Good Morning:

I want to provide a brief update on our ongoing effort to identify and implement a single learning management system across MUS institutions.

Two subcommittees have met over the past month to conduct an initial review of a draft request for proposal, which will be launched and evaluated later this Spring. Many thanks to our subcommittee members, Jason Rosen and Corey Cardoza on a subcommittee reviewing technical requirements and Mandy Wright and Julie Wolter on a subcommittee reviewing functional requirements, for lending their time and expertise with that process.

In that initial review, we have identified areas where we need to consult other campus stakeholders for a more thorough review, including related to accessibility, content migration, staff and faculty training, and non-credit / community offerings, among others. We are now working to send out these portions of the draft RFP language for deeper review.

This week, the legislature heard and favorably responded to a presentation regarding this project and our progress as they consider an appropriation to support our transition costs. We are grateful to Governor Gianforte, who included a $3 million proposal for this work in his budget submission to the legislature.

We will continue to post regular updates as our selection process proceeds to our project website: https://www.mus.edu/che/arsa/LMS/SingleLMS.html. Please do share that website as a resource for your colleagues and, as always, please reach out to me directly if you have other questions, ideas or concerns.

Kind Regards,

Joseph Thiel

Director of Academic Policy and Research

Montana University System