Making the Move from a Commercial LMS to Sakai

Nancy O’Laughlin, Ed.D.
University of Delaware
VA Tech Regional Conference
November 2008
Copyright © Nancy J. O’Laughlin 2008. This work is the
intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted
for this material to be shared for non-commercial,
educational purposes, provided that this copyright
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notice is given that the copying is by permission of the
authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish
requires written permission from the author.
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Historical background
Planning/strategies
Implementation
Lessons learned
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UD is one of only three institutions with Land,
Sea, Space and Urban Grant status
Carnegie Research University
Founded as a small private academy in 1743
About 16,000 undergraduates, 3,500
graduate students, and 1,000 professional
and continuing studies students
1,117 full-time faculty positions (07-08)
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2000
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
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Faculty selects WebCT
Run WebCT CE 4.1
Evaluate upgrade options
Install Sakai for portfolio pilots
Create faculty LMS committee
UD adopts Sakai
◦ Provost announces Sakai as LMS, March
◦ Sakai available for credit classes, September
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Why change from WebCT?
What were LMS options?
When?
◦ timeline
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Who was involved?
◦ Steering Committee
◦ IT Teams
◦ LMS committee
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Members (32)
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Vice-Provost, Academic Affairs
Faculty representing each College (15)
Other University wide units (6)
IT (10)
Criteria
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Using or ready to use LMS
Willing to become Sakai user
Attend meetings (4 annually)
Recommended by dean
2 year appointment
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Expectations of Faculty, other Units
◦ Pilot a course or experiment with course site tools
◦ Provide feedback and recommendations
◦ Advise development directions for Sakai tools and
enhancements in UD’s implementation of Sakai
◦ Be ambassadors within their college, department or
organization
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Stakeholder implementation planning
Technical considerations
Migration strategy
Training and Support
Communication
◦ http://www.udel.edu/udlms/
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New Policies/Procedures
Targeted
Semester
Courses from
WebCT
Faculty
20% Fall 2008
180
114
50% Spring
2009
450 (+270)
285 (+171)
80% Fall 2009
720 (+270)
456 (+171)
Totals
~900
~570
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Long term access to student data
Course site creation
Length of time courses are active
Outsider or guest access
New challenge—non-credit courses
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IT staff testing (collaboration with GA Tech)
Faculty pilots
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7 by LMS committee faculty
2 electronic portfolios
11 Wikis/ Blogs
1,272 user accounts
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Sakai 2.5 in production June 1
Sakai introduced at Summer Faculty Institute,
127 attended keynote; 4 Sakai related
seminars offered to Institute participants
Training sessions, consultations,
documentation
150 academic Sakai courses were created (as
of June 27)
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Training stats
◦ Reached 5 colleges and 20 departments
◦ 26 classes
 145 faculty
 67 support staff
◦ 62 scheduled consultations
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Documentation
Users
Course sites
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Ongoing feedback
◦ January LMS Committee Retreat
◦ Comments
◦ Faculty survey
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Ongoing training and documentation
Project Site pilots begin Winter 2009
Portfolio Site pilots underway
New versions of Sakai
Copyright policies
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10 pilots to begin Jan 2009
Target production for June 2009
Issues
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Roles
Self-create or IT create
Functionality
Lifetime of site
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3 roles (maintain, access & custom)
IT create
Same functionality as credit courses
Lifetime?
Decisions
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2 pilots completed 2007-2008
◦ Nutrition and Dietetic Internship Program (39)
◦ Secondary Science Education (10)
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Meeting with Electronic Portfolio Steering
Committee June 2008
New pilots – 2008-2009
◦ Freshmen Year Experience (500 undeclared)
◦ Latin American Studies (20+)
◦ Secondary English Education (120)
 Community
replaces vendor
◦ Patches, settings, support, Q & A
 UD’s
involvement
◦ Teaching with Sakai Innovation
Award
◦ Participate in Q & A efforts
◦ Vote on priorities in community
◦ Participate in conferences
◦ User interface initiative
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Communicating to all constituents
Appreciating the amount of time needed for
successful implementation
Securing appropriate resources
Applying good project management practices
Understanding the implications of policy
issues such as FERPA, access, copyright
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Have campus representation on planning
teams
Keep current server running in parallel as you
migrate
Define migration process and plan
Offer training and support for the faculty who
are migrating
University of Delaware
http://www.udel.edu/udlms/
Nancy J. O’Laughlin (nolaug@udel.edu)