Revitalized future-student website designed to meet the needs of today’s web savvy students

caroline.zentner — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 16:47:17 +0000

A new ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge future-student website has been designed to be mobile-friendly and responsive to the needs of students beginning their academic careers.

The website, located at www.uleth.ca/future-student,was developed with the future student user experience in mind.

“We’re really excited about this site and how it allows us to present an authentic view of the uLethbridge student experience,” says Natasha Buis Deering, director for uLethbridge’s Enrolment Services. “Our previous recruitment content management system was no longer meeting the needs of our future students. We were limited in the manner we could present information and the site was not searchable, thereby limiting the ability of our users to easily access the information they needed.”

The new website is mobile-friendly and has created an interactive user environment that is easy to navigate. It is also the first phase of a larger website revitalization at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

“The overwhelming majority of visitors to our previous future-student website accessed the site via their smartphone or tablet, with less than 10 per cent of visitors coming to the site from either desktop or laptop computers,” says Buis Deering. “This site is optimized for mobile platforms, meaning our future students, guidance counselors, parents, everyone can easily access a full user experience. Today’s students demand the information they need regardless of where they are and on what device they are using.”

She adds that students are extremely web savvy and demand authenticity from websites. Enrolment Services has responded by presenting the uLethbridge experience from the perspective of current students and recent graduates.

“Prospective students don’t want to hear us telling them what to expect from their educational experience — who better to talk about student-experience than actual uLethbridge students? We gave them a voice and let them tell their stories. It’s very powerful.”

Other features of the website include an updated look that ties together print and digital materials used by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to create a cohesive future-student experience. It will also have behind-the-scenes capabilities to help the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ track users as they make their way through the site, further allowing the institution to respond quickly to user preferences.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in transition to Moodle

trevor.kenney — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:07:19 +0000

You've seen the teaser advertisements around campus for months now – Moodle is most definitely coming. But what is Moodle, why is it on the way and how can we make the most of it?

The Moodle transition is the final stage of a Learning Management System (LMS) migration being undertaken by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Curriculum Re-Development Centre (CRDC). It's a massive project that will see the U of L replace the Blackboard/WebCT environment it has been operating in since 1999.

"We're very excited about the move to Moodle," says David Hinger, director of the CRDC. "Moodle is a very powerful tool designed to do many of the things you'd want to do in a face-to-face classroom in an online environment. It really takes advantage of the blended learning theory of education as it allows instructors to put delivery of their content within Moodle, so that they can really take advantage of face-to-face time in class."

The move to Moodle was precipitated by changes within the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's previous LMS. The U of L had been using WebCT since 1999, but in 2005, Blackboard Inc. took over the company and has since ceased providing updates to the WebCT product. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ therefore was forced to look at moving to a new LMS, whether it was to a Blackboard Learn LMS or some other product. A faculty steering committee was struck and Moodle emerged as a clear winner.

Hinger describes an LMS as, "an extension of your face-to-face course. It's a simple way to provide resources and activities, and to have an online presence for your teaching and learning needs."

The reasons the U of L decided to move to Moodle are many, including its design as a constructivist pedagogical model as opposed to Blackboard's content management system approach.

"Moodle is very much built the way educators sit down and design their courses," says Hinger. "It's very simple and intuitive, with a lot less clicking then what you'd do in Blackboard."

The steering committee also found that Moodle was the choice of incoming students, as more than 80 per cent of students had been exposed to a Moodle learning environment in high school. Add in the fact that it is an open source program that lends itself to customizable features, and Moodle seems like the perfect fit for the institution's teaching and learning needs.

"Being an open source program, if there are features that aren't there, we can build them," says Hinger. "If we identify unique needs for our faculty, we can build things within the Moodle environment to do what they need it to do."

The move to Moodle has already begun, with two courses used in the Fall 2010 Semester as part of a pilot program. Currently, 50 courses have been constructed in Moodle, utilizing the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's testing centre and including every manner of course, from art history to management. Feedback from instructors has been positive.

"Those who have had a chance to work with it so far have found it very user-friendly," says Hinger. "But we aren't going to throw instructors to the wolves, we're very committed to providing whatever support they need to use this product. A lot of instructors have looked at this as an opportunity to redesign what they are doing in an online environment and finding it a very valuable exercise. We'll assist them any way we can."

The CRDC will continue to support Blackboard/WebCT through the 2010-2011 academic year, with full implementation of Moodle scheduled for Fall 2011 and the 2011-2012 academic year.

To learn more about Moodle and the LMS migration process, go to the CRDC website at www.uleth.ca/crdc

GET THE FACTS

• The CRDC will be offering workshops to assist instructors with Moodle. As well, an online pool of resources is currently being created.

• The U of L is one of the first in Canada to move to this newest version of Moodle 2.0, which was just fully released in November 2010.

• The U of L previously had 640 courses (70 per cent) operating in Blackboard/WebCT, with over 6,000 students utilizing the program.

• Other features of Moodle include the ability to embed videos, moderate virtual chats and forums and conduct online exams.

UNews - content management system

Revitalized future-student website designed to meet the needs of today’s web savvy students

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��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ in transition to Moodle

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