After conducting research on LMS applications with the greatest market share among organizations of size similar to TASB, we decided that Moodle met our requirements best.

The decision to implement Moodle as the LMS to house online content considered many factors: Low cost and no licensing fee, a wide range of features and flexibility, the large network of Moodle users, ability to incorporate "add-on" modules to enhance functionality, interest among other state school board associations to develop a similar solution on the same platform, and the availability of a third-party vendor (Remote-Learner) to provide hosting, site customization, and technical support.

Yes, but the Association is still challenged with growing an audience. The TASB Online Learning Center has been met with great fanfare. However, in the two years since its inception, only 10% of the user base is making use of the resources within the Online Learning Center (OLC).

Ease of access to timely information for our members and the ability for a school board member to view relevant content anytime, anywhere. The capacity to deliver important and up-to-date information to a large membership base quickly through our LMS system has proved quite useful.

Production of content proved a bit more challenging than originally anticipated. Course creation within the organization requires the collaboration of many different people, subject matter experts, LMS administrators, media experts, and approval of final course materials/content by department managers. The process itself is not prohibitive, it's the time required for each party to complete required work on a course that can burden the cycle from inception to launch.

Start small. Moodle is a very big universe. Every installation of Moodle is different and each serves a unique purpose. Pay close attention to reporting needs. Student transcripts are not a native function of Moodle and might require the installation of a secondary application (JasperSoft) for thorough reporting.