A brief overview of the deployment of Sakai at Unisa

as the new “myUnisa”

Deon van der Merwe

Introducing Unisa

Vision

Towards the African university in the service of humanity

CvVCvV

Introducing Unisa

• University of South Africa is a comprehensive, open learning and distance education institution.

• On 1 January 2004, the former Unisa, Technikon Southern Africa (TSA) and Vista-Vudec merged.

• The new comprehensive institution currently (1st registration) has 205 962 students and is classed as a mega-university in global terms.

• Qualifications are internationally accredited.

• Currently more than 93 000 student have joined our Virtual Campus called “myUnisa”.

• 10724 courses have been created on myUnisa

Unisa Students in Africa

2005

International Students

Black66%

Asian5%

White21%

Coloured7%

Unknow n1%

White61 378

Asian22 697

Black128 045

Coloured13 699

Unknown605

27.1%

10%

56.6%

6.1%0.3%

Race (2005)

TSA CoolUnisa

Female123 805

Male102 612

45.3%

54.7%

Male:53%

Female:47%

Gender (2005)

TSA CoolUnisa

History of CMS

• Each institution had own in-house developed system:

– Former Unisa had SOL/LOL

– Former Technikon SA had TSA COOL

• Disparate technologies

• Stable but outdated systems

• Very little institutional support

• Approximately 134 000 students were using combined systems

ThemyUnisa Project

ThemyUnisa Project

The myUnisa Team

The myUnisa Team

Terms of Reference

• Mandate by Vice Principal: Prof. Alwyn Louw

• To provide Unisa with a single integrated “Virtual Campus” System

• To introduce Enterprise Portal technology to the institution, using selected academic systems as proof of concept.

• To have above systems operational by January 2006

Virtual Campus Brief• The new virtual campus solution will incorporate all the

functionalities of both the legacy systems (TSA COOL and UNISA SOL/LOL).

• New system will support modern ODL principles and needs.

• New system & architecture must comply with international and local computing standards and best practices.

• New system will be modular and flexible to allow new functionality and features to be added at any time.

• The new system must be robust and scalable enough to accommodate existing and envisaged user volumes (staff and students).

Cont…

• Content in the system will comply with recognised international metadata packaging standards.

• The new virtual campus system will be integrated with legacy student and administrative systems, but will be able to integrate with any new systems due to the open architecture and computing standards used in its design.

• Content and information will be presented via the an enterprise portal.

• 24/7 availability (redundancy)

• MIS Enabled (Tracking system)

• DR

Virtual Campus Brief

What had done?• Sell the concept

• Deploy Sakai

• Design & implement hardware infrastructure

• Implement ID Vault

• Customize Sakai and brand as “myUnisa”

• Train developers in Java and Struts

• Develop 19 new tools

• Integrate Sakai with legacy systems

• Integrate legacy tools (services) into Sakai

• Migrate data & courseware

• QA, change management, train users, etc…………….

Why Sakai?

• In-house research and architecture development.

• The Sakai Project was introduced to Unisa by a visiting Gartner consultant.

• Virtually 100% match between the architecture adopted by Sakai and the online architecture envisaged for Unisa.

On 12/11/2004 the ICT ManCom and on 24/05/2005 Unisa ManCom approved the deployment of Sakai and uPortal. This will form part of the core systems in Strategic Objectives 4.3 & 4.4 of ICT Strategic Plan.

Approval

• The ability to provide and infrastructure that will fit organizational needs and control over our destiny.

• Getting the best of three worlds: OSS, In-house development and commercial software.

• Zero Licensing fees, relatively low cost of deployment and low long term cost of ownership.

Why use Open Source Software?

Cont…

• Saving in thousands of man-hours of in-house development and programming.

• Access to an international community with some of the world’s best developers, programmers and ITC technicians.

• The Government and DoE’s positive stance on OSS.

Why use Open Source Software?

Cont…

• Research done by staff (Current and in past).

• Unisa’s vision of partnerships and community outreach.

• Developing cutting edge technology skill locally.

• Global trends in OSS.

• Large ICT vendors’ stance on OSS.

Why use Open Source Software?

• Risks of staff attrition and acquisition of skilled staff.

• Gartner’s introduction to Sakai

• Deliberations with other tertiary institutions investigating OSS.

Why use Open Source Software?

Sakai• Unisa has deployed Version 2.01 and is busy

adapting it for our unique circumstances.

• Regular communication with Sakai/SEPP partners using collaborative tools, teleconferencing and attending user groups.

• First meeting of local universities hosted by Unisa on 14/15 September 2005, follow up meetings on 25 October 2005 in Cape Town and 14/15 March 2006 in Bloemfontein. The following universities attend: University of Cape Town, North-West University, University of the Freestate and Central University of Technology.

What made it possible?

Strategy used to introduce “myUnisa”

“Recipes for success”

“Lessons learnt”

What made it possible?• Attitude & Passion

– “No problems, only challenges”

– Willingness to take risks (calculated, but “bold”)

– Dedication of the Team:

• Nothing is too much effort• Prepared to work long hours• 24/7 availability (voluntary)

– Resilience, perseverance and patience

– Turning a bad situation into an opportunity

– Use every opportunity to “brag”

Cont…

What made it possible?• Common goal

– A vision of belonging to something larger than any one person or institution and to be part of a global community of like-minded people aspiring to produce a enterprise system for all.

– Team spirit – participative environment, common goals and team building.

• Merger – Threat or opportunity (more of the same (play it safe) or take a chance and do something new).

Cont…

What made it possible?• Influencing and aligning with university

vision & goals:

– Organizational mission and strategic objectives, Institutional Goals, 2015 plan, Teaching and Learning Model, ICT Strategic plan

– Top management approval & support

• Restructuring ICT to accommodate a Academic Solutions Directorate for eventual refocusing of ICT (Change of ICT from admin-centric to Learner support and academic centric - the 80/20 plan

Cont…

What made it possible?• Strategic partnerships:

– Intra- Institutional (Alliances with Corporate Communication & Marketing (CCM) and Institute for Curriculum and Learning Development (ICLD))

– Inter institutional (South African initiative)

– Sakai community

• Engagement of Users

– User centric approach

– Business analysis

Cont…

What made it possible?• Management style:

– Empowering & trusting

– Project management principles (DotProject)

– Unique business model based on investment in people (staff development) rather than technology

• Strong motivation for selection of solution:

– Introduction of new OSS orientated business model & value propositions

– Selling the vision rather than product (Global initiative, collaboration potential, foot in door for non ICT projects e.g. Open Courseware Initiatives, International exposure)

Cont…

What made it possible?• High level of (diverse) in-house expertise:

– Exposure of staff to newest developments in Teaching and Learning Technologies

• Change Management & training:

– Perception Management

– Combination of evangelical approach & enforcement

– Multi-pronged approach (Top down, bottom up, peer to peer & student pressure)

– Building a support network & infrastructure

Cont…

What made it possible?myUnisa support infrastructureSupport Unit Primary support target Type of support

Unisa Call Centre Students General queries and routing of enquiries

Student Admin support (myUnisahelp)

Students, Unisa Staff Administrative issues

ICT Helpdesk Unisa Staff General ICT, networks and desktops

myUnisa team (Bugmaster)

24/7 Technical team

Staff & Students

ICT

myUnisa technical issues, staff training (system usage)

Technical

Implementation Specialist Academic Staff (Faculty) Change management and staff training (pedagogics & system usage)

ICLD Academic Staff (Faculty) Online teaching, courseware development & staff training (pedagogics & system usage)

CCM All online users General communication, public relations & reputation management

What made it possible?

Pitfalls Challenges

Challenges• National Challenges:

– Blend of Developing world and 1st World

– Socio-economic status of our students

– Language barriers (11 Official languages)

– Low levels of literacy (innumeracy)

– National infrastructure – water, electricity, telecommunication

– Cost & reliability of connectivity

– Education to the Nation – access to technology

Cont…

Challenges• Merger:

– Politics, processes, systems, people and cultures ……..

– ……BUT it became a catalyst (opportunity) for change

– Extremely tight deployment timelines

– Migration of disparate data & courseware

– Bad data (student & staff)

Cont…

Challenges

• Resistance to change:

– Ignorance, apathy, resistance, sabotage

– Current academic model is extremely content orientated (legacy of correspondence institutions)

– Lack of understanding (paper vs online, administrative vs teaching & learning) i.e. breaking the paradigm

– Academics see online teaching as extra work (no performance incentives)

– Resistance to OSS by traditional ICT practitioners (peers)

Cont…

Challenges• Limited resources:

– Prioritization: Development vs Maintenance vs Support

– Institutional HR structures not in place

• Dependence on other systems (directory services, networks, student system, ERP, etc)

• No existing benchmarks for guidance

• Perceptions:

– Students blame myUnisa for everything (volumes)

– Non-IT related

myUnisa Join Statistics

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

100000

06/01/09

06/01/16

06/01/23

06/01/30

06/02/06

06/02/13

06/02/20

06/02/27

06/03/06

06/03/13

06/03/20

06/03/27

06/04/03

06/04/10

06/04/17

06/04/24

06/05/01

06/05/08

06/05/15

06/05/22

06/05/29

Date

Stu

de

nt

Nu

mb

ers

JOINED & NOT ACTIVATED

JOINED & ACTIVATED

93592

99191

Internet Accessibility 2005

47%

36%

2%

8%

2%

2%

3%

Work

Home

Library

Internet Café

Unisa Learning Centre

Library

Other

Project Plan

• Phase One:  The provision of a combined CMS infrastructure that is integrated with the New Unisa ERP and student system.  The system will retain all the functionality of the original TSA and Unisa systems.  Integration of the CMS with Enterprise Portal (EP). (2005 – Q3, 2006)

• Phase Two:  Enhance the CMS system to accommodate specific user needs, upgrade to new version and to support best practices in ODL. (2006 onwards)

CMS will be deployed in the following phases:

Cont…

Project Plan

• Phase One: A vertical Portal providing academic services and student support. (2005 to Q2, 2006)

• Phase Two: Extending the Portal architecture horizontally to include the institutions current Internet and intranet web pages, as well as selected online services. (Q3, 2006 and 2007)

• Phase Three:  Aggregating all ICT systems and information services under a unified Portal infrastructure to provide a single, profile driven, browser-based, interface into all organizational digital infrastructures. (2007 onwards)

EP will be deployed in the following phases:

• Former president Nelson Mandela obtained a law degree from Unisa during the time he spent in jail on Robben island

• He was also awarded an Honorary Doctoral Degree by Unisa

Thanks

Deon van der Merwedvanderm@unisa.ac.za