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ICON Implementation Project

Spring 2005 through Fall 2006

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Project Milestones

[A more detailed listing of project milestones can be found here.]

• January, 2005: Desire2Learn hosted instance for UI testing.
• March, 2005: Test system installed locally.
• May, 2005: System available for pioneer faculty. Enterprise Authentication will be supported.
• August, 2005: Production system available for use by instructors and students. Auto-registration of students will be supported.
• January, 2006: All new CMS courses for those who have never had a CMS course will be created in ICON. Legacy CMS users will still have the option of requesting courses in the legacy CMS.
• August, 2006: All courses created in legacy CMSs will be migrated to ICON. All new CMS courses will be created in ICON.

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More extensive summary of the CMS selection phase

Beginning in February 2005, the University has been searching for a single enterprise CMS vendor whose product is:

• easy to use and intuitive, encouraging faculty adoption despite busy schedules,
• yet also has a full-featured enterprise architecture, allowing efficient implementation of complex tasks, supporting advanced systems integration and distance and nontraditional initiatives.

Internally, we refer to this choice as the “Chuck Paradox,” named after the faculty member who pointed out the multiple dimensions of CMS usability. Historically, given the current CMSs supported on campus, we have had to choose between these two dimensions of usability. Based on the results of the CMS Evaluation project, we believe we can now move forward with a system that finally solves the “Chuck Paradox,” allowing the University to move forward strategically in e-learning while not placing an undue burden on busy faculty to learn a non-intuitive system. This system is Desire2Learn.

Also based on the strategic assessment, we have been searching for a CMS solution that will fit within the UI culture, which encourages and supports significant innovation at the collegiate and departmental level. This combination of seeking a common strategy and encouraging local innovation requires a flexible system that does not force each college or department to use the same best practices, and allows for local control over system “look and feel” within a centrally-supported platform. Based on the results of the CMS Selection Project, we believe we have found the most flexible system in system organization and role definition. This system is Desire2Learn.

In summary, we are recommending that the University adopt the Desire2Learn CMS as our single, centrally-supported solution. Desire2Learn is the first enterprise CMS vendor to solve the Chuck Paradox and provides the most flexible solution to support collegiate and departmental innovation. We believe this selection will enable UI to strategically move forward in its overall e-learning efforts.

During UI’s evaluation of CMS vendors, we looked at several broad categories – features and usability analysis, technical analysis, financial cost analysis, company analysis, and distance and non-traditional usage analysis. The selection of Desire2Learn was unanimous among the Voting Group, and fully supported by the Advisory Committee. (For details on the selection process, visit CMS Selection Process.)

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Project Objectives

• Implement ICON as a mission-critical, enterprise application.
• Establish and implement appropriate UI, state and federal policies.
• Foster adoption of ICON.
• Provide proper access to data and proper data security.
• Provide high system availability.
• Consolidate relevant authoritative data and CMS functions into one enterprise system.
• Train users to use the ICON application, and share training materials with other D2K institutions.
• Utilize best-practice project management.

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ICON Implementation Advisory Team

Following the model set by the CMS Selection Project, the Advisory Committee will advise the Core Group and the ICON Implementation Project on issues regarding the implementation. They will also make decisions about how ICON will be implemented in their colleges and lead the collegiate implementation. The members are listed by department/college.

Business

Stead Technology Services Group
Charles Whiteman
Thomas Reitz

Center for Teaching

Continuing Education

Dentistry

Education

Engineering

Exam Services

Law

Liberal Arts & Sciences

Library Administration

Ellen Jones
Ericka Raber
Dave Martin

Medicine

Nursing

OCRME

Pharmacy

Public Health

Registrar's Office

UI Learning & Development

UIHC

Mark Mitsch

Information Technology Services (ITS)

Academic Technologies
Aprille Clarke
Ken Clinkenbeard
Angela Lyon
Mike Jenn
Jack Pinette
Phil Potter
David Priebe
Tsvetomir Ross-Lazarov

Administrative Information Systems
Chris Leonard
David Schau

Campus Services
Virginia Drake
Marc Franke

Systems & Platform Administration
Guy Falsetti
David Grimmer