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Seminars in Academic Computing
August 2005 - Snowmass, CO
Bernadine Chuck Fong
President, Foothill College
Chris Coppola
President, The rSmart Group
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Open Source in Education
Evolving the IT Marketplace
Maroon Bells
Open source is successful for
infrastructure software
Open source is moving up and out
Community Source
The OS Movement in Education
Perspectives from two
partners in a new ecosystem
Open Source
in Education
FOOTHILL COLLEGE
Bernadine Chuck Fong, President
August 2005
Why?
Getting Started with technology
• Foothill College in the Silicon
Valley
• Reputation for innovation
• 19,000 students
• Public two-year college
• The onset of the personal
computer
The Sakai Project
Getting Started with technology
1993-94
• Vision for positioning Foothill as a
leader in educational technology
• Involving the faculty
• Blue Ribbon Science and
Technology Committee
The Sakai Project
Getting Started with technology
1993-94
• Using technology in the
curriculum
• Popularization of email
• How could Foothill be innovative
The Sakai Project
Getting Started with technology
1993-94
• Faculty proposal for an email
(“online”) course
• Opportunity to be innovative
• IT attitude and systems
orientation
• President’s Leap of Faith
The Sakai Project
Getting Started with technology
1993-94
• Technical and logistical support
Issues
• Need a few good men and
women
• “Band-aiding for the future”
• One of the best decisions I’ve
made
The Sakai Project
Getting Started with ETUDES
• ETUDES: Easy To Use Distance
Education Software for Foothill
College
• Michael Loceff, faculty-author of
ETUDES
• Michael Loceff, co-executive
producer/writer of “24”-2004
Golden Globe winner, Emmy
nominee
The Sakai Project
ETUDES the First Generation
• The ETUDES story, beginning in
1994
• Faculty involvement and
“incentive”
• Development of online courses in
multiple disciplines (“no right
course”)
The Sakai Project
ETUDES the First Generation
• College’s investment in faculty
development time
• Autonomy
• Independence from 3rd party
investors
– Software needs
– Pricing
The Sakai Project
ETUDES the First Generation
• Responsiveness to faculty
needs
• Onset of true faculty
collaboration
• Explosion of online courses
(including hybrid) and
degrees
The Sakai Project
ETUDES the First Generation
• New issues
• Ongoing technical support
• Evolution to an alliance with
other colleges
• Aging software
The Sakai Project
ETUDES the First Generation
• Enter Vivian Sinou in 2000
• ETUDES Alliance created
– 50+ colleges
– 60,000 students
– Open source
The Sakai Project
ETUDES Community
Bakersfield College, CA
Cerro Coso Community College,
CA
Coastline Community College, CA
College of Alameda, CA
College of the Siskiyous, CA
Crafton Hills College, CA
De Anza College, CA
East Los Angeles College, CA
Foothill College, CA
Gavilan College, CA
Glendale Community College, CA
Harcum College, PA
Imperial Valley College, CA
Lake Tahoe Community College,
CA
Laney College, CA
Los Angeles City College, CA
Los Angeles Harbor College, CA
Los Angeles Mission College, CA
Los Angeles Pierce College, CA
Los Angeles Southwest College,
CA
Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, CA
Los Angeles Valley College, CA
Merritt College, CA
Porterville College, CA
Mendocino College, CA
San Bernardino Valley College, CA
San Joaquin Delta College, CA
Taft College, CA
Vista College, CA
West Los Angeles College, CA
Antelope Valley College, CA
Chabot College, CA
El Camino College, CA
Long Beach City College, CA
MiraCosta College, CA
Santa Rosa Junior College, CA
Skyline College, CA
Stephen F. Austin State University, TX
West Valley College, CA
The Sakai Project
ETUDES Alliance Model
• Membership Dues
– Development
– Stakeholders
• Support Services
–
–
–
–
–
Hosting
Help Desk Support
SIS Integration
Account Management
Training
The Sakai Project
Perspective
Software sourcing decisions are not new
1970-80s
Build or
Buy
Buil
d
1990
Build, Buy,
or “Borrow”
2000
2010
Benefits
Risks
-- Brad Wheeler, Indiana University
The Sakai Project
Considering Open Source
•
Can I trust open source applications today?
•
Can I trust open source applications tomorrow?
•
Who will support it?
•
Should I invest or be a free rider?
•
When is the right time to jump aboard?
•
Are there really any total cost of ownership
advantages?
•
Isn’t vended software safer?
•
Does open source fit my institution?
-- Brad Wheeler, Indiana University
The Sakai Project
Open Standards
Commercial vendors vary in
the degree of their
commitment to, and delivery
of, flexible, interoperable
systems that are truly based
on open standards.”
-- Chris Vento, Syllabus, April 2004
The Sakai Project
Community Source Effort
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
University of Michigan
Indiana University
MIT
Stanford University
Foothill College
UC-Berkeley
Open Knowledge Initiative
(OKI)
• uPortal Consortium
• Sakai Partners
• Commercial Affiliates
Program
The Sakai Project
Community Source
“Community source describes a model for
the purposeful coordinating of work in a
community. It is based on many of the
principles of open source development
efforts, but community source efforts rely
more explicitly on defined roles,
responsibilities, and funded commitments
by community members than some open
source development models.”
“Institutional Investments
for Institutional Outcomes”
… from www.sakaiproject.org
The Sakai Project
Future Directions
• Integration with electronic portfolios
– Student, course, institutional
• Inclusion of student learning outcomes criteria
• Remaining on the cutting edge of educational
issues
– Accreditation and assessment
requirements
– Collaborative learning
– Deep learning
The Sakai Project
Future Directions
• Educational plan
• Business plan
• Performance plan
The Sakai Project
Tip of the iceberg
Who is rSmart? Ecosystem-role
Who is rSmart? Commercial
Commercial open source software for education
Open source vs. Commercial
Why OSS vs. Proprietary?
“There is no future in vanilla … the
commercial future belongs to those that
know how to make the richest chocolate
sauce, the sweetest, lightest whipped
cream, and the juiciest cherries to sit on top,
or how to put them all together into a
sundae.”
Thomas L. Friedman
What’s driving the movement?
Motivation to change
Why Now? Collaboration on steroids
Enablers of change
Opportunity for education
New challenges
Thank you. Questions?
Bernadine Chuck Fong
fongbernadine@foothill.edu
Chris Coppola
chris.coppola@rsmart.com
www.sakaiproject.org
www.foothillglobalaccess.org/etudes2
www.rsmart.com
www.osportfolio.org
www.kualiproject.org