SakaiCal

SakaiCal

SakaiCal

SakaiCal

SakaiCal

SakaiCal

Forming a Regional Community: SakaiCAL West Coast Symposium

Melissa ZhuoCandice Cetrone

Susan Roig Jezmynne Westcott

Steve Miley

Overview:

1. What is SakaiCAL?

2. Needs analysis

3. Conceptualization

4. Preparation

5. Implementation

6. Feedbacks and outcomes

7. Reflections/Lessons learned

Who, What, When, Where What is SakaiCAL?

To bring together Sakai users and prospective users from the Western Region, from all types of institutions, for the purpose of networking in order to broaden participation in the Sakai community and to strengthen collaborative efforts within this community.

How did it start? “Small talks” in 6th Sakai Conference

(Atlanta) The conversation continued in 7th Conference

at Amsterdam

Organizers: Claremont McKenna College Scripps College Claremont Graduate University Libraries of the Claremont Colleges Univ. of California, Santa Barbara

When: July 9, 2007

Where: Claremont McKenna College

Who, What, When, Where

Needs analysis How did we evaluate the interest

in the community?

Email inquiries to known users Web searches to find Sakai users SakaiProject.org newsletter NITLE west coast Sakai users

What result? Overwhelming positive response to inquiry Referrals nearly doubled attendance Original estimate 40 participants; final

tally 101

Conceptualization

What format will fit the needs best?

How many people we might get? 30? 60? Cap it at 100?

Round-table discussions? Or

Conference?Presentations, posters, demos?

Finding a venue

Conceptualization

Tracks: Pedagogy/Instructional Design Admin/Development User Support/Training OSP/ePortfolio Future Needs

Funding: NITLE IIF Award, CMC, & Scripps

Marketing eMails Website created for information and

registration Sakai site

UCSB created a site to coordinate the SAKAICal communication

All attendees were added to the site Tools such as Polls and Jforum used Used as testing ground for 2.4

Preparation

Logistics We created packets containing a

program that outlined the tracks, schedule, goals and a SWOT analysis grid for the event, as well as essential supplies

Enlisted community users to facilitate the discussions

Created an evaluation form We arranged for laptops and iPods

for each table to capture text and audio

Maps, signs, and direction were used to route attendees to location.

Preparation

Implementation

1. How many turned out for the event?

2. What were the track summaries?

3. Who were the attendees?

4. What were people talking about?

5. What they wanted out of the event, and from the discussions?

6. What were the over-arching issues?

Feedback:

Survey "I really liked this type of format.

The interchange was really helpful. It's something that is missing from the big Sakai conferences except at the board sessions and sometimes that is not a helpful format.”

Feedback: “It was obvious that there were many people in

attendance who are evaluating Sakai. Or perhaps in the beginning stages of piloting it. I think a “bootcamp”; session for new Sakai users -- one NOT focused on development but on administration, getting started -- would be very useful. Sakai's big problem is that it has been dominated by developers so far. The lack of administrative modules and documentation are a big problem.”

“Sakai is too heavily focused on development and developers. There were many people at the symposium who are evaluating Sakai, or getting started piloting it. Many don't have extensive resources (e.g., Java support). The community needs to focus more in this area, and get away from the developer-centric focus. Bootcamp sessions for new administrators, faculty, etc., would be a good start.”

Feedback:

“I didn't feel that I learned anything that would help me with Sakai “management”; Being on the (b)leading edge with our recent 2.4 upgrade, I got verification of our local experiences and an opportunity to hear about other viewpoints and experiences. Overall, the opportunity to communicate and the efforts to put this conference together are appreciated.

"the pedagogy sessions were okay, but with people who have very little experience it was difficult to make significant progress"

Outcomes Collaboration

Shared understanding of issues relating to the conference tracks as well as future needs

NITLE arranged for an OSP demonstration from connections made at the SakaiCal conference

Interest in future regional collaboration was express

Pedagogy became a strong trend in moving forward regarding the use of Sakai in the community

Stanford libraries and Claremont libraries worked in November, sharing ideas regarding integrating library resources into Sakai

“Timeline” development project by Whitman College, Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College

Outcomes

Education In the months following the

conference, there was a noticeable increase in requests for Sakai training for faculty, as well as faculty arranging for individual appointments and discussion about using Sakai

Inspired by the conference, one physics faculty member began to explore tools beyond the prearranged Claremont defaults

Lessons learned

What we did right Success: met our goals Well-organized, ran smoothly Good location, easy to travel to Opened our ears more to users

What need to be done differently in future? Structure format around participants’

needs Workshop for newbies Structure more like conference

Questions

Thank You for Coming