Technical Work Group Report LMS Steering Committee. Work Group Participants. Down Selection Decision to Eliminate Moodle and Blackboard Ultra

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1 Technical Work Group Report LMS Steering Committee Executive Summary It is clear that Canvas and BrightSpace are more robust solid products in line with what Sacramento State needs than Blackboard or Moodle. Blackboard or Moodle don t have a viable product that is close to the level of BrightSpace or Canvas. Technically, either system will meet our needs but Canvas is the stronger of the two. Since we will be moving to the cloud with either system, there will be a learning curve for processes such as security tracking and the validation and curation of migrated content. From a technical perspective, the migration of courses is more straight-forward with Canvas. The inconsistency in how courses are imported in BrightSpace is a bit frustrating and could be very time consuming when migrating a large number of courses. In the group s testing process, 25% of courses failed upon the first import attempt to Brightspace. Although we know either system will satisfy our basic needs, Canvas seems to be much easier to use from an administrative standpoint also. Automated processes may be easier in BrightSpace than Canvas as it seems that we may have to rely on Instructure s support for those types of requests but overall both systems are strong and should meet our needs. Work Group Participants Jeff Dillon, Yuan Liu, April Qian, Matt Kay, Dennis Dahlquist Down Selection Decision to Eliminate Moodle and Blackboard Ultra EThink/Moodle With the discovery that Ethink does not have a bulk migration tool available, moving one term of 2,500+ courses effectively is not feasible. Ethink admittedly does not have experience working with schools with medium to large LMS footprints. The open source nature of the product allows flexibility to shop for another support partner (Moodlerooms), but that would realistically add months to the process with no real assurance of another outcome. From a non-technical standpoint, ethink/moodle are not covered by a CSU MEA so our community of users is ambiguous at best.

2 Blackboard/Ultra Their flagship product, Ultra is still somewhat of a mystery. Blackboard has been slow to modernize their product but are now claiming to be changing their software to be more modern recently, but this was somewhat confusing when asked exactly how. This recent failed opportunity to pitch Ultra was their chance to demonstrate they have been listening and responding to customer feedback. Only 11 unknown institutions are piloting Ultra now with the full rollout this summer. Our only Blackboard option at this point, would be to move our 9.1 instance to the SaaS cloud or Blackboard managed hosting. Historically, Blackboard support has been dismal. By moving our instance to managed Hosting or Saas, we could be even more at the mercy of Blackboard support. We do not want to be on the bleeding edge of Blackboard Ultra. Sandbox Analysis: Canvas vs. BrightSpace Authentication Central Authentication Service (CAS) was setup in sandbox environments for both systems. Both companies provided adequate support and the both systems integrated with our CAS systems well Customization Both themes were able to be customized with Sac State branding as expected. Integrations The most integral LTI Integrations were researched and integrated into both test systems; Respondus Lockdown, Turn it In and Zoom. There were no problems or concerns. The integrations seem to work as expected but the team will defer to the testing team and the campus testers at large for more of a comparison between how well the integrations function. Both systems support standard protocols/file formats QTI, SCORM, XML, Web Services, CAS/Shibboleth. Course migration/account creation User accounts were imported and created on both systems with no issues. New course sections were added and student enrollments were added., created new course sections. Each system has some issues with migration courses but not enough to be a barrier for adoption. BrightSpace Inconsistent migration of courses from Blackboard s standard Export format. In the group s testing process, 25% of courses failed upon the first import attempt to Brightspace. Also, when using the Common Cartridge input format, Blackboard assignments are not migrated. Canvas The migration of content puts multiple modules into one module. This content may have to be manually filtered/parsed by the instructor.

3 Sandbox Analysis: Administration & Technical Requirements Rubric Assessment Scale 5 points: Exceeds functionality/usability expectations 4 points: Meets functionality/usability expectations 3 points: Meets functionality/usability expectations but may have minor to moderate gaps 2 points: Partially meets functionality/usability expectations, significant gaps, compromise required 1 point: Does not meet functionality/usability expectations

4 Brightspace Rubric Assessment Usability Functionality 3 3 Standards 4 4 Integration Sandbox environment available with ability to clone production environment The common cartridge standard is not supported well. For example, assignments are not imported. This could cause confusion for faculty migrating their courses. Sys admin page user interface not user-friendly. Vendor had to turn on LTI's 5 4 Customization Ability to customize interface Ability to customize fonts and add university branding Twitter feed integration for login page 2 2 General Administration Ability to import/export users Ability to import/export courses Ability to delete courses and users Ability to batch activities Ability to schedule activities Ability to identify users/courses who have been inactive for X number of months and disable/archive Ability to crosslist courses Course management admin page is not user-friendly. Creating courses in not intuitive. Many issues with consistency importing native Blackboard courses 3 3 Client Modern browsers supported (Safari, Chrome, etc.) Mobile support through mobile specific web based interface (i.e., responsive or mobile website) Mobile support through an app based interface (ios, Android, Windows) s all tested browsers, IE, Safari, Firefox, Chrome. Mobile apps were not intuitive. Possibly too many apps.

5 Usability Functionality for OS X, Windows, Chrome, and Linux All elements HTML 5 compatible 3 2 Security Tracking Data 3 3 Overall impression Total Brightspace Scores: Ability to provide application log data (authentication and browser session data - i.e., user-agent strings, Google Analytics cookies) to a batch process Ability to provide system log data (syslog or event log data) to a batch process Ability to query application log data (authentication and browser session data i.e., user-agent string, Google Analytics cookies) Ability to query system log data (syslog or event log data) Logs retain client s originating (source) IP Ability to provide data feed to SIEM Reports do not seem to work properly. Admin reports have wrong year (2012). D2L claims to fix this in an upcoming release. Reports are not easy to customize.

6 Canvas Rubric Assessment Usability Functionality 5 4 Standards 3 4 Integration Sandbox environment available with ability to clone production environment 4 4 Customization Ability to customize interface Ability to customize fonts and add university branding 4 4 General Administration Ability to import/export users Ability to import/export courses Ability to delete courses and users Ability to batch activities Ability to schedule activities Ability to identify users/courses who have been inactive for X number of months and disable/archive Ability to crosslist courses 4 4 Client Modern browsers supported (Safari, Chrome, etc.) Mobile support through mobile specific web based interface (i.e., responsive or mobile website) Mobile support through an app based interface (ios, Android, Windows) for OS X, Windows, Chrome, and Linux All elements HTML 5 compatible Possible Firefox issue but was not able to be replicated. Mobile app and browsers work well. Mobile app functions well and is clean. 4 3 Security Tracking Data Ability to provide application log data (authentication and browser session data - i.e., user-agent strings, Google Analytics cookies) to a batch process Ability to provide system log data (syslog or event log Needs some new development. Does not support PeopleSoft SAIP.

7 Usability Functionality data) to a batch process Ability to query application log data (authentication and browser session data i.e., user-agent string, Google Analytics cookies) Ability to query system log data (syslog or event log data) Logs retain client s originating (source) IP Ability to provide data feed to SIEM 4 4 Overall impression Total Canvas Scores: 28 27