The University of South Africa is the largest open distance e-learning University on the African continent. With over 370 000 students, the scale of operation for the Moodle Learning Management System is significant. The assessment manual is complex, offering students multiple attempts before submission. Therefore, the infrastructure capability and related competencies requires in-depth experience and knowledge to enable 99,99% system uptime. Currently UNISA enjoys 99,3% uptime, from 97,8% in 2022. What is eluding us to avoid lost hours to students and academics? A robust, deep infrastructure management capability that complements the application management so that students and faculty enjoy a seamless user experience. As leaders driving the use of Moodle, how do we get this right? The lessons learned on the UNISA journey tell us that at the scale with which UNISA operates, a detailed and clear service management taxonomy for both applications and infrastructure management is a must. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all role players, including service providers must be linked to the taxonomy. Service execution must be anchored through consistent contract management with articulate service levels. The required infrastructure management capability must be developed intentionally, over time using a combination of upskilling and re-skilling with outlined growth paths. Benchmarking, pilot tests and continuous improvement analysis of cloud hosting platforms, the fit-for-purpose infrastructure architecture and sustainable investment costs are on the critical path to creating an environment for the capability to develop and be embedded. Continuous change management to students, faculty and support staff is a critical success factor and the associated communication must be frequent, proactive – not reactive, and use an omni-channel strategy that bolsters the brand. The missing puzzle piece may be an established DevOps ways-of-working, away from a WAgile approach.
Day 3 Presentation
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