290 likes | 456 Views
Sakai: The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Dr. Stanley J. Portier Sakai Conference, 12-14 June 2007, Amsterdam. University of Twente Campus. Profile of the university. Founded in 1961 Research University Entrepreneurial Research University >600 spin-off companies
E N D
Sakai: The proof of the pudding is in the eating Dr. Stanley J. Portier Sakai Conference, 12-14 June 2007, Amsterdam
Profile of the university • Founded in 1961 • Research University • Entrepreneurial Research University • >600 spin-off companies • First (and only) Dutch campus university • Focus on technological developments and their management in the knowledge society
Education • 5 Faculties • 23 Bachelor programmes • 31 Master programmes • Bachelor & Master students: 7357 • PhD’s: 703 • International students: 344 • International PhD’s: 285
History: ELO Advice • Since 2000: TeleTOP is our VLE (campus wide use) • Problems: • Integration, standards, based on ‘traditional’ instructional design principles, isolation in Dutch Higher Education • Blackboard or Moodle was not an option • All-in-one; no components, not very much service oriented, no/limited framework • But: reasonale support of standards • Sakai as our future VLE? • For and by education (community) • Architecture: stable, robust, scalable, etc. • Note: Open source was not the main reason • Large number of international partners (>100) • Features comparable to commercial products • So: let’s do some pilots to see whether Sakai ‘meets our demands’ • www.utwente.nl/elo
Campus Blend Using Sakai (CBUS) – pilot phase • Research and evaluation of Sakai • Criteria • Sakai Community: How strong? Future expectations? What’s happening in- and outside the Netherlands? • Technical trials: (open) standards, (web)services for integration purposes • Pilot projects in education • Financial aspects • August 2006 – June 2007 • Final deliverables due on June 26th
Sakai community • Facts and figures • Community established in the US • Emphasis on English-speaking countries (as well as their educational system and methods) • >70 production sites worldwide • 25% in Europe, 70% in the US • NL: UvA, UT, Hotelschool Den Haag, >10 ROC’s, LOI, Elsevier Opleidingen, Stoas, Portfolio4U, Omix, A New Spring (join Wytze Koopal’s presentation tomorrow) • Sakai SIG at SURFfoundation • >100 developers worldwide • New releases twice a year
Sakai community (2) • Conclusions • World-wide community has (too much) focus on software development • Shift towards ‘usability’ and ‘educational / pedagogy’ issues (slowly) • Community Source model is ‘the best of both worlds’: open source and commercial software • No formal NL development-community, there is a Sakai NL user-community (SIG)
Technical analysis • Integration: • Open standards and specification (what needs to be exchanged) • Service Oriented Architecture (how to exchange) • Across applications (VLE-VIST-SIS) • Across domains (education / organisation) • Accross institutes (e.g., 3TU) • By means of SOA based on web services
Demonstrator • Reading from VIST (Course information system) • Search for a course in VIST and display result in demo application • Acquire course title and description from VIST • Edit course description (if required) • Create Sakai site and select relevant tools • The demonstrator works!
Technical analysis • Conclusions: • Support of e-Learning standards is on it’s way, but still average (SCORM, IMS QTI , IMS TI etc) • Support of other standards (XML, Webdav, OKI OSID’s etc): good • Sakai is SOA by design. Excellent architecture, internal and external service orientation • Sakai code is enterprise scalable Java code • New knowledge and expertise required (BPEL, WSDL, XML, XSD, SOAP etc..)
Pilot projects • Different faculties (3/5) • Bachelor and Master courses • Different instructional paradigms: • Instructor- and student driven • Different tool selection in sites • Different level of ICT experience among teachers
Pilot projects (2) • Procedure: • Intake with instructors • Advice on configuration of Sakai site • Quick start • Introducing documentation and help information • Instructor works more or less indepedently • Limited amount of support required • After each pilot: web survey (students) and interview (instructor)
Pilot projects (3) • Functional analysis CBUS team • ‘Longlist’ • Comparison with TeleTOP • Identifying improvement issues • Setting priorities • Other experiences • UT Information meetings (3x) • Sakai Playground (> 100 accounts) • External relations • TSM Business School (EMBA 18) • ITC
Results – students / teachers (1) • Educational • Can support different educational / instructional design paragdigms • Different site types (course- & projectsites) • Performance • Robust, only few error messages • Slow during and after large uploads • Improved after patch in 2.2.0, later 2.3.1 • Positive: • Announcements (notifications) • Assignments • Dropbox (submitting and feedback -> student <-> teacher) • E-mail archive (list & archive) • Resources • Wiki (concept of a collaborative environment)
Results – students / teachers (2) • Needs improvement: • Assignments (submitting group assignments) • Access levels (more roles required) • Resources (not suitable as a group environment) • Schedule (integrate with Outlook calendar) • Wiki (editor and layout) • User interface and usability • Non-intuitive and sometimes inefficient • Needs improvement before implementation • Compared with TeleTOP • TT user ratings are more positive • Sakai is recognized as a potential follow up
‘Longlist’ CBUS team (+) • Positive (t.o.v. TeleTOP): • Site management instructors • Projectsites • Online Help information: + • Flexible access rights for tools • Different types of notifications (announcements, resources, e-mail archive, syllabus) at site level and aggregrated on Home • Separate assignments tool (n/a in TT) • Downloading all studentwork in one zip file • Easy copy, paste and moving of resources • Easy reusability from other sites • Multiple upload using WebDAV • E-mail archive • Dropbox (student can submit, teacher provided feedback) • News / RSS feed • Gradebook • Wiki • Message center
‘Longlist’ CBUS team (-) Priority 1: • Integration: • VIST • Outlook • Ephorus (plagiarism) • SIS • Course management & catalogue • Tasks and assignments • Participant overview per site (esp. for assigning participants to groups) • International issues: • Course codes • Time and date format • First day of a week • Organisation of academic year • Grading
Pilot projects • Conclusions: • The pilot projects and our own analysis show that Sakai 2.3.1 can be a useful VLE for the University of Twente. It provides additional functionality compared to TeleTOP and may support different instructional design paradigms (as addressed in our ELO Advice report) • However, the analyses also show that Sakai does not yet meet the functional requirements to be implemented as a campus wide production site. The improvement issues that were identified must be solved before implementation.
€ : Total cost of ownership • Annual costs Sakai • Hardware: k€ 50-60 (3 yr use) [estimate, incl. personnel] • No license fee, but k$ 10 Sakai membership fee a year • 1 fte software-development: k€ 85 • 0,5 fte requirements/community: k€ 40 • 0,5 fte educational (technology) support: k€ 40 • Work within faculties: PM • Total: k€ 235 • Compare TeleTOP • Annual costs ITBE: k€ 250-300 • Work within faculties: PM
Follow up • Deliverables will be final by June 26th • Board of directors have to make a decision • Pilot-site remains up and running until december 2007 • Sakai Core team • Community development • Technical developments (e.g., upgrading to 2.4.0) • Support of other, potential pilots • Publish final reports
Thanks for listening! • Questions & Comments? • Links: • http://www.sakai-pilot.utwente.nl/sakaiwiki/ • http://www.utwente.nl/elo