
– system can be tweaked to minimize
administration, maximize performance,
and improve overall user satisfaction

7. Org Structure
• Virtual structure of your business
model in D2L
• Defined in the DOME tool and
defined by Org Units.
• Org Units, the basic building blocks
– Semesters, Departments, Cohorts,
Groups, Schools…
– Whatever you can think of….

8. Sample Organization Hierarchy

9. My Courses widget
• How Org units are displayed to users
• Can display up to two different org
unit levels
– For eg -> Semester -> Department ->
Course offering.
• Course offering is always the base
layer

10. My Courses widget

11. DOME
• D2L Organization Management
Environment
• Manages configuration variables
• Displays the hierarchal structure of
the Organization
• Not the big hairy monster it first
seems

12. DOME

13. What else to consider?
How much time do you have?
• Hardware
• Scalability
• Performance
• New Products
• New Projects
• Metrics
• Org Structure

14. Why worry about Org Structure?
A solid, well-thought out organizational
structure is fundamental because it
sets the parameters for everything
you need to do. It’s your home.
Once established, tools can be
customized, roles and permissions
set, users enrolled, templates
created, courses developed.

15. Office of Open Learning, UofG
• MBA
• MA
• University of Guelph DE
• Equine Courses
• Horticulture Certificates
• University of Guelph-Humber
• Diploma in Agricultural Communications
• General Portal
• a couple “on-hold” or “in-waiting”

16. Defining the Mothership
• The more you know at the outset
instead of “should have told you
earlier” basis
• Regular meetings
• Regular review
• D2L admin tends to be an
intersection of a lot of information
• Ask a lot of questions

17. Defining the Mothership
• Name
• Audience
• URL
• Departments, Other Groupings
• Branding, Logos
• Courses – course codes
• Timing
• Tools needed and what they should be called
• Roles needed and what they should be called
• Documentation and Shared Resources

18. DE Org Structure
DE
departments
semesters
course
templates
course
offerings
groups sections

19. DE Org Structure

20. MBA Org Structure
MBA
course
cohorts semesters
templates
course
offerings
groups sections

21. Org Structure
Once that’s all set and you’re up and
running, you will, chances are good,
encounter courses which don’t quite
fit the mold, and will either need to
change the nature of how your org is
set up, or create a new org.

22. The Good, The Bad
• New Audience
• New Tools with new configurations
• Shared forums, surveys etc. not applicable
• New Roles with new permissions
• Administration of program
• Existing information, helpfiles, orientation files,
etc. not applicable
• Existing structures don’t jive with new courses
• Different branding
• “(insert name here) wants it that way”

23. “uber org” vs. multiple orgs
• Configurable at various levels
• Management of the individual parts
as part of the whole or as individual
parts?
• Flexibility?

24. Managing Change
• The key is that if the org structure is
not set up properly
– Confusion
– Difficulty in maintenance and upgrading
– Less possibility to customize to meet
the needs of the course
– Less than wonderful learning/teaching
experience

25. Managing Change – ESL/Generalportal
• ESL org
• Three courses, potentially more
• Separate login page, separate design
work, separate help forums, unique
roles
• Low enrollments, uncertain offerings
• Considerable overhead

26. Managing Change - ESL/Generalportal
• One-offs and special scenarios
• Departments – ESL, Grad
• Separate structures, separate
branding
• Generic login page, helpfiles
• Customization at the department and
course offering level
• Testing and showcase possibilities

27. Managing Change - Equine
• Six courses as part of a certificate
• All supporting documentation, login
pages, resources, at the org level
• Introducing new departments,
change in shared resources

28. Managing Change – Justice Studies
• Sub-set of courses from an existing
organization
• Users take courses in existing org
• Potential solution – department
homepage
• Issues – shared resources, login
page, etc

29. Recommendations
• Keep it simple
• General, within reason
• Work with existing structures
• The ultimate goal
• Separate information from content
• Talk to D2L – They give good advice!
• Don’t fear change!

30. Recommendations
After the initial implementation of the
system, revisit the organizational
structure, roles, security
permissions, or other learning
platform configurations. It is
important to reevaluate these needs
on a regular basis, as configuration
changes may be warranted.