Theory into practice: Designing moodle training for change management

Encouraging academics to use educational technologies to enhance learning and teaching requires building their sense of competence, relatedness and autonomy. This paper describes how self-determination theory was used as the basis of a professional learning program to support a university-wide rollout of a new Learning Management System (LMS). Rather than merely moving from one LMS to another, the move was seen as an opportunity to transform teaching within the online environment and build capability of academic teaching staff to use the new tools sustainably and efficiently in a context of growing numbers of increasingly diverse students. Engaging teaching staff in the professional learning program to foster a sense of autonomy was seen as essential to achieving these aims. The processes used in developing the professional learning program are described, along with indicators of success that are emerging from the initiative.