7-10-2009 An Honest Look at Sakai: What Should We Tell Potential Adopters

An Honest Look at Sakai: What Should We Tell Potential Adopters?

Michael Feldstein, OracleMathieu Plourde, University of Delaware

Hannah Reeves, Tufts UniversityKevin Turner, IBM

Session Agenda

• Introduction

• Panel Presentations• Tufts University’s LMS Search

• The Moodle Buyer's Experience

• University of Delaware’s Sakai Deployment

• IBM’s Vision for Open Source

• Conclusion

July 2009 210th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.

TUFTS UNIVERSITY

The LMS Search Process @

July 2009 10th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A. 3

It All Started With This…


Dear Faculty, Students, and Staff:

The university, including the faculty-led Information Technology Committee in A&S and SoE and the Library Steering Committee, has recognized a number of product limitations with our current learning management system (LMS) and has affirmed the need for a proactive process to replace Blackboard "Basic" LMS, in use on the Medford campus since 1999.

Since that time, we have seen significant evolution in the LMS market and in the field of educational and collaboration technologies. In coordination with the School of Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering and the Fletcher School, UIT Academic Technology has formed an LMS core strategy team that will work with faculty, students, and staff across the Medford campus this academic year. The core team will facilitate a process of assessing community LMS requirements, identifying an appropriate new LMS platform, and recommending a support and service model to meet the diverse set of community LMS needs.


Current Tufts LMS Terrain


Current Tufts LMS Terrain

What are We Looking for?

A Few Simple things

Functionality

Flexibility

Supportability

Customizability - for health sciences

Innovation – Google Wave?

Low cost


http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rPk5CEy5Xq9Jq4tGRof1RXw&hl=en�

LMS Systems Under Consideration

Angel Learning

Blackboard

Moodle

Sakai


Perspectives on Proprietary (Bb)

Cons

Increasing distaste for business practices

Wariness surrounding reputation (service provider)

Cost

Tufts’ history of creating own applications like VUE


Pros

Familiar and trusted

Migration, migration, migration

User base

“Better the devil you know”

Perspectives on Open Source

Risky

Complex

Requires more resources

Poorly documented

Not ready for prime time

We can’t support

Future - uncertain


Perspectives on Sakai

First impressions

Voices of experience/networks

Source of truth

Expense???

Functional gaps and product roadmap

Sustainability


What We Need to Sell Sakai/Open Source

Documentation, documentation, documentation

Showcase/Examples

Voices of Experience – network

How To – getting involved

Marketing information (TCO, product roadmap, etc)


The LMS Paradigm Shift

13

Proprietary? Open Source?

10th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.

THE MOODLE BUYER’S EXPERIENCE


UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARESakai’s First Year at the


It All Started With This…


I Can Yap About Our Experience…


The Sakai Paradigm Shift

3/26/2009 LMS Committee Meeting - Sakai@UD Update 18

Attribution: Jeffrey Beall on Flick.com Attribution: Sean Munson on Flick.com

CONTROLLED SELF-SERVICE


40

215

344

508563

663782

837

571

597

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Fall 2008 Course Sites in a Learning Management System at UD

Sakai

WebCT


141219

365453

596676

797 782

362

723

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Spring 2009 Course Sites in a Learning Management System at UD

Sakai

WebCT

Unique Faculty Users

• Individual faculty who have created at least one Sakai course:


Fall 2008 346Winter 2009 68Spring 2009 432Individuals (all semesters) 573

Unique Faculty Users

• Individual faculty who have created at least one Sakai course:


Fall 2008 346Winter 2009 68Spring 2009 432Individuals (all semesters) 573

Half of All UD Faculty!

Quotes from Spring 2009 Faculty Survey


“The greatest resources are the ones that require little or no

instruction. Sakai approaches this ideal.”

“I use [the Sakai Help Files]- it's the easiest [resource] to find while I’m

actually using Sakai, and [they] answers most questions”

Quotes from Spring 2009 Faculty Survey


“I would like my students to work collaboratively on a wiki, if it could be more user-friendly than the

current version. Please!!!”

“Track student access to specific sites within the course site - e.g., answer keys or supplemental materials. This is about the only thing from WebCT that I really miss.”

“Link to library for a list of specific articles I would like them to have immediate access to

(electronic reserves).”

Lessons Learned at UD

• The Help Files are, by design, incomplete.• We had to create a workflow to customize

them. Requires lots of energy.

• Our users do not like tool silos.

• Self-Service is greatly appreciated.


But Which LMS is the Best Choice?


?

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Education for a Smarter Planet

IBM Global Education

Kevin J. Turner, Associate Partner, Director, Education Sales, US

Sakai Conference, July 10, 2009

THE VALUE OF OPEN SOURCE

Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning

IBM Global Education 200928

Why Is IBM Involved With Open Source?

Vendor lock-in

Business processes are tightly coupled with software solutions

Integration and maintenance are costly

Business processes are inflexible

Most products have their own proprietary platform

Integration is often point-to-point and non-standard

Pain Point Cause



IBM Strategy and Roadmap for Education

A Path Towards

Based On

Leveraging

Seamless integration of teaching, learning and administrative services Anytime, anywhere, any device learning for all students Optimization and integration of internal and external business process Reduction of IT delivery, management and maintenance costs

Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) Open Standards Open Source

World class hardware, software, research Deep expertise in accessibility, education and integration services Broad set of partners and offerings that support an

Open Education Framework



Why Is IBM Involved With Sakai?Because Sakai Will Be The ‘Eclipse For Education’

Tools Interoperability

Common Course Cartridge

JSR-168&WSRP

SOA

Tool API

PublishersConsumers

Commercial Affiliates

Education PartnersDeveloper

Community

SCORMIMS Packaging

Oversight

Sakai Foundation

Community Collab. Tools



The Educational Continuum for a Smarter Planet

WorkforceSkills

TheEducationalContinuum

EconomicSustainability

ContinuingEducation

HigherEducation

SecondarySchool

PrimarySchool

Intelligent

Instrumented

Interconnected

Smarter Classrooms:Open learning environments that increase student skills through access, alignment and insights

Smart Administration:optimized processes that leverage shared services and interoperability

Innovation in Research:high performance computing that contributes to knowledge and economic sustainability



Centralized Infrastructure

• Network Services provide high speed connectivity between thin clients and servers

• Integrated Portal provides consolidated access to applications and content

VIRTUALIZED DESKTOP SERVICES

Students, Faculty, Teachers and Staff

Public Infrastructure

IBM

Public Clouds

Legacy Desktop Services

Open Education Resources

• Web Services from IBM and others for collaboration and productivity

• Classrooms, labs and mobile access built around virtual desktops

• Thin Clients and Mobile Devices allow every user to access services easily

• Virtualized Cloud Services centrally supports a distributed set of campuses and classrooms

• IBM hosted delivery as an option

• Open Source eLearning & ePortfolios Courseware, Content and Services

• Business Intelligence provides insights on student performance

• Virtualized computer resources of legacy desktop applications and services, using Open Source to lower costs.

A Smarter Classroom leverages 21st Century technology to improve quality, increase access and lower costs.

On Demand Workplace

INFORMATION ON DEMAND

BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE

Industry Standard Framework • Administrative Services provide for management of resources and assets to support learning



Centralized Infrastructure

• Cloud Services from commercial providers

VIRTUALIZED DESKTOP SERVICES

Students, Faculty, Teachers and Staff

Public Infrastructure

IBM

Public Clouds

Legacy Desktop Services

Open Education Resources

• IBM hosted delivery as an option

A Smarter Classroom leverages 21st Century technology from IBM and our Partners

On Demand Workplace

INFORMATION ON DEMAND

BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE

IBM’s Virtual Infrastructure

Access & Virtual Client Solutions

IBM Servers & Storage

Industry Standard Framework

Consumer devices, thin clients

https://www.lotuslive.com/�

http://www.wyse.com/index.asp�

http://www.wyse.com/index.asp�

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/;jsessionid=8296fb4b30d621724163900740cfb6358d1527d06f6c.e34Oa30TaN4Ke34KaxmRbxyTaNn0�



Questions

See our website on “Smarter Education”: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/us/smartplanet/topics/educationtechnology/20090601/index.shtml?sa_campaign=message/leaf1/smarterplanet/education

Kevin Turner:[email protected] (mobile)

mailto:[email protected]�

Sakai’s SWOT Analysis

35

INTERNAL FACTORS

Strengths Weaknesses

EXTERNAL FACTORS

Opportunities Threats



Sakai SWOT – July 2008 Internal Marketing Calls

Strengths Marketing/Community

– Marketed at technical level of institutions well– Word of mouth marketing currently is good– Strong, open, transparent community– Community-based governance is perceived as strength– Lower cost for maintenance of system

Technical Capabilities– Good capabilities for web services – Easier to configure than alternatives– Sakai has a development roadmap to a very flexible, adaptable – Sakai has learned from mistakes and is capable of re-engineering– High degree of flexibility

Functional Capabilities– Designed to service at an enterprise level– Not “just a silo’ed CMS” - it’s designed to be support a broad base of functions and services– Large number of contributions and tools– Multiple frameworks available

Performance– Sakai is very scalable– Easier to measure performance and report on metrics, to drive continuous performance– JIRA – transparent– Ability to measure quality



Sakai SWOT – July 2008 Internal Marketing CallsWeaknesses

Marketing/Community– Sakai not marketed at all currently– Sakai not visible at education conferences– Role of CEO and Board not clear– Diverse community that has sometimes divergent objectives. Consensus is hard to arrive at– Contributions, tools not documented consistently– Tools silo/lack of workflow capability – Perception of need to put a lot resources into Sakai if adopted by an institution– Perception of high Total Cost of Ownership of Sakai– Perception of lack of no “assurance” of system similar to commercial product

Technical Capabilities– Sakai is difficult to install, hard for newcomers to get started– Lack of ability to integrate with blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0– Less workflow capabilities– Lack of consistency in approaches to functions within Sakai

Functional Capabilities– Sakai administrative interface is very weak compared to Blackboard’s– Generally, the interface is not “attractive”, poor User Interface, poor HCI – human computer interface– There are gaps in functionality for fully-online courses– Lack of consistency in user interface (e.g. drag and drop) and tools– Hard to get a lecturer’s perspective within Sakai, no opportunity to create a “narrative” similar to what is available in Moodle for

the course site Performance

– Stack traces – perception of major meltdown



Sakai SWOT – July 2008 Internal Marketing CallsOpportunities

Marketing/Community– Good marketing would help increase adoption– Many institutions would be happy to/are planning to migrate from Blackboard/WebCT– Commercial partners/consultants could help with marketing– High degree of confidence and clarity about future capabilities and roadmap– Create a community of “experts” in various functional areas

Technical Capabilities– Enabling work in the roadmap – CARET/K2/Sakai 3.0– Interoperability with other LMS/CMS’s, e.g. Moodle, Blackboard– Developing a set of tools – Integration with LAMS/RAMS for research and learning– Migration tools to/from versions/products– Create easy integration with Sakai– T-Shines!

Functional Capabilities– Sakai taking advantage of/participating in cloud computing – Providing backwards compatibility for versions, e.g V3.0 to V2.x– Emerging User Interface initiative with Fluid is strong– Binary tools, demo installers– Potential innovative functionality– Need to look at Sakai from a lecturer’s point of view– Enhance

Performance – Transparent knowledge of system, performance – low cost support for the users and community



Sakai SWOT – July 2008 Internal Marketing Calls

Threats Marketing/Community

– Sharepoint is viewed as – Moodle marketing at a faculty level, very easy to install– Google is emerging as a perceived alternative to ANY LMS. ”Why not just use Google”

Technical Capabilities– Potential instability of Sakai 3.0– Difficult for new developers to get up to speed– CM functionality

Functional Capabilities– Expectations rising by users (e.g. Web 2.0, Google)

Performance– None

Contact Us!

• Michael [email protected]

• Mathieu [email protected]

• Hannah [email protected]

• Kevin [email protected]
