Reflections on End User Changes

Tom: Well, and the cost of switching is still really high as far as just effort and time.

Phil: I had a conversation about that today. It's high, but it's not what it was 10 to 15 years ago.

Tom: That's true.

Phil: Back in the days before LTI was standard and back before cloud-based systems, it was much more difficult then, because it might take you six months. Back in 2008, if you switched from one LMS to another, you would probably, an institution, spend six months setting up the hardware to host the new system, testing out initial integrations, and then you could do a pilot with a school. These days, I've seen schools start pilots within a month of picking a new system. So, it's dramatically different.

But the counter argument, and this is the conversation I had today, LMS, it is existential to universities. It is the home of where students digitally experience most of their education, so you've got to make sure you... It is a big investment to change your virtual presence. So, it's a change management issue, whereas 15 years ago, it was much more an IT issue to switch.

One of the things that I pointed out is I did a straight-line graphic because online's been growing. Whether it's just a couple of online classes in a face-to-face program or a fully online program, that enrollment's been growing nationwide for at least 12 years. And actually, before the COVID, it was very linear, its growth, and then COVID changes everything. But I did a straight-line projection of the past linear trend to today, and showed that we've now settled into a state where it's greater than it would've been if we had just kept going on without COVID. So, in other words, COVID had its spikes, but it also pushed the online course and online program enrollment up, particularly as a percentage of student enrollments. That's the net result.

Phil: It's interesting to me because there was so much to discussion during COVID about how students hated online, hated “Zoom University,” and faculty hated [it]... There was a lot of press about, “Oh, they finally see how bad it is.” It's the opposite. People finally realize, this is what online can do. But a lot of times, faculty are saying, "Well, I see what online can do. I wish it would do this better." But instead of just saying online's bad, now they're saying, "Help me make something even better." So, I realize it sounds a little bit too optimistic, but I think people are now like, "Let's figure out how to make it better." And it's increased. [snip]

It's one thing to criticize something that you don't know. And I think we saw a lot of that pre-COVID. Faculty who had never taught online, and complained about online, how it's not as good as face-to-face. Heck, we just saw an op-ed on Inside Higher Ed last week that made that same argument. Although it was somebody who tried one course.

Tom: It's always somebody who just tries one course who writes…

Phil: I know. And then it's like, let me write... I've spent more time writing about it than figuring out how to design my course properly