This is a design case chapter for the 5th edition of the Handbook of Research in Educational Communications and Technology. The challenge in this chapter was to describe the case honestly, while still being diplomatic and generous to all those involved (needed because the project was not an easy project!). Here’s how we introduced it:
In this case we describe the in-house design and development of an enterprise learn- ing management system (LMS) at Brigham Young University (BYU). The purpose of the project was to replace a commercially available LMS that was becoming too costly as well as unresponsive to the interests of faculty and other stakeholders. In the case we discuss why administrators made the decision to develop a complex piece of software using university resources instead of relying on other commer- cially available products. We also describe their goals for the project and how we attempted to meet those goals by designing the new system on a foundation of exist- ing components and by focusing on the most frequently used functions from the previous LMS. A central feature of our discussion is how we and other participants made decisions in a high-stakes environment of multiple stakeholders and a com- pressed timeline, which had an impact on the emerging design of the product. We also examine some of the challenges that arose among members of the design and development teams during the course of the project as pressure on the team became more intense.
Reference:
Johnson, M. C., Seawright, L. L., & McDonald, J. K. (2020). A design case of an enterprise-wide learning management system. In Bishop, M. J., Boling, E., Elen, J., & Svihla, V. (Eds.), Handbook for research in educational communications and technology (5th ed., pp. 675-688). Springer Nature Switzerland AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36119-8_31
