Call to ARM at Griffith College

Last year we made a decision to engage college-wide in some dynamic change management – and we called the project A.R.M. or Annual Rollover of Moodle. In the past at Griffith College we reviewed and upgraded the module Moodle pages, and moved from one iteration of the VLE to the next during the summer months. But in 2018 we took the opportunity of a Moodle re-design, to change this practice and consign the last academic year pages to the archive. Every module was assigned a box-fresh empty Moodle page to populate, ready for a new cohort of learners to view and engage with VLE activities, in another busy academic year. The seismic change in practice was planned some six months in advance, as we needed to communicate this shift and then support our 200 members of staff in grasping a very positive move. Working closely with IT the Digital Learning Department (DLD) tested the technology on a sandbox platform and then started to spread the word that a change was coming. This was done to plan, and co-ordinated very deliberately as follows …
 Communicate ARM to faculty via college wide committees from Feb 2018.  A series of emails sent to all lecturers with illustrations and useful links.  The DLD created two videos to guide lecturing staff through this process - the first video was an overview of ARM - using Video Scribe software and the second was a step-by-step narrated walkthrough of the roll-over on Camtasia.  A webpage was created on the main Griffith College website and staff support Moodle page, with the two video guides, relevant links and contact details for the DLD Learning Technologists.  A series of workshops were offered to staff, to explain and demonstrate the ARM process.  Finally, as the old Moodle pages were archived (31st August 2018) the DLD staff offered desk-side support or Zoom conferencing to staff in all four campuses  The DLD created a Standardised Moodle page guide with images, diagrams and video instruction, so staff could easily build up a working Moodle page on the newly designed platform
The project proved a success with reviewed/refreshed Moodle pages and over 1000 hits on the videos. This connect and converse item will involve use of video artefacts and lively discussion of the ARM project and the benefits of this methodology for change management on a college-wide scale.