Homegrown to Commercial: Lessons Learned During an LMS Transition

Replacing an LMS is a daunting task. With so many factors to consider, where do you even get started? How do we decide if we should go custom or commercial? How do we narrow down the hundreds of options available? How do you define and anticipate feature requirements? Our team at the Clearinghouse for Military Readiness at Penn State recently transitioned from a homegrown system to an off-the-shelf product over the span of six months. We worked through challenges, both anticipated and not, and made it through a little bruised but relatively unscathed. Here's a bit about our process, lessons learned, and what we would do differently next time.

In this session, you'll learn how we approached the requirements gathering process and collaborated with stakeholders to define parameters. You'll also learn how we narrowed down our options and systematically evaluated each platform. You'll also hear about ways to work through system shortcomings using external learning development products. You'll learn how we approached implementation and user testing to ensure the smoothest experience possible. Finally, we'll talk about the LMS launch process and our recommendations to ensure that nobody gets lost. We'll share tips that worked for us, ask for audience participation, and share lessons learned and what we would do differently. You'll leave this session with tips, resources on how to stay consistent in your evaluation, and mistakes to avoid so that you won't hamper your own LMS replacement.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to approach requirements gathering for your replacement LMS

• About resources that will help you get started in our LMS search

• Best practices for collaborating with stakeholders to define project parameters

• Helpful tips on how to evaluate and select a replacement LMS

• Tips on how to ensure a smooth transition to your new LMS.