Starting Warm: Help Us See Your Campus

• To get us oriented, which best describes your institution? Options: Public R1 research university, Private research university, Regional comprehensive university, Community college / two-year, Online-only institution, Specialized college (art, law, etc.), Consortium/multi-campus system, Other
• Roughly how many students (FTE) does your institution serve? Options: <2,000, 2,000–9,999, 10,000–24,999, 25,000–49,999, 50,000+
• Who will be the primary executive sponsor for an LMS decision at your institution? Options: CIO/CTO, Provost/VP Academic Affairs, Director of eLearning/Online Learning, Registrar, Chief Accessibility Officer/Disability Services, Other
• What is your target decision or renewal window? Options: Within 1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–12 months, 12+ months, No set timeline
• What single trigger brought this evaluation to the top of your list right now?
• Which of these factors are motivating this change? (select all that apply) Options: Contract renewal/price increase, Repeated performance during finals, Accessibility compliance issues, Poor mobile/student experience, Lack of usable analytics, High integration/development burden, Security or hosting concerns, Faculty dissatisfaction, Other

Are You Settling for Slow Crises?

• How frequently do performance problems (slow page loads, timeouts, outages) materially disrupt teaching or exams? Options: Multiple times per term, Once per term, Occasionally, Rarely, Never
• Tell us briefly about the most recent incident that impacted instruction—what happened and who felt the impact?
• Which of these consequences have you seen from peak failures? (select all that apply) Options: Missed assessments/exams, Student complaints and escalations, Delayed grades/registrar issues, Increased helpdesk staffing or overtime, Faculty reversion to alternate tools (email/drive), Reputational/PR exposure, Other
• Who currently runs incident response and communication during an LMS outage? Options: Central IT/SRE, IT + Registrar, eLearning team, Third‑party vendor support, No formal owner, Other
• How long, on average, does it take to restore full service after a major disruption? Options: <30 minutes, 30–120 minutes, 2–6 hours, 6–24 hours, 24+ hours, Varies widely / unknown

Who's Really Calling the Shots?

• If faculty governance pushed back hard on a platform choice, could the project proceed without their buy-in? Options: No—project would pause or stop, It would be delayed until concerns addressed, We could proceed with mitigation agreements, Faculty input is advisory only
• Please list the groups or committees that must sign off before a final contract is executed (e.g., faculty senate, procurement, IT governance).
• How formal is your faculty governance process for instructional tools? Options: Formal processes & documented voting, Informal but influential groups, Ad hoc feedback from pilot faculty, No formal governance
• When IT and faculty priorities conflict (e.g., security vs. tool freedom), how do you typically resolve it? Options: Escalate to provost/CIO, Mediation via governance committee, Compromise technical solution, Project is reprioritized, Other
• Are there external stakeholders (state boards, unions, accreditation bodies) who can overturn or materially delay a decision? Options: Yes — state/procurement rules, Yes — faculty union, Yes — accreditation requirements, No, Unsure

Where the Integrations Break Our Flow

• Which integrations have forced you into permanent custom workarounds that cause ongoing maintenance headaches? Options: Student Information System (SIS), Publisher platforms (LTI), Single Sign‑On/Identity (SAML/OIDC), Library systems, Assessment/proctoring vendors, Data warehouse/BI, Third‑party gradebooks, Other
• Which SIS does your institution use? Options: Ellucian Banner, Ellucian Colleague, Oracle PeopleSoft, Workday Student, Self‑hosted/custom SIS, Other, Unsure
• How are roster and grade syncs currently implemented? Options: Real‑time API sync, Scheduled nightly batch, Manual CSV uploads, Hybrid model, No automated sync
• Do your publisher partners support LTI 1.3 and deep gradebook integration, or do you still build bespoke bridges? Options: Most support LTI 1.3, Some support; some require custom work, Publishers mandate custom integrations, Unsure
• Approximately how many distinct third‑party tools would need reliable integrations for a representative pilot? Options: 0–3, 4–6, 7–10, 10+
• What has been the longest delivery timeline you've experienced for a single integration (from spec to production)? Options: <1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–12 months, 12+ months, Varied/unknown

When Accessibility Isn't Optional

• If a compliance complaint escalated to an external review, how exposed would the institution be on accessibility grounds? Options: Material accreditation risk, Administrative penalties likely, Reputational damage but no sanction, Manageable with remediation, Unsure
• Have you conducted formal WCAG 2.1 AA audits in the past 24 months? Options: Yes — passed, Yes — failed and remediating, No formal audit, Audit planned
• Which accessibility failures cause the most operational pain (select all that apply)? Options: Course content (documents/videos), Navigation and menus, Assessments/exam accessibility, LTI tool accessibility, Mobile accessibility, Captioning and transcripts, Other
• How do faculty typically check content accessibility today? Options: Automated content checks built into LMS, Manual training and checklists, Accessibility team reviews before publish, Ad hoc / not checked, Third‑party remediation service
• Who owns remediation actions and timelines when content is flagged (role or office)? Options: Faculty, eLearning/Instructional Design, Disability Services, Central IT, Outsourced vendor, Shared responsibility
• What SLA for remediation of flagged course content before a term starts would you consider acceptable? Options: 48–72 hours, 1 week, 2 weeks, 4+ weeks, Depends on severity

If Success Had a KPI, What Would It Be?

• Which single metric, if improved, would convince executive leadership this change was worth the investment? Options: Improved retention/persistence, Reduced DFW (D/F/Withdraw) rates, Faster grade submission/registrar sync, Higher student course satisfaction, Accessibility compliance rates, Reduced helpdesk volume, Other
• What pilot acceptance criteria must we hit for you to expand beyond the pilot? Please list the top 3.
• Which analytics signals are highest value to your advisors and provost (select all that apply)? Options: Early‑alert risk scores, Engagement heatmaps by activity, Time‑to‑grade metrics, Course drop/stopout predictors, Assessment outcome analytics, LMS usage trends for accreditation
• Do you have baseline values for those metrics today (so we can define a meaningful improvement)? Options: Yes, documented baselines, Partially — some metrics, No baselines, Unsure
• How often do decision stakeholders want performance dashboards during a pilot? Options: Daily, Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, On demand

What Would a Smooth Pilot Feel Like?

• If faculty left a pilot debrief, what would they say if the experience felt genuinely effortless and useful?
• How many courses and instructors constitute a pilot that both stresses integrations and feels credible to faculty governance? Options: 5–10 courses, 11–25 courses, 26–50 courses, 50+ courses
• Which program types must be included to represent realistic variance (select all that apply)? Options: Large lecture (100+), Small seminar, Laboratory/Studio, Graduate/Professional, Online fully asynchronous, Clinical/practicum, Continuing education
• What level of data migration do you expect for pilot courses (select one)? Options: No migration — fresh shells only, Roster + grade sync, Historical grades and submissions, Full content migration (assignments, files, media), Unsure
• Which pilot acceptance tests are non‑negotiable? (select all that apply) Options: Load performance at peak, WCAG 2.1 AA verification, Analytics accuracy vs. known events, Seamless SIS grade/roster sync, Publisher/LTI stability, Faculty adoption & satisfaction threshold
• Who will be authorized to sign off that the pilot met acceptance criteria? Options: Provost/Academic Affairs, CIO/IT leadership, Faculty pilot lead(s), Registrar, Accessibility office, Cross‑functional committee

What's the Real Cost of Doing Nothing?

• Conservatively, which annual impact band best describes the combined cost of doing nothing (lost tuition, staff time, remediation, risk)? Options: > $1,000,000, $500,000–$1,000,000, $100,000–$500,000, < $100,000, Hard to quantify
• Estimate the annual helpdesk or staff hours spent resolving LMS-related instructional issues. Options: <500 hours, 500–1,999 hours, 2,000–4,999 hours, 5,000+ hours, Unknown
• Have departments created parallel systems or workarounds that create data silos or compliance risks? Options: Yes — multiple departments, Yes — a few departments, No, Unsure
• Has lack of reliable analytics previously impacted accreditation reporting or grant compliance? Options: Yes — caused material issues, Yes — minor issues, No, Not yet evaluated
• What is the single greatest internal barrier preventing action today?

Deciding Together: Timeline, Risks, and Owners

• If everything aligned, what is the earliest realistic term you could begin a pilot? Options: Immediately (within 30 days), Next academic term (1–3 months), Next semester (3–6 months), Next academic year (>6 months), No timeline / exploratory only
• Which top risks would most likely derail a pilot or initial go‑live? (select up to three) Options: Faculty resistance, Integration failures, Insufficient budget, Procurement/contract delays, Accessibility non‑compliance, Data migration complexity, Hosting/security concerns
• Who will act as the day‑to‑day vendor coordinator and project lead from your side (name and role)?
• Are there procurement, legal, or state rules we must design around (e.g., fixed budget cycles, vendor prequalification)? Options: Yes — strict state procurement, Yes — internal approval windows, Yes — vendor qualification requirements, No special constraints, Unsure
• Which hosting model do you prefer we scope for initial discussions? Options: SaaS multi‑tenant, Private cloud / single tenant, Institutional on‑premise, Hybrid model, Open to recommendations
• Who should be invited to the shared project/channel for ongoing communications?

Opening: Tell Us About Today

• What's the immediate trigger that's led you to explore a new LMS right now? Options: Contract renewal, Performance problems (downtime/slow), Accessibility complaints, Integration failures with SIS/publishers, Analytics/retention concerns, Faculty dissatisfaction, Other
• Who at your institution is pushing hardest for a change (role or group)? Options: CIO/IT leadership, Provost/Academic affairs, Faculty senate/committee, Disability services, Registrar/SIS team, Student government, Other
• How do you expect a new LMS decision to be made—fast, deliberate, or political? Tell us the likely cadence. Options: Rapid (weeks), Deliberate (2–6 months), Long/Political (6–18 months), Undetermined
• What's the one outcome that would convince leadership this was worth doing? (If you had to pick a single metric.)

Are You Comfortable With 'Good Enough'?

• What are you quietly tolerating today that you suspect is actually costing the institution money, time, or trust?
• How often do these tolerated issues surface where they cause real harm—lost registrations, angry faculty, accreditation questions, or escalations? Options: Multiple times per term, Once per term, Annually, Rarely/never
• Can you share one or two concrete incidents (dates, course, impact) where the LMS failure materially affected operations or reputation?
• Who bears the hidden operational cost when these problems happen (IT overtime, instructor rework, student refunds, vendor engineers)? Options: IT team, Faculty/staff, Students, Administration/registrar, External contractors, Combination
• If we put a dollar figure on recurring pain (time, remediation, lost enrollment), what's your best estimate for annual impact? Options: <$10k, $10k–$100k, $100k–$500k, $500k–$1M, >$1M, Unsure

When Finals Break, Who Gets Blamed?

• How confident are you that the current LMS will survive peak loads (registration, midterms, finals) without service degradation? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Concerned, No confidence
• Describe the last peak-load incident: what failed, how long it lasted, and who had to respond.
• What monitoring or load-testing do you currently perform, and how often are those tests run? Options: Synthetic load tests, Real course pilot tests, None, Ad hoc during incidents, Other
• What SLA or uptime level during registration and finals would feel non-negotiable for your leadership? Options: 99.9%, 99.95%, 99.99%, Other/Unsure
• If an outage occurred during finals next term, what would the immediate operational consequences be (list owners, costs, and reputational impact)?

Where Do Integrations Fall Apart?

• Which integration currently causes the most firefighting—SIS roster/grade sync, publisher LTI tools, library auth, or something else? Options: SIS roster/grade sync, Publisher LTI integrations, Single sign-on (SSO), Library/Discovery services, Assessment/proctoring tools, Custom departmental tools, Other
• How many custom integrations or one-off connectors has IT built and now maintains for production courses? Options: None, 1–5, 6–15, 16–50, 50+
• When you add a new publisher tool or department app, how long does it typically take from request to reliable, graded integration? Options: <1 week, 1–4 weeks, 1–3 months, 3+ months, Undefined
• Who owns integration documentation, credentials, and change control today—central IT, individual departments, or vendors? Options: Central IT, Dept/local admins, Third-party vendors, Shared responsibility, None/unclear
• What recurring errors or data mismatches do you see between systems (grade sync failures, roster lags, broken links)? Please list examples.

Faculty: Silent Resignation or Active Rebellion?

• How would faculty describe their relationship with the LMS—indifferent, frustrated, actively avoiding it, or enthusiastic? Options: Enthusiastic/adopters, Indifferent, Frustrated but compliant, Actively avoiding/routing around
• Can you name common ‘workarounds’ faculty use because the LMS doesn't support their workflow (shared drives, email submissions, publisher portals)?
• What percent of courses use external publisher tools or third-party apps that must integrate with one central gradebook? Options: <10%, 10–25%, 26–50%, 51–75%, 76–100%, Unknown
• Tell us about faculty support and training today—how do instructors learn the LMS and who steps in when they hit a problem? Options: Central LTI/training team, School/department trainers, Peer-to-peer, Vendor support, None formal
• How often do faculty complaints escalate to the provost or faculty senate, and what's the typical ask in those escalations? Options: Weekly, Monthly, Per term, Rarely, Never

Accessibility: How Much Risk Are You Carrying?

• If an accessibility audit happened tomorrow, where would you most expect to fail against WCAG 2.1 AA—course content, media, navigation, or assessments? Options: Course content authoring, Multimedia/closed captions, Navigation/ARIA roles, Forms and assessments, Other/Unsure
• What accessibility remediation workflows exist today (automated flags, human remediation, faculty training)? Options: Automated scanning + manual remediation, Manual-only, Faculty-led with no tooling, Third-party remediation service, None
• Have you received formal accessibility complaints or legal notices in the last 3 years? If yes, what was the outcome? Options: Yes—resolved internally, Yes—settlement/notice, No formal complaints, Prefer not to say
• Who is accountable for accessibility compliance—DSS, central IT, academic tech, or department chairs? Options: Disability services (DSS), Central IT, Academic/Instructional tech, Department chairs, Shared responsibility, Unclear
• How would accessibility improvements change faculty or student behavior if addressed well (examples: increased enrollment, lower accommodation requests)?

If We Do Nothing, What's the Price Tag?

• Projecting forward 12–36 months, what are the top three negative outcomes that will most likely occur if the LMS remains as-is?
• Which stakeholders would be most affected by those outcomes (list names/roles) and how might they react?
• Are there accreditation, regulatory, or audit dates coming up that make timing critical? Please list target months/years.
• What would it take to make the business case internally—estimated savings, reduction in complaints, or a risk mitigation narrative? Options: Cost savings estimate, Operational time savings, Faculty/staff satisfaction lift, Reduced legal/regulatory risk, Other
• If we documented the status quo consequences in one slide for your board or provost, what single metric would they care about most? Options: Downtime hours, Remediation cost, Student complaints, Faculty adoption rate, Retention/attrition signal, Other

Short-Term Wins vs Long-Term Change

• Which outcomes would you prioritize for the first 90 days of a pilot to prove momentum—performance, accessibility, integrations, or faculty satisfaction? Options: Performance under load, WCAG 2.1 AA fixes, SIS & publisher integrations, Faculty pilot satisfaction, Analytics for retention, Other
• What pilot scope feels believable and manageable—single course, program-level, or institution-wide sample? Explain the rationale. Options: Single course, Program/department pilot, Multiple departments, Campus-wide pilot, Other
• Who needs to be on the pilot steering committee for approvals and rapid decisions (list roles and names if possible)?
• What controls or acceptance criteria would you require to consider a pilot successful (examples: grade sync accuracy, load handling, faculty NPS)?
• Realistically, what internal obstacles could stall a pilot even if the tech works—policy, governance, faculty time, or procurement? Options: Policy/governance, Faculty bandwidth, Procurement/contracts, Data security/privacy concerns, SIS constraints, Other

Decision Signals: Who Says Yes (and Why)?

• Who holds the final budget authority and who holds final academic approval for an LMS selection? Options: CIO/IT + Procurement, Provost/Academic Affairs, Joint CIO & Provost, Board-level approval, Other
• What are the non-negotiable contract terms or SLA elements that must be in place for you to sign a multi-year agreement? Options: Uptime SLA for finals/registration, Data portability & migration, WCAG 2.1 AA warranty, Guaranteed integration support, Pricing caps per student, Other
• How will you measure success 6 months after deployment—what dashboards, KPIs, or qualitative signals will prove the investment paid off? Options: Uptime/availability, Faculty adoption/NPS, Student engagement/retention metrics, Integration reliability, Accessibility compliance, Other
• What timeline would be acceptable from vendor selection to a pilot start (months)? Options: <1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–12 months
• What's the single biggest barrier we should help you remove to make a compelling decision faster?

Quick Campus Snapshot

• Tell us the single sentence view of why you’re exploring a new LMS right now (what’s the trigger or deadline)?
• Which best describes your institution? Options: Public R1 / Research university, Private nonprofit university, Community college / two-year, Specialized college (arts, professional), Consortium / multi-campus system, Other
• Where is your LMS contract now? Options: Up for renewal within 6 months, 6–12 months until renewal, 1–2 years until renewal, Expired / operating month-to-month, Not sure / procurement led
• How many students and active courses will the new system need to support in your pilot and in production (give best estimates)?
• Who will be the primary sponsor for this selection (title / role)? Options: CIO / CTO, Provost / Academic VP, Director of Instructional Technology, Registrar / Student Records, Other
• Which of these timelines best matches your ideal decision window? Options: Pilot in this term, production next term, Pilot next term, production next academic year, Production at next academic year start, Unsure / need to align stakeholders

Are You Settling for ‘Good Enough’?

• If you had to name one way your current LMS is quietly undermining student or faculty success, what would it be?
• How often do faculty or students complain about LMS issues anecdotally versus opening formal tickets? Options: Mostly informal complaints, Even split informal/formal, Mostly formal tickets, We don’t track this well
• When those problems occur, what is the most common emotional response from faculty or students (frustration, embarrassment, avoidance, resignation, other)? Options: Frustration, Embarrassment, Avoidance / workarounds, Resignation / acceptance, Alarm / escalation, Other
• Can you share a specific recent story where the LMS failure had visible downstream consequences (e.g., missed grades, accreditation data gaps, enrollment impact)? If so, please describe.
• How long have these pain points been tolerated before someone decided to act? Options: Under 6 months, 6–18 months, 1–3 years, 3+ years

When the System Breaks Under Pressure

• What patterns have you observed during peak events (registration, midterms, finals) that suggest the current platform won’t scale?
• Which of these failure modes have you experienced in the last 18 months? Options: Slow page loads / timeouts, Complete outages, Grade sync failures, Authentication / SSO failures, LTI tool failures, Data export corruption, Other
• How do these failures translate into real institutional risk (lost tuition, delayed registrations, accreditation findings, staff overtime)?
• What peak-load SLA would you need to feel comfortable running registration or finals on a vendor platform? Options: 99.9%+ with credits, 99.5% during peak windows, Formal capacity planning + surge support, Not sure—need vendor guidance
• How often do you simulate or test peak load today, and who owns that exercise? Options: Quarterly, owned by IT, Before every major term, shared, Rarely / never tested, Ad hoc by vendor during demos
• If you had to quantify the last outage in terms of hours, people-hours or lost revenue, what’s your best estimate?

Who Really Decides (and Who’s Going to Stop It)?

• Who are the vote-writers and the veto-players in this selection (list roles and who influences them)?
• Which groups will demand a pilot with live courses before adoption? Options: Faculty senate / pilot faculty, Department chairs, Accessibility office, IT / integration team, Students / student government, Other
• What governance constraints must the new LMS respect (faculty governance policies, procurement rules, collective bargaining, vendor review committees)?
• Are there known non-starters the vendor must accept (data residency, contract clauses, specific integrations, open-source preferences)? Options: Data residency / on-prem required, Specific indemnity or IP terms, Support for particular authentication, No vendor-hosted option, None / flexible, Other
• How would you describe the politics around this project—is it high-profile and visible, quietly pragmatic, or likely to be delayed by committee debate? Options: High-profile / visible, Pragmatic with stakeholder buy-in, Likely to be delayed by committees, Unclear
• Who needs to sign off before a pilot can begin, and what will satisfy them?

If Success Was Measured — What Would It Feel Like?

• If we measured the next 12 months as a success, which single metric would make you say “this was worth it”? Options: Faculty adoption of pilot courses, WCAG 2.1 AA compliance for course materials, Reduction in critical outages during finals, Timely grade sync accuracy, Early-alert improvements in retention, Other
• For the metrics you care about, what are your current baselines (e.g., current percentage of accessible course pages, current D2L/Canvas downtime, average grade sync lag)?
• How will you validate pilot acceptance—what does a passing pilot look and feel like to faculty, students, and IT? Options: Faculty sign-off + course completion rates, Faculty NPS / satisfaction scores, No critical integration defects + successful grade syncs, Accessibility audit pass, Other
• Which SLA elements are critical for your institution (choose top three)? Options: Uptime during registration/finals, Response time for critical incidents, Data export/backup guarantees, Security / breach notification timelines, Performance thresholds under peak load
• What would you be willing to trade (cost, timeline, customization) to guarantee those success metrics? Options: Higher cost for stronger SLA, Longer pilot for more confidence, Limit customizations to standard features, Commit to phased module rollout, Unsure / need to discuss

Your Integration and Data Reality

• If your SIS, authentication, publisher integrations and gradebook stopped talking for a week, what would break first and who would be most impacted?
• Which integrations are non-negotiable for Day 1 of a pilot? Options: SIS rostering / grades, SSO (SAML / OIDC), Key publisher/LTI tools, Library / authentication proxies, Plagiarism tools, Other
• Describe the current state of your integration tech debt—do you have many custom adapters, brittle scripts, or a clean standards-based landscape? Options: Mostly custom adapters, Mix of custom + standards, Standards-based (LTI/REST) majority, We don’t know—need audit
• Who owns mapping decisions (course IDs, section codes, term keys) today and who would need training to accept new mapping behaviors?
• What export formats, frequency, and retention policies must the vendor support for your reporting and archival needs? Options: Daily automated exports (CSV/JSON), Weekly full backups, Real-time webhooks/events, Quarterly archival exports, Other
• What are your data quality pain points (missing student IDs, inconsistent course codes, timezone mismatches, duplicate records)? Options: Missing IDs, Inconsistent codes, Timezone issues, Duplicates, Historical data gaps, Other

Pilot, Migration & Risk Appetite

• If a pilot fails, what is the realistic consequence for the project—pause, restart, renegotiate, or abandon? Options: Pause and remediate, Restart with different scope, Renegotiate commercial terms, Abandon vendor, Other
• How broad should a pilot be to convince stakeholders—single department, multi-department, campus-wide small cohort, or system-wide? Options: Single department, Multiple departments, Cross-college cohort, Campus-wide small cohort, System-wide phased
• What migration responsibilities do you expect the vendor to take on (full content migration, tool remapping, training, verification checks)? Options: Full content migration, Tool remapping assistance, Migration scripts + validation, Training for faculty, We will lead migration, Other
• What rollback or contingency plan would make your team comfortable during cutover? Options: Sandbox fallback for term, Read-only access to legacy for 30 days, Parallel run with dual gradebooks, Define clear rollback triggers, Other
• Who will be the operational owners for pilot execution (names/titles) and how many full-time equivalents (FTEs) can you commit?
• What training cadence and change management support will faculty need to adopt the new workflows? Options: Small group workshops, On-demand micro-training, Extended coaching for early adopters, Peer faculty champions, Other

Accessibility & Compliance — Not Optional

• If an accessibility audit found systemic WCAG 2.1 AA gaps, how would the institution be expected to respond? Options: Formal remediation plan with vendor support, Faculty retraining and automated tooling, Temporary accommodations + roadmap, Unknown / need governance input
• Which accessibility requirements are must-haves for contract sign-off? Options: WCAG 2.1 AA automated checks, Manual remediation support, Accessible authoring tools for faculty, Third-party audit rights, Ongoing monitoring and reporting
• Do you have institutional accessibility standards or a remediation SLA that vendors must follow? If yes, please describe or attach.
• How do you currently detect inaccessible content—automated scans, staff audits, or wait for student reports? Options: Automated scanning, Staff/manual audits, Student reports / DSP escalations, Combination of the above, None
• Who in your organization signs off that course materials meet accessibility requirements (title/role)? Options: Disability Services director, Instructional designer lead, Faculty committee, Registrar / Academic Affairs, Other
• How much of your course catalog currently meets your WCAG target (best estimate)? Options: >80%, 50–80%, 20–50%, <20%, Unknown / not measured

Analytics, Reporting, and the Questions You Need Answered

• What are the top three questions your provost or retention office asks that your current LMS struggles to answer?
• Which analytics outputs are mission-critical (choose up to three)? Options: Early-alert dashboards, Course engagement trends, Assessment item-level analytics, Grade distribution & equity reports, Accreditation-ready reports, Other
• How do you currently validate analytics accuracy—manual spot checks, cross-system reconciliation, or trust the vendor feed? Options: Manual spot checks, Automated reconciliation scripts, Third-party validation, We rarely validate, Other
• Who needs access to which reports (advisors, deans, instructors, registrars, external accreditors)? Please map roles to report types if possible.
• How real-time do analytics need to be for your interventions to be effective? Options: Near real-time (minutes), Daily, Weekly, Monthly
• Are there specific compliance or audit-ready extracts you must produce on a schedule (e.g., FERPA, state reporting)? If yes, list them.

Next Steps — What Would Make This Feel Like Progress?

• What would count as a meaningful next milestone within 30 days to show momentum on this project? Options: Stakeholder alignment meeting completed, Pilot scope agreed, Detailed integration inventory delivered, Procurement checklist drafted, Other
• What is the single biggest blocker that, if removed, would accelerate your decision timeline?
• Who should be in the room for a technical discovery workshop (roles we should invite)? Options: CIO/IT Director, Registrar/Records, Instructional designers, Accessibility lead, Faculty pilot representative, SIS vendor/Integrator
• How would you prefer we demonstrate fit—sandbox with your course, live pilot, architecture review, or capacity proofing? Options: Sandbox with your content, Live pilot courses, Architecture and security review, Peak load proofing/test, Combination
• Finally, what three things would make you feel confident we understand your institution’s reality and can design the right pilot?

Tell Us Who You Are (A Quick Start)

• Which role are you representing in this conversation? Options: CIO / IT leadership, Provost / Academic leadership, Instructional Technology Director, Faculty member / Department lead, Disability Services / Accessibility lead, Procurement / Legal, Other
• What is your decision timeline for an LMS change (best estimate)? Options: Immediate (within 3 months), This academic term, Before next academic year, 12–18 months, Undefined / exploratory
• What is the incumbent LMS contract renewal or deadline date we should know?
• Which single institutional priority is most driving this evaluation today? Options: Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA), Analytics & retention signals, Reliable performance at peak, Seamless SIS/publisher integrations, Cost predictability, Faculty adoption & UX, Other
• Are there governance or faculty-senate processes that typically slow or shape decisions here? If so, briefly describe.

Are You Settling for 'Good Enough'?

• What assumptions about your current LMS do you still hear people repeat—even though evidence shows they’re false?
• Which recurring issues have you tolerated rather than escalate—because they seemed too costly or political to fix?
• How frequently do you experience severe-site performance or availability problems (examples: registration window, finals week)? Options: Multiple times per term, About once per term, Once a year, Rarely / almost never, Unsure
• Which downstream consequences of those problems have had the biggest real-world impact? Options: Delayed grading / transcript issues, Student complaints and retention risk, Faculty refusal to use platform, Extra IT overtime and firefighting, Negative press / reputation, Accreditation reporting gaps, Other
• Tell us about one recent moment that made leadership publicly question the LMS—what happened and who reacted?

When the System Breaks — What Really Happens?

• If the LMS failed during a registration or finals peak today, describe the realistic chain reaction you worry about most.
• Which platform capabilities must stay up under peak load for the semester to be considered intact? Options: Course access, Assessment submissions, Gradebook, Single Sign-On (SSO), Video/Live sessions, Third‑party publisher integrations, Analytics dashboards
• What are your current peak-load metrics (concurrent users, peak requests/min, data throughput)?
• Have you performed formal load or chaos testing on the incumbent platform in the last 18 months? Options: Yes — recent report available, Yes — planned but not executed, No — never done, Unsure
• If an outage hit finals week, how would it affect graduation, accreditation evidence, or faculty evaluations in practice?

Faculty: Loved, Tolerated, or Ignored?

• If faculty could redesign the LMS from scratch, what would be the first three things they'd remove or demand change for—and why?
• How do faculty typically adopt or reject new tools here? Options: Voluntary pilots, Department/School-led decisions, Central mandate from Provost/IT, Incentivized adoption (stipends/training), Mixed approaches
• Which faculty pain points do you hear about most often? Options: Slow grading workflow, Poor mobile experience, Hard-to-author content, Broken publisher integrations, Accessibility headaches, Unreliable assessments/grade sync
• Approximately how many faculty would you expect to actively pilot and provide structured feedback? Options: Fewer than 10, 10–25, 25–75, 75–200, 200+
• How does Disability Services currently escalate accessibility issues (formal audits, ticketing, faculty training), and what’s the typical remediation timeline? Options: Quarterly formal audits, Ad-hoc reports via ticketing, Annual compliance review, No formal process, Other

What Would Winning Look Like on Day One?

• If you had to show the provost three measurable wins after the first semester on the new LMS, what would those be?
• Which of the following outcomes are non-negotiable for you? Options: WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, 99.9% uptime during registration/finals, Accurate early-alert analytics, Seamless SIS grade/roster sync, High faculty satisfaction, Reduced custom integration work
• What minimum SLA level would you require for registration and finals windows? Options: 99.9%+, 99.5%, 99.0%, Willing to negotiate
• Describe the pilot acceptance criteria that would give you confidence to expand beyond the pilot.
• Who must provide final sign-off on pilot success (role/title)? Options: CIO / IT Director, Provost / AVP Academic, Faculty Senate Chair, CTE / Instructional Design Director, Procurement / Legal, Other

The Tough Trade-Offs You're Avoiding

• Name one difficult trade-off your team has been deferring because the politics or risk feel too high.
• Which trade-offs worry you most when evaluating vendors? Options: SaaS vs on-premise control, Customization vs upgradeability, Open APIs vs vendor-managed integrations, Rapid rollout vs thorough pilot, Price vs feature depth
• How do you expect migration responsibilities to be split (vendor vs institution)? Options: Vendor handles majority (migration service), Shared responsibility (defined split), Institution handles majority, Undecided / needs discussion
• What procurement, budget cycle, or legal constraints will shape whether this deal can close this year?
• If we proposed a phased rollout by college or department, what political or operational objections would surface?

Pilot Reality Check — Is It Real or a Demo?

• Is your pilot designed to surface real risk (live courses, real students, full integrations) or to highlight best-case functionality? Options: Realistic — live courses and integrations, Mostly simulated with some live elements, Demo-style best-case scenarios, Undecided
• Which integrations must be in the pilot to consider it valid? Options: SIS (roster/grades), LTI publisher integrations, Single Sign-On (SSO), Proctoring & assessment tools, Video conferencing / lecture capture, Analytics / early alert pipeline
• Which acceptance tests will you require during pilot? Options: Peak-load performance testing, WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility audit, Analytics accuracy verification, End-to-end gradebook sync, User-experience surveys from faculty/students
• Who will coordinate day-to-day pilot operations (roles or teams)? Options: Central IT, Instructional Technology / CTL, Department admin, Vendor project manager, Other
• How long must a pilot run to be meaningful in your context? Options: 4–6 weeks, One full academic term/semester, Multiple semesters, Depends on test coverage
• How do you plan to gather qualitative feedback during the pilot (surveys, interviews, support logs)? Options: Online surveys, Faculty focus groups, Student interviews, Support ticket analysis, Usage analytics

Commitment & Risk — Who's Owning What?

• If the pilot uncovers critical issues, who in your organization can pause rollout, demand remediation, or escalate contractually?
• What SLA remedies matter to you if agreed performance targets are missed? Options: Financial credits, Service credits and remediation plans, Right to terminate, Escalation to executive sponsor, Other
• Which security, privacy, or compliance certifications must a vendor hold for you to proceed? Options: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, FERPA-compliant controls, HIPAA (if applicable), State data residency requirements, Other
• What governance cadence would reassure you post-contract (weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly)? Options: Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Tiered by phase
• How will you measure vendor responsiveness and accountability during the pilot? Options: Ticket response time, Dedicated CSM / weekly check-ins, SLA reporting dashboards, Executive escalation path, Other

Final Steps That Make a Decision Real

• If we left this meeting with no clear next step, what is the likeliest barrier that would stop momentum?
• What specific deliverables in the next 30 days would make you feel progress is real (e.g., pilot SOW, acceptance test plan, cost model)? Options: Pilot SOW and timeline, Detailed acceptance test plan, Estimated TCO and pricing model, Integration feasibility report, Accessibility remediation plan
• Who must approve commercial terms and by what target date (role and date)?
• Are there other vendors you are actively benchmarking and, if so, what is their perceived strength? Options: Yes — performance/reliability, Yes — price, Yes — pre-built integrations, Yes — faculty adoption/UX, No — not actively benchmarking, Other
• Would you like us to provide a tailored acceptance-test checklist and a draft pilot SOW within two weeks? Options: Yes — please, Maybe — need internal alignment first, No — not at this stage
• What would make pilot success feel low-risk to the faculty senate, provost, and IT—pick the top two things you believe would move them? Options: Independent accessibility audit, Clear migration responsibilities, Financial penalties for missed SLAs, Dedicated training and change management, Transparent analytics & reporting