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Enterprise Sakai: Research and Development for a National Learning Grid

Enterprise Sakai: Research and Development for a National Learning Grid. Mr. Josh Baron, Director, Academic Technology, Marist College Mr. Joseph Davey, Marist Graduate CS Student. MARIST COLLEGE. We are NOT a large research university!

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Enterprise Sakai: Research and Development for a National Learning Grid

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  1. Enterprise Sakai:Research and Development for a National Learning Grid Mr. Josh Baron, Director, Academic Technology, Marist College Mr. Joseph Davey, Marist Graduate CS Student

  2. MARIST COLLEGE • We are NOT a large research university! • Founded 1929 – small complex liberal arts college • Approximately 5700 FTE student population • 200 full-time faculty, 500 part-time • Long history of incorporating technology into the teaching and learning process

  3. Why do we need an enterprise solution?

  4. Learning from the past… • In 1996 the digital horizon was foggy… • We have a better view today… watch out! • Use and production of digital media will grow exponentially over next decade: • Electronic portfolios (oh yeah…“for life”) • Rich media learning objects (IVT Demo) • IdentityQuest Project (Podcasting Demo) • Next Up: Mobile authoring tools?

  5. A National Learning Grid State and Local Consortia Museums, science centers, etc. Colleges and Universities K-12 District Schema for Provisioning the Sharing of Resources/Tools Student content Certification Exams Online Courses “Raw” Video Content Sakai Repository

  6. Marist/IBM Joint Study • Well Established Relationship, First Project – 1988 • Living Lab for New Technologies • Research projects, IBM Academic Initiative support, Marist grant initiatives • IBM program manager provides overall project management • IBM researchers, developers, business execs, and Marist faculty, IT staff, and students collaborate on numerous projects • Marist students hired as IBM interns • Opportunities for full-time positions

  7. Recent Joint Study Projects • IBM Academic Initiative/Scholars Program • z/OS Hub/Course Creation/Test Drive Images/Instructor Training • Mainframe Contest – 700 Students/85 Colleges/Universities • z/OS Certificate Program – Series of Online Courses (via IDCP) • Extensive Use of Linux Virtual Servers for Course Instruction • 600+ Images on Marist Mainframe • Open Source Development Lab • Marist based lab for Linux on z projects • 2003 SUR Grant – Project Greystone • Teacher and Student Portals – Grown to 11 Local School Districts • Several Rich Media Applications/CISCO Integration • 2005 SUR Grant – Sakai Project • Open Source LMS Integrated with IBM’s WAS, DB2, RCI/Content Mgr • Grid Computing • Course Creation/ NSF Grant Participation • Marist Grant Initiatives – Support and Collaboration • NYSTAR Funded CART – Center for Collaborative and On Demand Computing • NSF Funded – Institute for Data Center Professionals

  8. Global Campus Students Administrators Educators Customized Portals App 1 App 2 App 3 App 1 App 2 App 3 Collaborative Learning Environment Sakai Vision Sakai Tools & Development Environment Core Services: content, user, security, site Distributed Environment Core Infrastructure

  9. Marist Sakai Goals • How do we create a scalable, enterprise version of Sakai capable of handling future digital repository needs? • Port Sakai to IBM WebSphere • Content Integration with DB2 Content Manager and RCI

  10. Main Porting Issues • Classloaders • Tomcat decided to go against specification • Looks in local classloader first unless resource contains certain package keywords (javax, org.xml.sax, etc) • If resource not found, request is delegated to parent classloader • WebSphere is the opposite, but allows the administrator to adjust the classloading policy

  11. Main Porting Issues • Deployment Descriptors • Tomcat is much more lenient with invalid deployment descriptors • If a web.xml file does not match the servlet specification it overlooks the error and allows the web application to function normally • WebSphere is much more strict • Will not allow an application to be installed unless there are no errors in the web.xml file

  12. Main Porting Issues • Filters • The Servlet Specification states that any filter that maps to a url-pattern should be applied before any filter that maps to a servlet name. • Some Sakai components do not follow this spec • Tomcat applies filters in the order in which the Sakai Application is expecting • WebSphere applies the filters according to specification

  13. Content Hosting Legacy Service Integration • The legacy Content Hosting service manages files and attachments for the Sakai 2+ tools.

  14. Content Hosting Services Db Content Services Sakai V2.0 Implementation June, 2005 “Charon” (precursor to uPortal) As the User Interface Legacy Tools contributed by: -U of Mich -CHEF -MIT -OKI -U of Ind -Stanford -X-Platform O/S -Fedora, other Linux, Windows -Tomcat Application Server -My SQL Database + Others Relational Databases File Systems

  15. Sakai RCI/Content Manager Integration

  16. What is RCI? • Rich Content Infrastructure (RCI) is middleware supporting the creation of rich content solutions. • High level APIs, tools, and enhanced media functions • Allows application providers to easily adapt their applications to a common infrastructure • Simpler and more cost efficient way to create, manage and distribute content. • Built on top of DB2 Content Manager

  17. Benefits of RCI • Common management and distribution utility for rich content solutions • Provides a single repository for different types of data • Multiple views and use of the same content. • Simpler and easier set of interfaces into existing CM repositories. • More efficient way to create or update enterprise applications.

  18. Sakai Content Hosting Servicemodified for Content Manager • BaseContentService • Storage Interface • C - Create • R - Retrieve • U - Update • D - Delete

  19. Storage Interface • Defined in BaseContentService • Implemented in RciContentService • 20 Methods defined • 90% of time implementing • Communicate with RCI • Some trivial, some very tricky

  20. Storage Interface Implementation

  21. Development Process

  22. JSR168 Portlet as the User Interface Legacy Tools + LMS -(alternative to Educator Enhanced Functions) -Streaming Media Greystone/RCI -SuSE -WebSphere -Portal Server -Web Service Remote Portal -Application Server -DB2 /Content Manager -Content Distribution Networks Domain Independent Rich Content Infrastructure Web Services Content Hosting Services Content Managing Services RCI_Content Services RCI_Managing Services Information and Content Integration Relational Databases Content Repositories File Systems Marist College/IBM/Sakai V2.1.2 Implementation Sept, 2006

  23. Current Production Environment

  24. Preparations for Production • Migration from existing Sakai • MySQL pull from existing server • MySQL -> RCI • RCI -> MySQL • Verification • Backup and Recovery • 4 Databases on three servers • Resource Data

  25. Backup Plan

  26. The Next Phase • New Sakai Tools • New Sakai Services - Like EMU

  27. EMU: Extensible Media Utility • The Goals • Create a Rich Media application capable of handling (uploading, streaming, serving) any type of media across many repositories. • Make it extensible and dynamic so that new features may always be added. • Give faculty and media personnel the capability to load and tag their own content. • Give faculty and media personnel the ability to update meta-data on previously loaded content. • Make content accessible through courseware systems.

  28. EMU: Extensible Media Utility • Why EMU? • The growing needs of professors called for an application that could search many repositories and create media lists that would be available to students through their online courseware. • This utility also needed to be able to be updated by faculty and media staff who were looking to create their own content.

  29. EMU Design

  30. EMU Design

  31. EMU Transcode Video Grid Service • Marist plans to maintain the grid environment and exploit the new grid applications. • They recently used the Grid Transcoding application to encode their collection of MPEG-2 videos, including their Emmy videos. • The transcoder application ran on the Marist grid of 6 servers. • Nearly 78 hours saved over a single processor environment!

  32. EMU Transcode Video Grid Service

  33. A National Learning Grid State and Local Consortia Museums, science centers, etc. Colleges and Universities K-12 District Schema for Provisioning the Sharing of Resources/Tools Student content Certification Exams Online Courses “Raw” Video Content Sakai Repository

  34. Contact Information Mr. Josh Baron Josh.Baron@marist.edu Mr. Joseph Davey Joseph.Davey@marist.edu

  35. Q & A

  36. iLearnCM Implementation • Began in September 2006 with System z Program (iLearnCM System) • Fully online non-credit “cohorted” program • 25 students, IBM employees are instructors • Provided “real world” test of system • Conducted extensive testing before launch • Had plan in place for troubleshooting • “Double click” issue in Test & Quizzes

  37. iLearnCM Implementation • Provided students with online orientation • Trained instructors in one-on-one sessions • User support is critical: • MOTD used for support information • “Check-in” phone conferences • Easy to blame technology in “experimental” system • Surveys being administered now…

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