Sakai Update

Suzanne ThorinDean of University Libraries, Indiana University

James L. HiltonAssociate Provost, University of Michigan

Around the middle of 2003…

Indiana, Stanford, MIT and U Michigan had all developed learning management systems, which were approaching EOL, and were talking internally about NG systems

The Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) at MIT was developing APIs for learning management systems - involving many universities (UMichigan, IndianaU, Stanford, and MIT were all strong participants)

Java Community Process (JCP) produced JSR-168 - The “unified” portal standard API

Oasis developed the Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP) standard

The open-source uPortal portal project had quietly moved into the #1 open source portal (#4 including commercial vendors) position

Why we went down the Sakai path

Legacy system with no positive trajectory forward Saw market consolidation in CMS Saw the potential of tapping core competence and starting

a virtuous cycle of development/teaching/research Strategic desire to blur the distinction between the

laboratory/classroom between knowledge creation/digestion

NRC report and the need for collaboration A moment in time opportunity (Mellon and synchronization) Leverage links between open source, open access and

culture of the academy/wider world

The Sakai Project

The University of Michigan, MIT, Stanford, Indiana University, and now over 45 other universities have joined in an international effort to develop the next generation of software infrastructure and tools to support research and teaching.

Complete Course Management System Research Support Collaboration System, Enterprise Services-based Portal,

What is SAKAI?

Sakai ≠ Course Management System Sakai = Collaboration & Learning Environment

Use for teaching/learning/research and many other online group activities.

Portal

Staff 1 Student

DiscussionForum

Middle East News Feed

DiscussionForum

ResourceManagement

Collaborative Project Portlet

ASUC Middle East Discussion Portlet

Staff 2 Staff 3 Student Student

Supporting the ClassSupporting the Class

Supporting the LabSupporting the Lab

Bringing the lab to the classroom

Bringing the lab to the classroom

Sakai Project Core Universities Each of the 4 Core Universities Commits

5+ developers/architects, etc. under Sakai Board project direction for 2 years

Public commitment to implement Sakai Open/Open licensing – “Community Source”

So, overall project levels $4.4M in institutional staff (27 FTE) $2.4M Mellon, $300K Hewlett Additional investment through partners

Sakai Project Timeline

Michigan•CHEF Framework•CourseTools•WorkTools

Indiana•Navigo Assessment•Eden Workflow•OneStart•Oncourse

MIT•Stellar

Stanford•CourseWork•Assessment

OKI•OSIDs

uPortal

Sakai 2.0 Release•TPP•Framework•Services-based Portal

Sakai Tools•Complete CMS•Assessment•Workflow•Research Tools•Authoring Tools

Primary Sakai ActivityRefining Sakai Framework,

Tuning and conforming additional toolsIntensive community building/training

Activity: Ongoing implementation work at local institution…

Jan 04 July 04 May 05 Dec 05

Activity: Maintenance &

Transition from aproject to

a communitySakai 1.0 Release•Tool Portability Profile•Framework•Services-based Portal•Refined OSIDs & implementations

Sakai Tools•Complete CMS•Assessment

Primary Sakai ActivityArchitecting for JSR-168 Portlets and

Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP) standard Re-factoring “best of” features for tools

Conforming tools to Technology Portability Profile

170 attend Partner’s Conf

Sakai Project DeliverablesWorking Code – CMS/CLE- Collaboration and Learning Environment

– Sakai 1.0• Course management system – core tools plus

• Quizzing and assessment tools, [ePortfolio from OSPI], etc

• Research collaboration system• Portal (uPortal 2.3, 3.x)

Modular tools - also pre-integrated to work out of the boxTool Portability Profile

• Specifications for writing portable software to achieve application ‘code mobility’ among institutions – modular tools and services

Synchronized development, adoptions at Michigan, Indiana, MIT, Stanford – Sakai 1.0 is the next generation for CourseWork, CHEF, Oncourse, Stellar

In production useWith >22,000 users at U Michigan

Limited Pilot at IU now…FullPilot in January

Integration of Contentand Services:Still More than One Click Away

Suzanne E. ThorinUniversity Dean of Libraries and Associate Vice President for Digital Library DevelopmentIndiana UniversityDecember 7, 2004

2003 Campus Computing Project

94% of colleges and universities were using one or more commercial courseware systems

40% of the courses being taught were using courseware tools

Current developments: Open access online learning environment E-portfolios Portals Content management systems Student information systems

Academic Technology Environment

“Why IT Has Not Paid Off As We Had Hoped (Yet)”

Authors: Edward L. Ayers Charles M. Grisham

http://www.itc.virginia.edu/virginia.edu/spring04/hope.htm

Academic Technology Environment

“American higher education has created a doughnut IT infrastructure: all periphery and no center.” (Ayers/Grisham)

Sakai Partners andSEPP Members

Sakai Project Founders Indiana University JA-SIG MIT OKI Stanford University University of Michigan

ARL SEPP Members: Arizona State University Brown University Columbia University Cornell University Dartmouth Georgetown University Harvard University Johns Hopkins University New York University Northwestern University

Ohio State University Princeton University State University of New York University of Arizona University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Santa

Barbara University of Colorado at Boulder University of Delaware University of Hawaii University of Illinois, Urbana-

Champaign University of Oklahoma University of Texas, Austin University of Virginia University of Washington University of Wisconsin, Madison Yale University

Partners and Cultures

Why should we do this and why do it together?

Digital Journals and Books

University of Michigan

Humanities Text Initiative

Digital Text

University of Virginia

Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive

University of Iowa and University of Nebraska

Walt Whitman Archive

Digital Images

Duke University

Papyrus Archive

Indiana University

Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection

Sheet Music

Indiana University

Sheet Music Collection

Music Scores

Indiana University

Cook Music Library

Geographical & Numerical Data

Modified crime index (crime index and arson)Absolute number

Areaname 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995

Alameda, CA 96,108 108,283 109,500 109,680 105,005 62,487

Alpine, CA 149 81 132 176 211 154

Amador, CA 721 776 776 852 840 831

Butte, CA 8,852 9,150 10,184 9,618 10,522 9,974

Calaveras, CA 1,092 1,089 1,238 1,153 1,210 1,663

Colusa, CA 572 701 657 657 678 628

Contra Costa, CA 48,614 51,772 50,932 50,575 50,535 46,549

Del Norte, CA 1,043 963 986 1,090 1,267 1,521

El Dorado, CA 4,945 5,180 5,205 5,222 5,481 5,256

Fresno, CA 55,409 62,592 64,220 61,286 66,457 66,671

Glenn, CA 851 866 969 1,079 1,231 1,272

Humboldt, CA 5,958 5,800 6,514 7,814 9,290 9,253

Imperial, CA 8,374 8,160 8,877 8,681 8,445 8,167

Inyo, CA 731 706 593 570 736 770

Kern, CA 35,736 37,235 38,124 39,622 39,616 35,964

Environment Complexities

“Digital Library Content and Course Management Systems:Issues of Interoperation,”

Report of a study group

Co-Chairs: Dale Flecker, Associate Director for Planning

& Systems, Harvard University Library Neil McLean, Director, IMS Australia

http://www.diglib.org/pubs/cmsdl0407/

Current Efforts

IMS Learning Global Consortium

http://www.imsglobal.org/

http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/index.htm

Creating Content “At various points, they write, leading professional,

corporate, and philanthropic organizations have stepped up to the partner with teachers and students. . . But there is still a disappointing lack of support for digital materials for teaching and scholarship. In general, reference materials, textbook ancillary. . . Teaching modules are being produced in a sort of desktop-publishing model. . . Individual faculty, but no group is working with faculty and academic leaders to create content that faculty will respect as real aids in teaching and scholarship. . . The massive investment in networks and computers will not pay off until we fill in the hole, until we work together to create content.” (Ayers/Grisham)

--Dale Flecker and Neil McLean, “Digital Library Content and Course Management Systems: Issues of Interoperation”

Bibliography Ayers, Edward L. and Charles M. Grisham. “Why IT Has Not

Paid Off As We Had Hoped (Yet),” virginia.edu, (Spring 2004), http://www.itc.virginia.edu/virgnia.edu/spring04/hope.htm.

Bell, Stephen J. and John D. Shank. “Linking the Library to Courseware: A Strategic Alliance to Improve Learning Outcomes,” Library Issues, 25:2 (November 2004): 1-4.

Duncan, Jim. “Convergence of Libraries, Digital Repositories, and Web Content Management,” Educause Review, 39:6 (November/December 2004), http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/DEC0401.pdf.

Flecker, Dale and Neil McLean. “Digital Library Content and Course Management Systems: Issues of Interoperation” Report of a Study Group. Digital Library Federation (July 2004), http://www.diglib.org/pubs/cmsdl0407/.

McLean, Neil and Clifford Lynch. “Interoperability between Information and Learning Environments—Bridging the Gaps.” A Joint White Paper on behalf of the IMS Global Learning Consortium and the Coalition for Networked Information, (June 2003), http://www.imsglobal.org/DLims_white_paper_publicdraft_1.pdf.

Persons, Jerry C. Unpublished Digital Library Federation Aquifer report.

Demo Sites

Sakai - Collab.sakaiproject.org – running Sakai 1.0 system; open

Sakaiproject.org – open info site; gateway to DGs and public forums

Ctools – can get login if you want to evaluate and see production system; very similar to collab.sakaiproject.org