Dear LMS users,

Thank you for your active participation and input in helping us with the selection of the College’s future Learning Management System (LMS). The College began this journey just over a year ago with a commitment to change the Learning Management System by the Fall of 2018.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in the process – responding to surveys, attending on campus vendor demonstrations, participating in stakeholder interviews, and most recently, voting for their preferred vendor after testing out their products in the sandboxes.

We have accomplished a lot in one year, and we have arrived at a major project milestone – the vendor recommendation. 

Update on the process

A vendor recommendation was made to the Algonquin College Executive Team (ACET) on Wednesday, January 31^st and we received the greenlight to proceed to our Board of Governors for final approval, who next convene on Monday, February 26^th.

Once the Board approves this recommendation, we will enter final negotiations with the vendor, and sign that contract!

That means that by early March, we will be able to announce the future LMS vendor for Algonquin College!

Sandbox Prizes

We have randomly selected 5 faculty/staff members who participated in the sandbox demonstrations and completed the final evaluation form. The winners of a $25 gift card to Connections Campus Store are:

James Bott, Centre for Continuing and Online Learning
Tony Davidson, School of Media and Design
Jill Peck, School of Health and Community Studies
Helen Stathopoulos, Centre for Continuing and Online Learning
Caroline Wakim, Applied Science & Environmental Technology 

Congratulations to all the winners! Please contact LMSfeedback@algonquincollege.com to claim your prize!

What’s Next

An implementation team is currently being assembled to ensure that once a vendor has been selected, work can immediately begin towards the new system implementation, on target for this Fall 2018.

During the system implementation and migration process, our current LMS (Blackboard Learn), will continue to be active as normal, with system upgrades continuing until the migration process has completed.  Further details on training, support, and the decommissioning of Blackboard will be available once the implementation of the new LMS commences.

Stay tuned for more information to come!

Sincerely,

Margaret Cusson, Dean of Academic Development
Patrick Devey, Dean of the Centre for Continuing and Online Learning 

Co-chairs of the Learning Management System Steering Committee