C C F I T – O C T O B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 9L I Z G I B S O N

Education Technology Update

Education Technology Update

SmartSite UpdateGradebook 2 ProjectMyUCDavis CMS Migration

SmartSite Update

Spring, 2009: Question – Is there a vendor out there who can provide a hosted instance of Sakai as well as we do and at a lower cost ?

Request For Proposal (RFP): VERY detailed requirements- based on experience Allowed us to protect the users, the campus… Well represented RFP Review Team:

senate representation, technical experts, security experts, and users

Outcome

A vendor was selected to host SmartSite: rSmart Located in AZ; staff of 40+ University Community Source based business

(Sakai / Kuali communities) Economies of scale – e.g. build once, serve 40 Proven record, Highly regarded in the Sakai Community

Allows us to focus on our campus needs instead of ongoing maintenance

Based on findings to date, we would recommend this direction, regardless of the budgetary savings.

Current Status

3 year contract, with exit clause (at any time)Campus Courses:

ALL are using UC Davis SmartSite – Status Quo

Pilot Users: rSmart version - but NOT for Fall Quarter COURSES http://smartsite.rsmart.com

Testing and evaluating ongoing through December.

Next Steps

1) A Focused Pilot Technical Review and evaluation User Review and evaluation

2) Go / No Go acceptance Decision

3) Move to Production if a “Go”

Focused Pilot

The pilot will focus our efforts in two areas:1. Technical QA and testing: Regression testing, Load testing, Verifying functionality, Testing interfaces to other applications (e.g. Banner, Registrar)

2. Functional Verification by Users: Faculty and Staff Compare/evaluate tools/functions in hosted version Opportunity to understand the details of the change and provide

feedback and recommendations

Focused Pilot

Planned / Recommended Opportunities for Functional Verification and Input by Users: “Discovery Sessions” “SmartSite Open Forums”

• Opportunities for Input / recommendations CCFIT sponsored Open Forum ? Invitation to faculty and staff is to be a part of the group that

provides feedback informing the final recommendation to VPIET Pete Siegel

Go / No Go

We will not move to rSmart until we are satisfied that the rSmart solution: Meets our UC Davis’ Technical and Functional requirements; Provides a secure operating environment that is at least as secure as

we can provide here

User Recommendations, QA, and Security reports are due December 4/09.

Go/No Go decision due on ~December 11th (VPIET)Campus SmartSite will be retained as a fallback position

throughout the Winter Quarter.

Migration

Migration to rSmart System: December 18-21/09 SmartSite will be down for 1 to 3 days

The overall effects for our users starting Winter Quarter: Same application - No additional training needed Same User Support Version upgrade – Campus v2.5 to rSmart v2.6 There will be a couple of new tools available Course information and data now reside in a protected location in

AZ. Tested for no latency effects.

Communications

Academic Senate Provost Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors CCFIT / CCFIT Ed Tech SubCommittee (Merged with SSOC) Dean’s Technical Council Technology Infrastructure Forum ADMAN Campus IT Admin Services Coordinating Council SmartSite Community Campus Community

Gradebook2 Update

Gradebook2 was developed over the past year on a parallel but separate track to the vendor hosted solution.

Faculty: The Gradebook in SmartSite has to be comparable to the Gradebook in MyUCDavis CMS - especially for large classes.

Gradebook2 piloted SSI and SSII, and is now the default Gradebook in SmartSite for all courses.

Gradebook2 has been extremely well received by the Sakai Community: Piloted and moved to production at Virginia Tech Being piloted at Rutgers now Extremely well received at the Sakai Conference – most popular session.

MyUCDavis CMS

Recommendation from SmartSite OverSight Committee: Provide faculty one year notice to migrate from MyUCDavis CMS. End of SSII, MyUCDavis CMS data will be archived and available for

reference in the future. Communications to campus begins immediately. NOTE: CMS functionality ONLY - not the portal !