As Southeast considers a new Learning Management System (LMS), three vendors have been invited to campus to demonstrate their solutions and respond to questions during an open forum. In particular, the open forums will focus on the needs of faculty employing their LMS site for instruction and engaging students.

The campus community is invited to attend these sessions Please plan to attend as many of the following sessions as possible:

February 11^th – Canvas
February 13^th – Desire 2 Learn (D2L/Brightspace)
February 18^th – Blackboard

Demonstrations: 9a – 11a General Audience
Open Forums: 1p – 2:30p Students; 3p – 4:30p Faculty
Location: Rose Theatre in Grauel Building

For those that can’t attend in person, session recordings will be available. Feedback on the individual capabilities and web-based interface (navigation and ease of use) is encouraged and an online survey will be available to those in attendance or reviewing session recordings.

Note: As part of their RFP proposal, each vendor provided short videos demonstrating nine features (scenarios) of their LMS solution. View these videos at https://semo.edu/it/AcaTech/lms_demos.html. If not already logged in to Microsoft Office 365 or Outlook, you will be required to sign in with your university credentials. After initial login, the videos will load more efficiently.

Additional Background

In March 2019, a Task Force was created to review the capabilities of the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) in comparison to other leading LMS solutions in higher education. Canvas, Blackboard and Brightspace gave demonstrations in April 2019. The Task Force recommended a Request for Proposal (RFP) be issued to potentially select a new Learning Management System for campus. In October 2019, 12 members of the original task force formed a new committee to develop a request for proposal. RFP 5949 was issued on November 15, 2019 with a closing date of December 19, 2019. The committee reviewed the accepted vendor proposals to ensure each met the required criteria. The campus visits and online videos provide an opportunity for the campus community to participate in the RFP review process. Open forums for students have also been scheduled. To read the full RFP, visit https://semo.edu/purchasing/bids/5949.html.