The document discusses the University of Southern Queensland's (USQ) approach to ongoing upgrades of its learning management system, Moodle. USQ upgrades Moodle every 6 months to take advantage of new features and functionality while avoiding large disruptive changes. The upgrade process involves testing new versions, customizing the interface, extensive user training, and gathering feedback to improve future upgrades. The main lessons learned are to thoroughly test new versions, involve stakeholders, communicate extensively with users, and plan training and support for ongoing maintenance and the next scheduled upgrade.

1. Rolling with the punches:
Committing to an ongoing upgrade
methodology
Associate Professor Michael Sankey
Director, Learning Environments and Media

2. Introduction
 Establish a context
 The why
 The how
 Some lessons learned
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3.  Toowoomba
 Springfield
 Harvey Bay
 Stanthorpe
 Sydney

4. • Founded in 1967
• A distance-ed provider since 1977
• Fully online programs since 1997
• 2 Super Faculties:
Business, Education, Arts & Law
Sciences & Engineering
• All faculties have external programs
• More than 200 under-grad and
post-grad award programs
Our context

5. Student numbers
• All students 27,235
• On-campus 7,235
• External/online 20,000 (73%)
• International 5,824 (1,100 ONC)
The vast majority of USQ students access information
services online
Most Students and Staff know what they’re getting
themselves in for when they come to USQ 

6. Discernable periods in SLJ
Student Learning Journey
Decision to
enrol
Application &
offer
Enrol
The early
weeks
Experience of first
semester
Continuing
study
Unforseen
events
Completing
study
Graduation
Alumni
The SLJ is a series of interactions between students
& the Uni. Identified 9 student groups with some
150 individual points of interaction.

7. USQ Website (Sitecore) the public facing site
Different layers
USQStudyDesk
• Student Portal
• All Course-
based activity
_______________
• Repository
USQStaffDesk
• Staff portal
• Staff facing for
PD activities
_______________
• Repository
USQOpenDesk
• OER/OEP
• Inter-institutional
activities
_______________
• Repository
USQ ePortfolio (Mahara)

8. Tools Matrix

11. Be upfront

12. ICT
Applications
Systems and
Development
LEM
Learning
Systems and
Support
L&T Systems
Moodle and associated systems
Functional
support
Application
support

13. Learning Systems and Support
Library
Systems
Manager
Library
Systems
General
support
ePotrfolio
MoodleEquella
Mobile &
Mac
People
Soft
Comp’
Ass’mnt
Equella
Moodle People
Soft
Comp’
Ass’mnt
General
support
Lecture
Record’n
BB
Collab’t

15. + Equella
FS

16. Upgrade Feb and July
 But why?
 We upgrade approx 6 months after the release
 Most of the bugs ironed out
 Do not want to fall to far behind the product
 Smaller iterative change
 Less impact on academic staff
 Easier to sell small incremental change
 Establishing a culture of additional functionality
 Creating a dynamic with the L&T systems – ‘we
are on the move’

17. OK so how?
 Soon after new release
 Discuss with product community
 Team decides if it’s still realistic
 After 2.X.1 comes out put on play area
 On a PC – vanilla – get exposure – try out the obvious - validate
Feb March Apr May June July
Aug Sep Oct Nov Jan Feb

18. Then...
 Put on Dev
 1st cut of merging with customisations – still pretty vanilla
 Minor functional testing at this stage
 Let’s just get it working properly
 Apply USQ theme
 Release to Test
 Testing by functional team, ICT training, Padagogs
Feb March Apr May June July
Aug Sep Oct Nov Jan Feb

19. Then...
 Decide on what is going forward (Assignment 2.2?)
 Early change management
 Ensure 3rd party plugins all working
 Functional team all happy (as they can be) 
 Sign-off by business owner
Feb March Apr May June July
Aug Sep Oct Nov Jan Feb

20. Finally
 Change management hits full swing
 Training
 Workshop particular new features
 Road shows
 Post production support on release
 Bug-fixing and patching
Feb March Apr May June July
Aug Sep Oct Nov Jan Feb

21. Lessons
 Understand the problem before you commit
 Get senior management support
 Importance of a dedicated team
 Present relevant, clear information to
management – keep the loop open
 Find the big questions early
 Be prepared not to upgrade if there’s something
not right
 Don’t assume all will be OK with the plugins

22. Lessons
 Accept reality – what will work and what won’t
 Engage with the supporters in teaching and admin
staff
 Communication Plan – you can’t communicate
enough
 Monitor and notify management early of
issues, and include options/solution
 Gather feedback and improve from last time
 Training – variety of mediums
 Consider what happens next –
support, maintenance, that next upgrade

23. Biggest Lessons
 Leave lots of room for testing !!!