The invitation for learning management system (LMS) vendors to tell us about their platforms, called a ‘request for tender’ (RFT), is now in its final week. The RFT has been in the marketplace for the last three weeks. It is anticipated responses from the key LMS vendors will be received by Friday 30 September. As this date draws closer, we are continuing detailed work on the evaluation plan to ensure the best possible solution is secured for the University. The LMS environment needs to support our educational goals around blended learning with engaging, interactive and collaborative learning designs. It must also deliver a user experience for students and staff that enables this.
In a separate stream of work, we are also working towards ensuring a consistent and well supported online learning and teaching experience for all staff and student on our existing systems. A key target of the Strategic Plan 2016-20 is the move to a single, integrated, virtual learning environment. The first part of this work involves merging the instance of Blackboard Learn used in the Business School with the enterprise version. This merge will lead to almost all students being able to access their units through a single login. We are currently continuing technical activities to ensure a smooth transition with the merge scheduled for December 2016.
