The challenges of implementing EQUELLA:
It’s not just about the technology
Emily Bond
Senior Business Analyst, Better Learning and Teaching team
3 September 2013
Today
 History of EQUELLA at Monash University
 Why EQUELLA?
 Implementation approach
 Challenges faced to-date
 Initial lessons learnt
 Challenges and opportunities
moving forward
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A bit about Monash University
 Largest university in Australia
Italy
62,998 students
China
India
7,720 academic staff
South Africa
Malaysia
Australia
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EQUELLA at Monash University
 Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences (MNHS) and the
Library
MBBS
Physiotherapy
Sharing
Sharing
content
content
Nutrition & Dietetics
Library
Accreditation
purposes
Repository
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EQUELLA at Monash University
1. Academic staff
2. Content administrators
3. Staff & students
Centralised management
and control of resources
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Why EQUELLA…
 File management
 Home for learning objects
 Single source of truth
 Integration with Moodle
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Implementation approach
Dec 2012 - May 2013
Proof of
Concept
July - Sept 2013
Jan 2014
Feedback
Feedback
and
and
lessons learnt
lessons learnt
Pilot
Enterprisewide roll
out
• 2 faculties
• 9 faculties
• All 10 faculties
• 10 faculty staff
members
• 30 faculty staff
members
• All staff
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Implementation approach (cont)
 Contribution wizard
design
 Honest
communication
 Variety of training
and support
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Challenges encountered with implementation
 High expectations
 Culture
 EQUELLA interface
 Time and effort
 Diverse user group
 Alternative technologies
 ‘Chicken or the egg’
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Lessons learnt
1. Technology
2. Training
3. Timing
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4. Key messages
 The value of honest communication
 Appropriate and targeted key messages
What we said initially…
Message moving forward…
"EQUELLA is the alternative to Moodle for
content management”
"EQUELLA as a complementary content management
tool”
“Use EQUELLA as the canonical source of all
electronic artefacts utilised in learning and
teaching activities”
“Use EQUELLA to store and share bigger, more static
files such as videos, images and software which are
more likely to be useful across courses/ units”
“Metadata useful for describing the content you
have uploaded”
“Enter metadata that you believe will be useful for your
peers when they are searching for a particular
resource”
“Here is a list of all of the things you need to be
wary of when using EQUELLA (ie. copyright
protection, version control, etc.)”
“There are a number of things you need to be mindful
of when using EQUELLA - here is a link to some help
topics that explain these things (read them in your own
time)”
“We understand that to be useful, EQUELLA needs to
have sufficient content to search through and use. We
expect that the usefulness of EQUELLA will increase
over time - the more content that is added to
EQUELLA, the more useful it will be”
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Challenges moving forward…
1. ‘Drag and drop’ in Moodle
2. Relevance and usefulness
3. Copyright and IP
4. Single EQUELLA institution
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… And the opportunities
 Break down of silos
 Culture of sharing
 Reduced duplication/
rework
 Increased innovation
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What next?
1. Complete EQUELLA pilot
2. Collect and analyse feedback
3. Update technology, training,
communications and support
4. Enterprise-wide roll out
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Questions?
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References
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Binary Data, W. Rebel, accessed 31 July, 2013,
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/BinaryData50.png>
Overflowing folder, Heidi Bakes, accessed 31 July, 2013
<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_luKrUGNaGvA/S0Jb_yplFmI/AAAAAAAABYs/3etBPnNo7FU/s400/bin
der.JPG>
Consolidated/Convair Aircraft Factory San Diego Equipment, San Diego Air and Space Museum
Archive, accessed 6 August 2013,
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/5018420677/sizes/o/in/photolist-8DsHCr-bDuoe7do6Ecy-cGwSTs-dWkMGn-7DciyW-7GW3vA-bcmmHr-cu7K8f-brSvCA-bUzBPA-8wBSHJbTbTFF-bUzCjq-bUzA79-bUy2Zf-bTbTnV-bTbTwv-bEh9Lj-bTbTAX-bTbTiZ-91XpKM-cu7MNjdWrkiU-8wyRZB-cuFQYq-cuFRsw-cE7acq-9s2rCL-cA7iYE-8DsG48-7JhNt6/>
Training, San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive, accessed 6 August 2013, <
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49487266@N07/8392226287/in/photolist-dMAmuF-dMFUJhdMFSRo-dMAjF4-dMFSYo-dMFSQ9-dac4sS-bfPvKi-dk3mTN-dk3mTw-7Zof2f-axpY1Z-eZJhsUeBKYHp-7Npqu9-dfTeWd-9oxnq2-9u345w-9tbrJz-dk3jSF-9rjp3Q-9y7XPb-9uNEhe-8cL2FN9wqwU1-a85n32-fahcHX-cmexmy-8ZRDjh-8Dohqz-8DrowN-8e8t6F>
World map more detail, Shokunin, accessed 7 August 2013,
<http://openclipart.org/people/shokunin/shokunin_world_map_more_detail.svg>
Milkshake anyone?, JohnnyMrNinja, accessed 7 August 2013,
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Children_sharing_a_milkshake.jpg?uselang=en-gb>
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