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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dear Faculty and Staff members,
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After months of speculation, we have recently received official confirmation that Pearson, provider of eCollege, our Learning Management System (LMS) platform for delivery
of onLine courses, will no longer invest in upgrades/updates for eCollege. This LMS will be placed in "maintenance mode".
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As one of the leaders of online higher education in Texas, this is unacceptable to us. Our contract with Pearson's eCollege expires on December 31, 2017 and Pearson will
continue to provide customer service.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">I have asked the Deans and the Interim Director for the School of Agriculture to nominate faculty representatives to serve on an LMS Search Task Force which will also
have representation from our Faculty Center for Excellence and Innovation, our Faculty Senate, our Council of Academic Department Heads, our Information Technology sector, student users, and other key constituents. I will be chairing this Task Force. This
group's initial charge will be to develop the academic, andragogic, technical, and other requirements to be included in a Request For Proposals (RFP) from prospective vendors and create an matrix to evaluate the responses to the RFP. Then, invite the top three
or four vendors for campus presentations / demos sometime this coming summer and summarize their strengths and weaknesses to form a consensus for making a recommendation to President Jones regarding our university's new LMS provider.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">I would like to have 12 to 15 months for implementation, including training and course migration. Likely we will have two parallel systems running for some time.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">I look forward to working collaboratively and transparently with you and the entire university community on this critical project and thank you in advance for input and
support. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">With my sincere personal regards and best wishes for you and yours,
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Adolfo<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Adolfo Benavides | Provost and Vice President
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">for Academic Affairs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue">TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-COMMERCE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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