Benoit could invest a bit of time exploring each platforms website. Getting a feel for what each has to offer, what learning tools they offer to develop a course, sample courses and what supports are offered by each if problems do arise.
Looking at the SECTIONS framework he could ask:
S-tudents- What features does each program have that would meet the learning needs of his students? How will the learning needs of his students change in an online delivery of the course? Will the demographics of an online course be similar to the students in his face-to-face class? What are the options for personalizing the delivery of the course to meet a variety of student learning styles? Do his students have access to this type of learning system? Have these students taken other online courses? Are they familiar with other platforms?
E-ase of use- Benoit has knowledge about the technical support levels available through the school’s IT department. He would need to discover; How closely aligned is the design from his previous experience WebCT Vista to the new platforms? Since both platforms have been used at his school, he could investigate with other instructors if the programs have been reliable. How long did it take other instructors to set up their courses? What were common complaints around the structure of the courses? Depending on the type of learning objects he plans to use, how can each support this i.e. video vs. text?
C-ost. Moodle is an open sourced platform so therefore comes at no cost. Is there any other associated costs i.e. data costs? Blackboard is provided by the school. What are the per student or per course costs associated with it? Cost will likely be more of a factor for the school than for the instructor.
T-eaching functions and media selection- Do the design options support the learning activities he wants to develop? Does each allow for multimedia options? How adaptable are the design elements if he wants to adjust his design as he goes or in future courses?
I-nteraction- What types of interactions does he want his students to undertake? Which platform offers the widest range of options? Which options most closely match his objectives for interacting with his students? Between students? How will the students interact with the materials?
O-rganizational- It appears that the organization has supported both options. He may want to know how this course will be used after its development? Will he work in collaboration with other instructors to develop the course? Will his online course be used by other instructors in the future? What are the organizations long term plans for LMS? He has been using a LMS that has been discontinued, what is the likelihood that this could happen again?
N-etworking- How will communication outside of the course be managed? How much social media will be used in the course? Do the students have other face-to-face opportunities or does the community of learners need to be established through online networking opportunities?
S-ecurity and Privacy- Where is course information stored? What security measures does each platform use to protect its students?
Guestimating how long it will take to develop the week is very difficult. So many variable go into this calculation. Depending on what type of learning activities are used, how much is already available, how specific the design style is i.e. graphics or instructor produced videos, etc. will largely contribute to the time it takes.
Using the ADDIE framework;
Analysis
Design
Development
Implementation
Evaluation
The Association for Talent Development reports between approximately 40-150 hours per hour of instruction depending on the complexity and whether a template is used. (If I understand this correctly) In order to calculate how many weeks it would take, we would need to know the length of a typical instructional course.
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age, Chapter 8. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Kapp, Karl. M. & Defelice, Robyn A. (2009) Time to develop one hour of training. Retrieved from: https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Learning-Circuits-Archives/2009/08/Time-to-Develop-One-Hour-of-Training