Stellar Next Generation

Faculty Advisory Committee on LMS

During the 2009-10 academic year, the Faculty Advisory Committee on Learning Management Systems (LMS) evaluated several options for meeting the Institute’s requirements for a robust but flexible LMS.  The Committee focused on solutions that could effectively improve on Stellar’s aging architecture.  The Committee’s final recommendation was to implement a limited “Stellar Next Generation” evaluation using a representative sample of MIT departments and courses.

Spring Experiment

IS&T will be implementing this limited evaluation of Stellar Next Generation in the upcoming spring 2011 term.  During this program, selected DLCs will be testing the core functionality of Stellar NG, as well as features that satisfy specific pedagogical needs not yet met by the current course management system.  Specific features include streaming video, video conferencing, image handling, and Google Docs integration.  During this evaluation, IS&T will continue to fully support the existing Stellar application.

Success Criteria

IS&T will collect data from the participating DLCs in the experiment in order to determine Stellar NG’s ability to provide the following:

1. User-friendly, familiar workflow.
2. User-facing functionality that the current Stellar architecture cannot provide.
3. Easy integration of popular third-party services, such as Google Docs.
4. User-managed customizations and enhancements for those who require them.
5. Low barrier to adoption for instructors and students.

How do I provide input?

IS&T continues to encourage input from community members on MIT’s next LMS. Please send your comments on this or the Stellar NG experiment to: stellar-support@mit.edu.

Reference

For more background information on the Stellar NG project, please see the FNL article published earlier this year.

To learn more about the project, visit the LMS Evaluation wiki.

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