How UCOL Enhanced Network Stability and Improved Support With Open LMS
UCOL (The Universal College of Learning) in New Zealand is a higher learning institution of technology and polytechnics helping students develop in-demand skills and preparing them for the workforce. The institution has been in operation since 1892 and serves more than 5,000 students across four campuses.
The Challenge: Ensuring an Accessible and Stable Learning Environment
UCOL offers internationally recognized masters and undergraduate degrees, certificates, and diplomas across 18 different disciplines. The institution maintains strong relationships with local industries and local communities so students can gain real-world training experiences before entering the workforce. The institution offers professional development training opportunities for organizations, as well as learning programs for secondary school students.
To meet the students’ diverse needs, UCOL’s programs span the full spectrum of learning environments, and an overwhelming majority—95%—of the institute’s courses have an online component. Completing online coursework, however, was a challenge for some learners. Students living in rural communities had limited access to online resources and needed a way to access learning materials without an internet connection.
For more than 20 years, UCOL’s courses have been supported by self-hosted and externally hosted LMS models. Due to its continual growth and increased awareness around cybersecurity, UCOL sought an LMS vendor to provide a secure and stable platform to meet its learning needs. The institute’s students and staff couldn’t afford recurring outages that interrupted their learning programs.
The Solution: A Stable, Moodle™-Based LMS With Collaborative Learning Integration
In 2015, UCOL partnered with Open LMS, a Moodle™-based learning management system. The platform gave UCOL’s system administrators, educators, and students the familiarity of Moodle™ with the enhanced stability of a platform hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). With the help of AWS hosting, Open LMS ensured that UCOL had a reliable learning platform with 100% uptime so students and staff weren’t interrupted by outages.
UCOL also opted for a subscription to Class Collaborate, an integration available with Open LMS that encourages student collaboration and enhances online learning experiences for every educational environment. Class Collaborate is UCOL’s preferred virtual learning environment for synchronous activities, and some teachers also leverage the integration to pre-record lectures for asynchronous learning. UCOL’s instructors use the tool for blended, hybrid, and fully online learning as necessary to fit their students’ needs.
In addition to improving network stability, Open LMS also manages UCOL’s data security, compliance, and software update requirements. This means the institution’s digital education administrators have more time to focus their efforts on other essential tasks.
“Having our Moodle™ instance hosted by Open LMS reduces the stress for our relatively small digital education team. Open LMS being responsible for data security, compliance, software updates, and enhancements allows us to focus on what is most important: providing the best possible educational experience for our ākonga [students]!”
The Results: Greater Access Reliability for Students and Enhanced Support for UCOL’s Staff
For nearly a decade, UCOL’s students, educators, and digital education team have benefitted from the network stability and LMS support provided by Open LMS. UCOL’s learners now have greater access to learning resources, especially students from rural communities who previously couldn’t access opportunities for online education. A UCOL student enrolled in the institute's Academy New Zealand Police Pathway had the following to say about Open LMS:
“Moodle™-based Open LMS is a fantastic tool for accessing all my coursework and tracking the assessments. It makes everything so much easier. I can find all my materials in one spot. Plus, I love that I can submit my assignments online from anywhere, so I never have to worry about missing a deadline. It really helps me stay organised and on top of my studies, which feels awesome and keeps the kaiako [teachers] happy!”
Educators and system administrators benefit from Open LMS’s self-help portal, which makes it easier for them to troubleshoot minor issues and solve problems quickly. This has led to UCOL’s staff submitting fewer support requests, which in turn decreases the amount of interruptions for end users. If a user’s dilemma needs more robust attention, UCOL has no problem connecting with a live support representative from Open LMS who works with the institution to resolve any issues in a timely manner. Open LMS continues to support UCOL through every major Moodle™ software update and ensures students’ learning isn’t disrupted.
“The system support we receive from Open LMS is unmatched by any other support service we subscribe to. From the very beginning, when I found myself thrown into the deep end as a new system administrator, Open LMS has been there to guide and support me through every step of my learning journey. Their team responds quickly to our tickets, no matter how complex or simple the issue might be, and consistently provides detailed guidance for solutions. This has been invaluable in helping me navigate the platform with confidence.”
