Virginia Tech's Transition to Sakai

John Moore, Senior Director Strategy and PlanningTeggin Summers, Assistant Director ePortfolio Intiatives

Will Humphries, Director Learning Application DevelopmentAmber D. Evans, Training and Documentation Coordinator

David McPherson, Scholar Product Manager

Introduction

John Moore Senior DirectorStrategy & Planning

Teggin Summers Assistant DirectorePortfolio Initiatives

Will Humphries DirectorLearning Application Development

Amber Evans Training & Documentation CoordinatorOnline Course Systems

David McPherson Scholar Product ManagerOnline Course Systems

We are Virginia Tech

• Comprehensive Research I Institution• Land grant• 60 bachelors degree programs• 140 masters and doctoral degree

programs• ~28,000 total FTE• ~1,700 full-time

teaching faculty

History of LMS at VT

• “Cyberschool” web-course initiative - 1995• WebCT - 1998• Courseinfo (Blackboard) - 1999• Current semester load: ~4000 course sections, ~1500

faculty & TAs, 27000+ students• WebCT phased out in 2002

• Open Source Portfolio - 2003• Forward-looking concept for Faculty study groups,

task forces, and administrators• Our introduction to open source arena

History of LMS at VT

• Significant outage of Blackboard in January 2005 showed need for alternative• High impact clearly showed the need to

have much more control over our software platforms and our services

• As Sakai Project begins, VT establishes internal goal to provide an integrated LMS/Portfolio/Collaboration system based on community source software

History of LMS at VT

• Sakai pilot (“Scholar”) begins Fall 2005• Early focus on Collaboration• Filled strategic tool gap without initially competing

with Blackboard• Built brand awareness and familiarity with product• Gained experience supporting platform

• Sought high profile projects to gain visibility and show range of application• SACS & NCAA reaccreditation, research, committees• Quickly adopted, mostly word of mouth

History of LMS at VT

• Scholar Fellows established• Course pilot sites begin in Spring 2006• Waiting for tool enhancements and overall stability

and performance before targeting a date• Sakai as platform for consolidated workspace

starts to gain mindshare• Training workshops begin• AY2009-2010 emerges as production goal• Staffing and infrastructure resources• ePortfolios included in University Strategic Plan

ePortfolio Growth

Current eP Numbers

• 471 participants in eP@VT• eP projects in every College on campus,

including a number of Academic Support Groups

• 23 new projects starting over this summer alone (almost as many as the entire year of 2008)

ePortfolio & Scholar

“My experience working on the ePortfolio initiative certainly got me thinking about how to transition to Scholar…earlier versus later. An advantage to this is that I have more familiarity (comfort level) with navigating Scholar tools as I now migrate my courses from Blackboard to Scholar.” ~ Susan Clark, Director, Didactic Program in Dietetics

Scholar Advisory Board

• The Board functions to provide:• Input to our process• Feedback and guidance• Credible spokespersons in their colleges

• Comprised of faculty and administrators from all colleges and includes staff, graduate and undergraduate students

Scholar Advisory Board

• The Board includes faculty who teach not only traditional face-to-face instructors but also blended classrooms and completely online classes

• We try to fold feedback into our development of the system on our campus

• They have helped us develop our communication plan

Communication Plan

• Campus-wide announcement about Scholar and Blackboard

• This announcement was signed by our Provost and CIO and was widely published

• It appeared in our Daily Email often and we feature it on our main portal page and Transition site page

Communication Plan

• We have plans to continue to publish updates about Scholar throughout the summer and next year

• The intention being to highlight the growth of the system, new features, user stories, and survey results

• The messages will include some targeted messages to groups of faculty• Faculty with tests in Blackboard

Blackboard --> Sakai Content Copy

• bFree to extract archives• Web interface, scripted backend• On demand + long-term archive storage• Demo!

Copy Statistics

• Completed migrations: 1031• Manually migrated content: 1• Users who have made a request: 314

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Courses Copied Over Time

Copying Tests and Quizzes

• This posed another thorny issue• The copy tool cannot copy those• We have a small team that handles

moving these manually

Test and Quiz Procedure

• We use Respondus to connect to Blackboard

• Then we download the test to Respondus• Finally we print the test to a Word file• If you investigate the settings on the

printing, you can get Sakai Quick Create to come out

Who has moved?

• Summer 1 Courses 45• BB had 383

• Summer 2 Courses 16• BB has 20

• Fall Courses 75• BB shells have not yet been created

Training Growth

Summer 2008 Fall 2008 Spring 2009 Summer 20090

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Number of Participants from 2008 to 2009

Awareness, Training, & Support• Two models used

• Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations (macro)

• Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM)• Stages of Concern (micro)

Awareness, Training, & Support• Summer / Fall 2008:

Innovators / Early adopters

• Awareness of Sakai• Benefits of the system• (Task) Management

• Spring 2009: Early adopters / majority

• Benefits of the system• Planning for use• (Task) Management

Type of Workshops Offered (Summer/Fall 2008)

Introductory / Overview48%

Task-based focus24%

Pedagogy-focus28%

Audience: Innovators & Early Adopters

Actual Workshops Offered (Summer/Fall 2008)

• Summer 2008• Introductory / Overview

• Scholar Everyday (Part 1) • Scholar Encore (Part 2)

• Fall 2008• Introductory / Overview

• Scholar for New Users (and How it Differs from Blackboard) • Task-based focus

• Scholar: Student Assessment (Tests & Quizzes, Gradebook, and Feedback) • Scholar: Planning Lessons and Using Assignments

• Pedagogy-focus• Scholar: Connecting Students with Content• Scholar: Reflective Learning Activities • ePortfolio for Learning • ePortfolio for Assessment / Accreditation • ePortfolio for Professional Development

Type of Workshops Offered (Spring 2009)

Introductory / Overview5%

Task-based focus52%

Pedagogy-focus43%

Audience: Early Adopters / Early Majority

Actual Workshops Offered (Spring 2009)

• Spring 2009• Introductory / Overview

• Scholar: Overview & Introduction • ePortfolio: Virginia Tech's ePortfolio System within Scholar

• Task-based focus• Scholar: Moving Materials from Blackboard to Scholar • Scholar: Collaboration Tools (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasting, and more!) • Scholar: Lessons & Assignments • Scholar: Tests, Quizzes, Feedback, & Gradebook • Track C - Using the Web for Instruction: Scholar and Other Tools (2 days)

• Pedagogy-focus• Track C - Using the Web for Instruction: Scholar and Other Tools (1 day) • Faculty Panel Discussion: Teaching with Scholar • One-on-One Help

Training Refocused (late Spring)

Laggards

Late Majority

Early Majority

Early Adopters

Innovators

UnawareAwarenessInformationTask ManagementConsequenceCollaborationRefocusing

Awareness, Training, & Support

• Summer/Fall 2009:• Early Adopters /

Majority• (Task) Management• Scholar Advisory

Board• Real-life Examples

• Late Majority• Awareness of Sakai• Benefits of the system• Planning for use

Type of Workshops Offered (Summer 2009)

Introductory / Overview29%

Task-based focus46%

Pedagogy-focus25%

Audience: Early Adopters / Early Majority / Late Majority

Actual Workshops Offered (Summer/Early Fall 2009)

• Introductory / Overview• Scholar Quick-Start Series: Overview• Scholar: Overview & Introduction (in all 3-day Tracks)• Scholar: Something for Everyone (An Overview) • ePortfolio: Virginia Tech's ePortfolio System within Scholar

• Task-based focus• Quick Start Series: Site Setup, Course Resources & Syllabus, Assignments, Tests & Quizzes, Gradebook • Scholar: Unpacking After the Move from Blackboard• Scholar: Creating Your Course and Content (Which Tools do I Use?) • Scholar: Collaboration and Communication (Which Tools do I Use?) • Track C - Using the Web for Instruction: Scholar and Other Tools (2 days)• Scholar Group/Departmental Training

• Pedagogy-focus• Track C - Using the Web for Instruction: Scholar and Other Tools (1 day) • Scholar: The Instructor's Tools for Teaching • Faculty Scholar Showcase: Among the Best• Scholar: ePortfolios and eFolio-Thinking • Scholar Group/Departmental Training• One-on-One Help

Post-Training Support• 4Help, KnowledgeBase, Documentation• Video-Recorded Workshops• Buddy Systems• Special Interest Groups / Dept. IT• Adobe Connect Pro / Elluminate• One-on-One Consultations

Future Plans

• We are looking at our workshop feedback to determine where training needs exist

• We are looking at our help desk questions to determine where training needs exist

• These two areas will help shape how we train our faculty to use the tools

Future Plans

• We are planning on continuing to go to departments that request directed training

• We are hoping that our Advisory Board will continue to give input as to focus areas for our development work

• We are optimistic about meeting our deadline of December 2010

Contact Information

John Moore jmoore1@vt.edu

Teggin Summers teggin@vt.edu

Will Humphries whumphri@vt.edu

Amber Evans adevans@vt.edu

David McPherson dmcphers@vt.edu