Upcoming LMS launch.. any tips?!

Hi Ant, soft launch is a good idea.  Get the most IT illiterate people to use it.  then put an FAQ on the frontpage with all the problems they give you.  Run a load test so you know when it starts to slow down, produce as much help documentation as possible be prepared for some fun.

Video sound good.

Good luck

Thanks Phil - great feedback, really appreciate it

Bruce pointed you out at the the Tom Kuhlmann day on Tuesday but I didn't get a chance to say hi... hopefully next time! Hope you had a useful day!

Tips for a launch? Perhaps it's too late for this, but build in breathing room in your schedule for the issues that may come up. In my case, I almost always wish I had an extra day or two to work through the issues that arise. 

Here's my advice.....

Push the go button, grab a bottle of booze and run into another room, turn off the lights and hide.

Good luck with your launch!

-Dave

Ant,

All of the aboove

Useful to have a specific usergroup/focus group test in a soft launch. You will/may find your strongest advovates and your biggest "enemies" swap positions, because the advocates are dissappointed that it does not solve all the problems of the World, and the "detractors" can see and feel it, see and feel the benefits, and then completely flip their allegiance.

I have seen it happen before...worth watching out for, and acting accordingly.

Bruce

Great advice.. I have hand picked some 'difficult' colleagues who I am looking to test with.. so hopefully they can play Devil's Advocate and create some issues I haven't noticed!!

Thanks for all the replies guys

We launched our LMS over a year ago, and we are still tweaking/configuring.  It never ends...

Our biggest issue after launch was automated emails.  By default all of them were turned on and our team members were drowning in them.  Check and double check all scenarios that involve automated emails being sent.

I don't know the average user demographic of your audience, but we found that we had underestimated the software/infrastructure our learners were using before we launched our LMS. If I had a $ for every tech support question we got that involved either downloading or updating Flash Player plug-ins to be able to view content! If possible, I would specify a brief, easy to understand list of technical requirements to use your learning management system to avoid these hassles (Flash Player required version and compatible browsers, at the very least). On a related note, we found that video tutorials were ignored by some impatient learners (though it's a great idea to have a launch video for folks that aren't! A short Screenr might be a quicker efficient option than using Storyline?). So it might be good to have a few instant instructions on getting started in text form, perhaps a handful of bullet points e.g. Step 1: To get started, create a user account by clicking __ on the top right corner Step 2: Browse list of courses etc...