New Course Management

and Collaboration Tools for UC Davis Faculty

New Course Management

and Collaboration Tools for UC Davis Faculty

Kirk AlexanderInitial Pilot Users Meeting

January 20, 2006

MyUCDavis / SakaiMyUCDavis / Sakai

• Jan. 2004: Sakai Project Launched• Feb. 2004: Sakai Educational Partners Program Launched• Dec. 2004: Sakai chosen for new CMS/LMS in Vet

Med/SOM • June 2005: CCFIT recommended adoption of Sakai as

platform for new UC Davis course management system• Summer 2005: Vice Provost-IET formed Oversight

Committee; initiated campus migration to Sakai platform to complement Veterinary Medicine and School of Medicine

• Winter 2006: Pilot Using v. 2.1; CCFIT appointing task group to help guide implementation

• Spring/Summer 2006: Major new release and further pilots• Fall 2006: Full pilot for any course with full rosters, sections

etc.

New CMS GoalsNew CMS Goals

• IET/TRC Collaboration• Better Faculty Support on CMS• Increased Functionality, Upgrades• Easier to Use System• Maintainable, extendable

CMS Resources

• Major UCDavis Initiative• > $1m/yr in resources (staff, servers…)• Strong partnership: IET/TRC & Other Schools• Coordinated effort throughout IET

– Programmers– Data center– Helpdesk – Project management– Communications

An Unusual Pilot

• Testing the system, software, tools, etc. (of course, but…)

• Building a user community• Thinking out of the box and applying the new

tools in new ways!• Helping refine communication approach with

faculty– Your experiences: advantages, disadvantages– How we should approach your peers

• Having access to various support resources

Faculty SupportFaculty Support

• Training Opportunity in coming weeks (2 Fridays)• ITExpress (will support Sakai)• ETPartners

– Pilot Project Support– New Departmental Partnerships and Office Visit support

• Nancy Olsen will work with Mediaworks and TRC• Pilot Users will get more personal assistance• Summer Institute on Technology in Teaching (SITT)• Each other (Faculty Mentoring Faculty)

Winter Sakai Pilot GoalsWinter Sakai Pilot Goals

• Test individual tools with TA’s, students, ETPartners or on your own (e.g. Quiz Tool, Gradebook, Assignments, Melete, Message Center, Wiki, Schedule, Web links)

• Share experiences• Identify missing capabilities, advantages,

disadvantages of Sakai (especially with respect to MyUCDavis)

• Launch the Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program• Prepare for campus implementation, refine plans

Our Expectations of You

• Explore a teaching or practical need that Sakai might address

• Concentrate on testing on a single tool if you have relevant experience or need (e.g. writing class)

• Regular Feedback– Meetings (group and with ET partner)– Wiki, Bug reporting tool (Jira)?– Dialog with Communications Office (Babette

Schmitt)

Logistics

• Everyone has an account, We will deliver an instruction sheet

• We need information on additional users who need access

• Tell us about your teaching needs and any initial thoughts about which tools you want to explore to crack a new nut! (This will help us match a student to your needs.)

• Need to decide on meeting & training times

Status of National Sakai Initiative

• Two years in the making: v 2.1.1• Some tools are new this month

– rWiki– Message Center

• Not all tools fully integrated with– Schedule (Calendar)– Gradebook (assignments, Discussion)– Sections

• System is stable but still evolving• A new mystery for us all to unravel together

Things to Consider

• Many ways to accomplish similar tasks: We are all learning together here. e.g. Docs:– Resources Area– Drop Box (generally student to instructor)– Attachments

• In assignments• In Schedule• In Message Center • Syllabus• In a Quiz• …others

Many Ways to Communicate

• Announcements• Syllabus• Assignments• Schedule• Message Center messages/attachments• Email to course (you set up e.g.

hwy@sakai2.ucdavis.edu• Wiki (very free form, no threads)• chat

Features Over ViewFeatures Over ViewMy Workspace for a personalized view of information from your Sakai sites and your

Sakai preferences

Worksite Setup for viewing a list of all your Sakai sites, and creating or modifying theirsetup

Schedule for posting and viewing deadlines, events, etc

Announcements for posting current, time-critical information

Lesson Builder for posting web pages and sequential content

Resources for posting and sharing documents

Quiz & Test for online assessments and surveys

Discussion for structured conversations in written form

Chat for real-time conversation in written form

News for viewing content from online sources

Assignments for posting, submitting, and grading online

DropBox for private file-sharing between instructors and students

Email Archive for viewing email sent to the site's group email address

Web Content for accessing an external website within the site

SCORM Mediaworks SCORM Player for advanced Assessments

Contributed ToolsContributed Tools• Roster Tool -

This is like a super version of the Profile tool - it is intended for Student use (access role) and not just instructor use. It has FERPA support and is well integrated with the profile tool.

• RWiki - This is a well integrated Wiki that looks exactly like a Sakai tool and based on the Radeox engine. A number of sites have started using RWiki.

• Twin Peaks - Library Integration for adding content, assignment links• Digital Repositories• "Set User" Tool -

This is the very simple admin tool to assume a user's identity. • SakaiScript -

This is Steven Githens web services..• FCK Open Source Rich Text Editor• Jforum Open Source Discussion Board• Message Center (Indiana Discussion Board with Message Grading)• LAMS Learning Activity Management System

Recent StepsRecent Steps

• IET Middleware Team working on connections to Banner and other course data

• 2 new programming positions posted (Technical Architect and Tools Programmer)

• Analyst position posted to help with coordination, analysis and communications

• SCORM player being developed in Mediaworks• Close collaboration with SOM, Vet Med• Trainer hired, started 01/09/06• Hired a consultant to guide change management