The challenges of implementing EQUELLA: It’s not just about the technology

Emily BondSenior Business Analyst, Better Learning and Teaching team3 September 2013

3rd September 2013 2

Today History of EQUELLA at Monash University

Why EQUELLA?

Implementation approach

Challenges faced to-date

Initial lessons learnt

Challenges and opportunities

moving forward

Largest university in Australia

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A bit about Monash University

62,998 students

7,720 academic staff

Australia

Malaysia

South Africa

China

India

Italy

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EQUELLA at Monash University Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences (MNHS) and the

Library

MBBS Physiotherapy

Nutrition & Dietetics

Sharing

content

Sharing

content

Accreditation purposes

Repository

Library

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EQUELLA at Monash University

Centralised management

and control of resources

1. Academic staff 2. Content administrators 3. Staff & students

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Why EQUELLA…

? File management

Home for learning objects

Single source of truth

Integration with Moodle

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Implementation approach

Proof of Concept

PilotEnterprise-

wide roll out

• 2 faculties

• 10 faculty staff members

• 9 faculties

• 30 faculty staff members

• All 10 faculties

• All staff

Feedback

and

lessons learnt

Feedback

and

lessons learnt

Dec 2012 - May 2013 July - Sept 2013 Jan 2014

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Implementation approach (cont)

Contribution wizard design

Honest communication

Variety of training and support

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Challenges encountered with implementation

High expectations

Culture

EQUELLA interface

Time and effort

Diverse user group

Alternative technologies

‘Chicken or the egg’

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Lessons learnt

1. Technology 2. Training 3. Timing

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4. Key messages

The value of honest communication

Appropriate and targeted key messages

What we said initially…"EQUELLA is the alternative to Moodle for content management”

“Use EQUELLA as the canonical source of all electronic artefacts utilised in learning and teaching activities”

“Metadata useful for describing the content you have uploaded”

“Here is a list of all of the things you need to be wary of when using EQUELLA (ie. copyright protection, version control, etc.)”

Message moving forward…"EQUELLA as a complementary content management tool”

“Use EQUELLA to store and share bigger, more static files such as videos, images and software which are more likely to be useful across courses/ units”

“Enter metadata that you believe will be useful for your peers when they are searching for a particular resource”

“There are a number of things you need to be mindful of when using EQUELLA - here is a link to some help topics that explain these things (read them in your own time)”

“We understand that to be useful, EQUELLA needs to have sufficient content to search through and use. We expect that the usefulness of EQUELLA will increase over time - the more content that is added to EQUELLA, the more useful it will be”

2. Relevance and usefulness

4. Single EQUELLA institution

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Challenges moving forward…

1. ‘Drag and drop’ in Moodle

3. Copyright and IP

Reduced duplication/ rework

Increased innovation

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… And the opportunities

Break down of silos

Culture of sharing

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What next?1. Complete EQUELLA pilot

2. Collect and analyse feedback

3. Update technology, training, communications and support

4. Enterprise-wide roll out

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Questions?

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References• Binary Data, W. Rebel, accessed 31 July, 2013,

<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/BinaryData50.png>• Overflowing folder, Heidi Bakes, accessed 31 July, 2013

<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_luKrUGNaGvA/S0Jb_yplFmI/AAAAAAAABYs/3etBPnNo7FU/s400/binder.JPG>

• Consolidated/Convair Aircraft Factory San Diego Equipment, San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive, accessed 6 August 2013, <http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/5018420677/sizes/o/in/photolist-8DsHCr-bDuoe7-do6Ecy-cGwSTs-dWkMGn-7DciyW-7GW3vA-bcmmHr-cu7K8f-brSvCA-bUzBPA-8wBSHJ-bTbTFF-bUzCjq-bUzA79-bUy2Zf-bTbTnV-bTbTwv-bEh9Lj-bTbTAX-bTbTiZ-91XpKM-cu7MNj-dWrkiU-8wyRZB-cuFQYq-cuFRsw-cE7acq-9s2rCL-cA7iYE-8DsG48-7JhNt6/>

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• World map more detail, Shokunin, accessed 7 August 2013, <http://openclipart.org/people/shokunin/shokunin_world_map_more_detail.svg>

• Milkshake anyone?, JohnnyMrNinja, accessed 7 August 2013, <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Children_sharing_a_milkshake.jpg?uselang=en-gb>