Securing Support, Building Trust: Why Buy-In Matters in Compliance

When it comes to institutional change and implementing new processes, gaining buy-in for the plan is critical. In 2022, a team at the University of Memphis (UM) made this strategy their priority. This unfolded when UM officials realized its need to rapidly transition from the Desire2Learn (D2L) Learning Management System (LMS) to the Instructure/Canvas platform. Because this transition required the migration of over 27,000 courses and needed to be completed within six months, all who were involved knew that this would be a daunting task (K16 Solutions, n.d.). However, the UM project/transition team had a strategy; they understood that securing ‘buy-in” from one of their major stakeholders, the faculty, would be the key to a successful integration. [...]