BYU-Idaho progresses toward its full conversion to I-Learn 3.0, as the university provides faculty with a variety of tools to help during this transition.
In an effort to assist and inform faculty regarding the move to Brightspace, academic leaders recently held an academic discussion in conjunction with the I-Learn 3.0 transition team and IT.
Learning Management System Coordinator Cary Johnson compared the transition to moving into a new home. "The move itself always has its challenges, but there are valid reasons we decided on the new home," Johnson said. "We still have a lot of the same things, it's just organized differently."
"Things are different with the new system," Johnson said. "There are a lot of connecting pieces that we didn't have to make in Brainhoney, which adds complexity."
Johnson said the more complex structure also adds power, functionality, and organization to the LMS.
The transition team encourages faculty to develop a new mindset when working with I-Learn 3.0.
"When faculty have started thinking about Brightspace differently than Brainhoney, they begin to understand it better," said Kelly Burgener, associate academic vice president of instruction.
The university has been easing into the transition by staggering the conversion to I-Learn 3.0. As of April 1, 15 campus departments and 180 online courses have converted over to the new system.
Another 15 departments and 80 online courses are slated for conversion in Spring Semester 2016. By Fall Semester 2016, all courses, online and campus, will be taught in I-Learn 3.0.
"Our resources are better trained and have received a greater depth of experience in order to make this transition easier for our faculty," Johnson said. "We've found the individual help to be more effective than the group consultations, so now we will come to your offices to help with the conversion. In a one-to-one setting, we can customize the information we share to help you get what you need most."
Faculty can call extension 1535 to schedule individual one-on-one consultations with the transition team.
In addition to one-on-one trainings, the university has a number of online resources in the "Training Resources" tab at www.byui.edu/ilearn3/faculty.
The university encourages faculty to use these resources as it continues with this transition.