Page History

Background and Next Steps

Stellar 2 was re-scoped in the winter of 2008 to align with a new strategy of provisioning an industry-standard, enterprise-class, scalable LMS solution capable of supporting teaching and learning at MIT. Operational stability of the current Stellar platform, along with refinement of user-facing tools in a forward-compatible manner, has remained a top priority throughout the process of investigating alternatives to the current back-end architecture. Simultaneously, IS&T undertook an evaluation of LMS solutions upon which to build the next generation of Stellar. The goal: to find the best combination of features and functionality that could be supported with a reasonable commitment of resources.

After verifying and documenting key Stellar use cases and features, IS&T worked with user and stakeholder groups at MIT to validate requirements for a next-generation LMS for the Institute. In Spring 2009, IS&T evaluated several products and services in use at peer institutions against these requirements, as well as functional specifications, data dependencies, and other key criteria specific to MIT.  In Summer of 2009, IS&T presented its findings to user and stakeholder groups. The initial LMS evaluation was concluded on June 1st 2009, with the recommendation that MIT pursue one of three possible scenarios: build, wait, or buy.

In Fall 2009, the Faculty Advisory Committee on Learning Management Systems, comprised of faculty, students, and staff, was formed to refine and extend the evaluation of stakeholder needs. This committee is working worked with IS&T to determine relevant criteria, validate data from inside and outside of MIT, re-examine viable platforms, and provide direction on Stellar NG, the next generation of Stellar at MIT.

Next Steps

MITCET has empowered the Faculty Advisory Committee on Learning Management Systems with a faculty chair and appropriate representation from the various schools at the Institute, with the goal of assisting IS&T in choosing the best option for the MIT community.

for MIT's next-generation LMS.

In Spring 2011, an experimental evaluation of the Blackboard 9x platform was implemented at the recommendation of the Committee.  This recommendation was based on a thorough review of the functional and technical requirements collected from MIT community by IS&T, coupled with the integration requirements imposed by MIT's technical infrastructure.  The results of the evaluation, along with next steps, are outlined in the following report, which was submitted to the MIT Council on Education Technology (MITCET) in August 2011.