The Benefits of Migrating From Moodle™ to Open LMS as Your Open-Source eLearning Provider

One of the main challenges of online education is getting both faculty and students to adapt to and trust it. However, once they’re onboard, it’s easy to see how digital learning can generate positive academic results without a physical classroom or complement face-to-face learning in a hybrid model. What's needed is an LMS tailored specifically to higher education, schools, and universities. This article looks at the benefits of open-source eLearning and how and why institutions choose to migrate to new providers in this space.

Teachers and students expect online education to offer a learning experience that’s at least as good as, if not better, than the traditional education model. Online learning also expands teaching methodologies by applying educational elements such as videos, interactive sessions, infographics, and virtual forums, among others.

Additionally, an online learning platform can help instructors meet student needs throughout the learning process by automating processes.

At Open LMS’ Innovation Summit 2021, Sara Lorenzo, Director of Academic Coordination and eLearning Director at EUDE Institute of Business & Technology (EUDE), and Pedro Perez, Deputy Director of Infrastructure Knowledge Management at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (UPC), discussed their migration from Moodle™ to Open LMS. Pentec, an official supplier of Open LMS solutions in Spain, assisted both institutions with their transition and customization.

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Why The Universities Decided to Migrate to Open LMS

A digital learning ecosystem brings together various technologies and information elements responsible for managing and organizing the tasks of an educational institution or entity. When an ecosystem is implemented correctly, communication initiatives improve and the teaching process can be significantly strengthened.

At EUDE, Open LMS was launched for all students, both in-person and online. Today, learners can access the virtual library, seminars and events, language training, Master's degree class content, and attend live campus sessions via streaming. "The platform functions as an ecosystem while providing students with a single environment for their teaching and learning. At EUDE Business School, we’ve worked with Open LMS for five years. Since we started our partnership, we’ve been evolving together in the use and scope of the platform. Our goal is to have a campus that is adapted both to almost 100% of our needs as an educational entity and to the needs of our students," shares Lorenzo.

EUDE’s primary reason for adopting Open LMS was the platform’s flexibility. "We needed a platform that allows us to be worry-free about technical incidents. We also needed a robust and reliable system. We found Open LMS to be a learning platform that we can trust to focus our efforts on our main objective: improving the experience of our students. This facilitated our decision to change platforms."

Similarly, UPC began using Open LMS four years ago for both in-classroom and online teaching modalities. UPC has been continually innovating through the proper use of educational technology, keeping on top of the latest developments.

“It comes down to peace of mind. We had a broad learning ecosystem, but we needed a system and development resources that reached the university’s required reliability. This meant making full use of a platform with stability, scalability, and no class-size issues," affirms Perez.

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The Benefits of Migrating to Open LMS

Online education can reduce costs, save time, provide flexibility in scheduling, interactivity, and a number of advantages that benefit students and faculty. It’s critical to have the best technology and tools to carry out the teaching process and ensure eLearning effectively leads to an academic transformation.

“We have the peace of mind that only comes from knowing that everything is working out,” says Perez. Likewise, he points out that the university's main objective is to ensure that students can combine stability and flexibility in their studies.

"We hope to continue working with the full range of functions to better respond to the current needs of our students. For example, continuing with live classes, HTML5 content, and interactive videos. Ideally, everything will continue to be available and operate using any device. This is key for our students as they require flexibility to access eLearning at any time," affirms Lorenzo regarding the future impact they expect to have with the use of Open LMS.

EUDE, he adds, has been able to expand its student population due to the technical support provided by the Open LMS team from the outset.“The support and delivery of new infrastructure has expanded our student body from 2,000 to 8,000 students. This is possible because the platform is adaptable and can scale effectively.”

At UPC, migrating from Moodle™ to Open LMS has proven beneficial as it has expanded and integrated eLearning into its in-person teaching modality. According to Perez, Open LMS addresses usability. “It adapts to mobile devices, offers a great user experience, is attractive, and incorporates new functionalities that complement existing ones.”

Another benefit of migrating to Open LMS is the ability to maintain and transfer existing data. According to Perez, the platform safely imported the training data of all 12,000 students they had at the time of migration. “We wanted instructors to walk into the new scenario with a new structure adapted to the new environment. We planned it and conducted an audit phase. We analyzed the code we needed to develop and created and implemented new plugins. Immediately after the migration, we tested it and moved it into the production phase, with only an eight-hour service drop."

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The Open-Source Advantage

Open source allows eLearning experts to make modifications that result in richer learning experiences.

“Being open source is one of our key advantages as a university, as it has helped us to identify the needs of our students and users. It has also adapted to our needs, improving the user experience. Open LMS offers a great experience with open source, which we’ve tailored to our students,” shared Lorenzo.

Since migrating to Open LMS, the UPC team feels it has benefited from working with seasoned professionals in the education space and learning from a team that understands the needs of higher education. This is knowledge the university gets to keep and build on over time. “It’s great to gain the experience from a large community and professionals who are working in the teaching and learning space. You acquire experience that you can adapt to your own needs. Open source doesn’t reside with just one person or entity but is open to all.”