Consultation approaches for large scale systems adoption in higher education

In January 2021, the University of Limerick embarked on a project to identify a new Learning Management system (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) platform for the institution. Recent surveys, both internally and nationally, had found that staff and students were looking for greater LMS functionality, a more user-friendly learning experience, and greater integrations with other learning tools. Furthermore, the pandemic had increased the demands on the institution’s existing LMSs. This paper will outline the approach taken by the author (also the Project Lead for the first phase of the LMS Review) to establish working groups and consult with the various stakeholders across the campus community and external parties. It will conclude with an overview of some lessons learned from the consultation phase, which ended in June 2021, and how that phase has fed into subsequent phases.