Implementing Moodle on a technical level can be relatively easy. The difficult part is using Moodle to impact organizational performance. There are many more factors beyond software to consider when planning to roll out a learning system. While we have discussed the advantages of Moodle relative to other LMS systems, the organizational challenges are the same as rolling out any other piece of enterprise software.
There are many factors to consider when considering enterprise software decisions: the business strategy or goals the software is meant to help enable, development of a solution, solution implementation, training, measurement, and finally circling around back to the goals to ensure an appropriate ROI.
To help structure the task of implementing business solutions in Moodle, we have developed a simple framework for analyzing your proposed application and measuring the results. The framework is designed to help you think through what you want to achieve with your Moodle solution, how you will implement it, and how you will measure whether you have been successful.
Our implementation framework has five main steps: Align, Develop, Implement, Measure, and Evaluate (ADIME). The framework is designed as an iterative process. The analysis in the Align phase determines what will be measured in the Evaluate phase. The data from the Evaluate phase is used to improve the alignment analysis as part of a continuous process.
The purpose of the Align phase is to explore the potential organizational impacts of your Moodle initiative. Your initiative needs to be aligned with larger business strategy and organizational procedure to ensure a positive impact. During this phase, you will also determine the success criteria for the project. These criteria will form the basis of the Evaluation phase after you have rolled-out the first version of the project.
During the Develop phase, you will develop the solution to meet the objectives outlined in the Align phase. The Develop phase creates the Moodle course or collaborative area for other people to use.
Before beginning development there are some basic questions you need to answer to ensure you are developing a useful solution:
In the Implementation phase, you will roll out your solution to your intended audience. Implementing your solution will probably be at least as difficult as developing it, but this is where we start to see the real-world impact of your solution on the business.
Once people start to use your solution, you need to measure how they are doing within the context of the solution itself. You are not measuring the business impact yet, as we need to first determine if the solution is valid. In the Measurement phase, we look to see if participants are using the solution as it was intended. In the Evaluate phase, we will look to see if what they have learned impacts the organization:
In the Evaluate phase, we begin to measure the impact of your solution on the organization and the goals you set out in the Align phase.
Obviously there are many possible answers to these questions, most of which will lead to even more questions to answer. The trick is to do enough analysis so you know what you want to achieve while avoiding "paralysis from analysis". Moodle makes it easy to try things, figure out what works, change what doesn't, and move on. So use the framework to sketch your solution, then go ahead and implement a pilot. Learn quickly, improve what you can, and roll out to achieve business success.
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