This year, Dickinson College delivered on the promise of a new comprehensive technology transformation aimed at updating campus systems and improving efficiency, with three main projects: the Learning Management System (LMS), Mobile Computing Initiative (MCI), and Core Systems Modernization (CSM). The LMS project, the most impactful for students, was initiated in spring 2024 when a committee was formed to assess the effectiveness of Moodle in response to student concerns about faculty organization and interaction within the platform.
While many faculty have opted to adopt Brightspace, a few professors have chosen to remain with Moodle during the transition period. Media professor Russell McDermott, a second-year visiting assistant professor, shared that he has continued using Moodle even as the college transitions to Brightspace.
“I have only used Moodle here and was happy to be given the opportunity to use it in my second year,” he said.
McDermott explained that sticking with Moodle made it easier to retain course content and was a practical choice given his temporary position.
“As I am here on a temporary basis, it was nice to not have to dedicate my time to learning a new LMS,” he noted, adding that he plans to continue using Moodle through the end of his current contract.
Professor of Creative Writing Adrienne Su reflected on her transition from Moodle to Brightspace. Having used the same platform for her entire twenty-five year tenure, the shift marked a significant change in her teaching routine.
“Switching platforms is inherently time-consuming, but academic technology has been supportive and responsive—even going into my course sites to help with the smallest details,” she said.
Su praised Brightspace as “the best” platform she has used so far and that the transition “wasn’t bad,” but it did present several usability challenges.
“Entering deadlines and other dates required a tremendous amount of clicking and scrolling,” she recalled.
“During [the] COVID lockdown, I gave audio critiques of student writing, only to have Moodle lose the recording about 15% of the time, which meant I had to do the work over again.” Since transitioning to Brightspace, however, she has encountered “nothing that wasn’t caused by my own unfamiliarity with the platform.”
Associate Professor of Psychology Sharon Kingston has found the transition to Brightspace “fairly smooth.” Much of her course content was seamlessly transferred from previous Moodle pages, and with guidance from Dickinson’s academic technology team, she was able to adapt her courses to the new platform without starting from scratch. She noted that the learning curve was minimal and that the platform felt user-friendly from the start.
“I prefer Brightspace without a doubt. It’s much more intuitive,” she said. “I used Moodle for 15 years, and every time I needed to set up my gradebook, I had to watch YouTube videos to figure it out. Part of that was due to my own technological limitations, but Moodle was also just clunky.”
Kingston identified two challenges with the new platform.
“The main one is that when you upload materials or create assignments, the default setting hides them from students. You have to remember to unhide them, but I’m getting used to that. The second is my old nemesis: the gradebook. My current gradebooks aren’t calculating final grades—they’re just showing the percentage of the grade students have earned so far…Based on my experience with Brightspace so far, I’m confident the solution will be simple.”
A recent randomized survey of Dickinson sophomores, juniors, and seniors who had ample time to work with both Moodle and Brightspace revealed a mixed but telling response to the college’s transition between platforms. Overall, 71.4% of respondents said they preferred Moodle, though opinions varied notably by class year. Among seniors, 76.9% favored Moodle, followed by 61.5% of juniors. Sophomores, however, were nearly evenly split, with 53.8% preferring Moodle—suggesting no strong allegiance and a greater openness to change.
The results point to the mere-exposure effect—the tendency to favor what is familiar. Students who had used Moodle for several years were more likely to prefer it because of repeated exposure, not necessarily because it functions better. In contrast, sophomores, who had only a year of experience with Moodle, showed far less attachment. Their nearly even divide indicates not only adaptability but a readiness to embrace Brightspace as they gain familiarity with it. The results emphasize long-term promise of adjustment, suggesting that as students spend more time with Brightspace, preference may naturally shift in its favor.
