UM.Lessons, an online quizzing tool originally developed by U-M in 1994, was retired from service on April 30, 2018 after more than 20 years of use by the university.
Why Retire UM.Lessons?
ITS reviewed its service portfolio in 2015 to identify offerings that were nearing end-of-life. University leadership approved the UM.Lessons Retirement Project based on the following rationale:
- Stability and security risks from aging Lessons code.
- UM.Lessons has not been actively maintained since 2005 and receives minimal operational and development support from ITS.
- Of the 5000+ units, only 111 were active in 2016–17
- More modern online quiz solutions are available at the university, such as Qualtrics and Canvas Quizzes
UM.Lessons Project Roadmap
The following timeline for UM.Lessons was based on input from a broad cross-section of stakeholders. This timeline outlines the roadmap from UM.Lessons to other assessment solutions. ITS, other service units, and several academic units provided migration support throughout the project:
- April 13, 2017: Pilot kickoff
- June 11, 2017: First monthly communication sent to users
- October 5, 2017: UM.Lessons Retirement Forum
- April 30, 2018: User content migration complete
- May 1, 2018: User access terminated.
ITS committed support through three different options towards successful migration of content: Self Service, Facilitated and Consultation:
- Self Service
Users could easily copy and paste the content from UM.Lessons to another service, like Qualtrics and Canvas Quizzes. We provided the UM.Lessons Migration How-to Guide to assist with this process. - Facilitated
In cases where a large number of assessments needed to be migrated, we were able to facilitate assistance from local technical support or temporary students staff. - Consultation
In complex cases, users could consult with a team member or Lessons expert staff in the units to plan out an appropriate migration strategy.