Swansea University

Learning Management Systems (LMS) became widely availableand known as the Virtual learning environment (VLE)on UK university campuses from the early 2000s. While critics suggest that their initial use did not progress beyond information repositories to store lecture notes for many courses, they have increasingly enabled teaching innovations such as blended learning and flipped classrooms.

Swansea University embarked on a review of its LMS offering in 2017, culminating in a supplier change in 2020. The review coincided with the adoption of cloud-based business collaboration software used for university operations. Like other universities in a competitive and marketised sector, the thought of potential cost savings and reducing overheads through supporting fewer software systemswereappealing.Therefore, one of the options considered during the review was to move away from the typical LMS and use business collaboration systemsand associated apps for learning, teachingand assessment(LTA) practices.In addition to the immediate cost saving for the LMS software, there was a range of other potential benefits aligning with educational and sector drivers.

Despite many institutions investing in their digital estate and acquiring new LMSs, it is not translating into studentsgraduating with the digital capabilities they require in their careers. The 2019 Jisc annual digital insights survey of Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) students in the UK states that only 42 percent of HE students agree that their degree prepares them for the future workplace. With the emergence of Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution worth billions of pounds to the manufacturing sector, there is also concern from industry and commerce about the growing digital skills gap. For example, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) recommends that the UK government map out the digital skills required in school, college and university courses.

Digitalliteracy, as defined by Jisc,include capabilities such as digital communication, collaboration, creation, problem solving and innovation – digital literacy or, in more modern parlance, digital fluency is not just about ICT proficiency. The ability to bringa wide range of 21^st-century skills to bear in our digital society is of paramount importance for graduate outcomes. If students use business systems daily on degree programmes embedded with digital learning activities and assessments, will the digital skills gap close?

After starting the LMS review and writing a specification for its replacement, it quickly became apparent that while a transition away from the traditional LMS might improve digital skills, it would be complicated, present risks and require work and resources. The following practical realities were significant and included.

• Consistency of Practice

There were two consistency elements to consider during the LMS review. Students are vocal in institutional and sector surveys;they appreciate consistency in the way courses are presented and navigated on the system. Additionally, if the learning design is highly varied across a programme of study, problems with student satisfaction may occur. For example, students who experience small group work using digital tools may perceive that as having more or less value when compared to traditional didactic lectures.

• Staff Skills and Institutional Barriers

There are many time pressures on academic staff in higher education, especially those that are research-led. Moving away from traditional delivery modes such as didactic lectures to authentic small-group digital learning activities requires an uplift in pedagogical knowledge and digital skills. An abrupt change away from the conventional LMS requires buy-in from teaching staff that change is needed, high costs in time and training and possibly a fundamental culture change in the educational model employed by the institution.

• Integrations

Many educational software and tools can integrate seamlessly usingLearning Tools Interoperability(LTI) standards, and there are many that (currently) only integrate with an LMS.A strong reason for maintaining a dedicated LMS at Swansea is themany LTI integrationsthat keepusers in a coherent ecosystem. Staff and students are unaware that they have moved from the core LMS to an additional service due to the seamless, secure connection and exchange between the two.

• Solution Maturity

Business systems aredeveloping and expanding their toolset to fit the education sphere. As explained, this is positive as it provides students with the necessary tools for authentic practice opportunities. However,workflows and processesmay not match typical operations in the education setting,leading to frustration for both staff and students, especially if regular updates to systems as they are re-purposed require fixes to enable the educational use or necessitate training.

• Support

Swansea University required 24/7 support from the chosen LMS supplier, given the possible necessity for a speedy transition between academic years. The rapid expansion of business systems in this area will rapidly increase their user base. For example, the average UK University has approximately 17,000 users (staff and students). There was a perceived risk of additional strain on business systems support and software development teams to help new usersandaccommodatefeature requests or changes, especially if these only meet educational use.

The review team completed the specification for a system to achieve its requirements for LTA over the next decade and followed a competitive tender process. The result was that a modern, market-leading LMS was successful with its bid. The new LMS was installed and went live in a staggered approach over 2020. A year on the LMS review team concludes that the new LMS introduction also coincided with the need for pedagogical and digital training for online teaching due to Covid-19. Perhaps helped by that element of luck, the new LMS has been overwhelmingly well-received by students and staff and has been instrumental in the University’s response to the pandemic. Staff and students can still choose to use the other new business systems where they decide to do so to improve digital skills. Perhaps listening to the experiences of universities such as Swansea, LMSs and business software vendors are now working in partnership to integrate business systems, thus combining the best of both approaches giving Higher Education Institutes flexibility in their educational models to producerounded,  high-calibre graduates