Description
When the University of Hull replaced its primary content management system, I led the project to move the Library Skills Team content. The website stored a large number of self-help skills development content used to support student learning. As part of the move, I wanted to bring the content from an ‘external’ website primarily associated with student recruitment and situate the content within the virtual learning environment – the space students related to learning. This lets us deliver content in the space that students associated with learning. This also allowed academics to reuse and repurpose our content via the Canvas Commons. This revolutionized the integration of skills content into the curriculum. At the time, Canvas was the right technology solution for our needs, and our content was fully moved into Canvas by the start of the 2017-18 academic year.
After two years of using Canvas, at the end of the 2018-19 academic year, I undertook a review of how Canvas worked for our self-help content. While Canvas delivered many improvements over the old CMS, it also introduced issues. In particular, the VLE siloed content, making it very difficult to navigate. The modular nature of content also made it impossible to search, making it very difficult for students to use. The VLE also did not produce the required analytics to demonstrate usage and impact. Finally, Canvas’ WYSIWYG editor had limitations in helping us to deliver dynamic and accessible content. In review, I concluded that while Canvas was no longer a suitable choice and made the difficult decision to move content, undertaking an analysis of available options. My rationale and decision were presented in the below report, making the case to move the content into LibGuides CMS. The decision was endorsed by senior management. Again, I was responsible for leading the redeployment of our content to a new platform.
For both content moves, I had to establish templates in both systems – Canvas the first time, LibGuides CMS the second time. This required the development of templates within the CMS using CSS/HTML. I also needed to establish deadlines for the process to minimize disruption to academics and learners. I also had to delegate responsibilities to my colleagues. While I established the overall template and structure, moving the content required a significant team effort.
Evidence
Report: Rationale for Skills Team content delivery
PLEASE click the above image to access the full document and see the pro/con analysis I did as part of taking this work forward.
As indicated in the description above, I had to write a rationale to support the move of Skills Team content. The attached document reflects the proposal to justify the move from Canvas to Springshare LibGuides. Canvas remains the institutional VLE and offers a strong feature set for module-based teaching. However, it was not an appropriate tool for our self-help content as we required a different navigation and search form.
Springshare’s LibGuides still enabled content to be embedded into Canvas through LTI, also ensuring no features were lost in the move. While this also serves as evidence for understanding the benefits and constraints of technology, it is also a good example of the work required in the deployment of learning technologies. As you can see from the report, LibGuides was the perfect learning technology to suit the demands of our approach to learning content delivery.
Supporting deployment
I created a template guide with code snippets and guidance for colleagues to produce consistent and accessible content.
Sharing practice
I have a short article (Fallin, 2021) reflecting on the development of the last guide I published – The Remote Learning SkillsGuide.
Statement of support: Maggie Sarjantson, Collections Manager, University Library, University of Hull
An area in which Lee transformed the Library’s services, and my own contribution to them, was in developing accessible templates for our SkillsGuides. The results are clear and visually appealing as well as inclusive.
The company take make LibGuides CMS have recognised my work:
Before and after: Moving from CMS to VLE
The below images show the before and after comparison of the content as it moved from the CMS to the VLE, and then on to LibGuides CMS. Drag the slider to see the before/after comparison.
Stage 1: CMS
- Hosted on University CMS
- Non-responsive design
- Limited search
- No accessibility functions
- Very textual
- Menu-based navigation
- Access statistics
Stage 2: VLE
- Hosted on Canvas VLE
- Non-responsive design
- No search
- Limited accessibility functions
- Increase in media use
- Too modularised – hard to navigate
- Limited access statistics
Before and after: Moving from VLE to LibGuides
The below images show the before and after comparison of the content as it moved from the CMS to the VLE, and then on to LibGuides CMS. Drag the slider to see the before/after comparison.
Stage 2: VLE
- Hosted on Canvas VLE
- Non-responsive design
- No search
- Limited accessibility functions
- Increase in media use
- Too modularised – hard to navigate
- Cluttered interface
- Easy for staff to re-use
- Limited access statistics
Stage 3: LibGuides
- Hosted via LibGuides CMS
- Responsive design
- Comprehensive search
- Great accessibility
- Multimedia
- Customised navigation
- Clean and clear interface
- Easy for staff to re-use with LTI
- Full analytics
These comparisons show how I transformed student learning opportunities by moving self-help learning content from a web content management system to Canvas VLE and then to LibGuides. There are now 993 pages hosted in the LibGuides CMS. My template is used on all of them, and my work led to the redevelopment and development of this content from system to system to system.
Statement of support: Dr Jacqui Bartram
Lee spent a great deal of time developing a high-quality template for our online SkillsGuides. He used his design knowledge and coding skills to edit the CSS to enable us to produce student-friendly, accessible help pages that look nothing like the standard LibGuides used by many academic libraries. He also led the process of migrating the content from our existing Canvas pages to the new format which made it fully searchable and open-access. He also patiently supported me and my colleagues in using the new template, including ensuring we could continue to maintain and develop the guides after he had left the team.
Reflection
Leading on the deployment of content management systems to deliver our self-help skills content was a significant project, and something that I had to do twice in a relatively short space of time. On reflection, this process has taught me that the constraints and benefits of technology are very contextual and time-bound. When we originally moved the content into the VLE, this was absolutely the right decision to do. Two years later, however, it no longer remained the case. This was because the other options I originally considered had further developed. Some of their original constraints no longer apply. Furthermore, there were new expectations and legislation around navigability and accessibility (respectively). It was difficult returning to senior managers to re-make the case to move the content a second time. Having recently presented the case to move content into the VLE, arguing the opposite two years later felt strange. But it was the right decision to make. While immense effort had been put into moving the content, improving navigation, discoverability, and accessibility were more important. I had also learned from the first redeployment that guidance was essential to maintain consistency and so I took great care to develop this for the second move.
Through this, I learned that the constraints and benefits of technology are rapidly evolving. We need to move with this to deliver the best experiences for our students. When I moved the content into the VLE, that was the best way to provide content. Two years later, our LibGuides CMS offered LTI functionality that could both host content publicly and deliver it within the VLE. This allowed us to have searchable, public content and embedded and contextualized content at the point of student learning (the VLE). It is also essential not to be frightened to challenge your own decisions. I had to make a case against my own original rationale, deconstructing my own argument. This was absolutely the right thing to do, and our LibGuides and now accessible, responsive, and navigable.
References
Fallin, L. (2021) Developing online content to support students: the Remote Learning SkillsGuide. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (22).
Revisions for reassessment:
Added a statements of support from Maggie Sargantson and Jacqui Bartram regarding my work. I’ve also included a before/after comparison to show my resdesign across all three stages, including details of the advantages/disadvantages of each platform, showing the reasoning behind the redevelopment of content from one system to another. These additions should substantially increase the evidence of impact. I’ve also added a note to highlight how assessors can click on images to access more evidence – especially important with the implementation report. I’ve updated the reference as the article is now published. I’ve included a Tweet from Springshare showing recognition of my work in using this technology. A few grammatical and style changes.