News

Mohawk College Shifts LMS to Desire2Learn

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/19/11

Ontario-based Mohawk College has finished its transition to a new learning management system after more than three years of due diligence and course migration. The career college, which has about 11,500 students, chose Desire2Learn from a field of contenders that also included finalists Angel (now part of Blackboard) and Blackboard.

The college sought to standardize on a single system from six in use. Additionally, its primary LMS, WebCT (also subsumed into Blackboard), had come to the end of its "design life," the college stated in an LMS report (PDF, 2.2 MB). The college signed a five-year contract with Desire2Learn.

"Mohawk College has a renewed and energetic commitment to providing education through blended learning experiences, and our recent adoption of the Desire2Learn learning environment is a key enabler of that vision," said Andrew Connery, instructional technologist in the Centre for Teaching & Learning and a member of the college's LMS working group. "With Desire2Learn replacing all other systems in use at Mohawk, a new emphasis on quality learning frameworks and sustainability, new online training resources, and the rich complement of tools and functionality provided by the ... platform, we will be able to meet that commitment and provide the best learning opportunities for our students."

Campus-wide work with Desire2Learn began in 2009 when the college integrated it with Banner, the school's student information system. Next was the migration of faculty, staff, and students onto the Desire2Learn platform, a project that was completed for the fall 2010 semester. "eLearn at Mohawk" or eLearn, as it's known, operates at Mohawk's four campuses.

The college reported it will perform a review of the new LMS' performance in 2012.