8th Sakai Conference 4-7 December 2007Newport Beach

Implementing Sakai Implementing Sakai A Panel DiscussionA Panel Discussion

Magnus Tagesson, Michael Osterman, Josh Baron, Lance Speelmon,

Maggie Lynch

8th Sakai Conference 4-7 December 2007Newport Beach

Josh BaronJosh BaronDirector, Academic Technology and eLearningDirector, Academic Technology and eLearning

MARIST COLLEGEMARIST COLLEGE

iLearn Project Role[iLearn = Innovative Learning Environment and Research Network]

Institutional lead & faculty and student support

MARIST COLLEGEMARIST COLLEGE• We are NOT a large research university!

• Founded 1929 – comprehensive liberal arts college

• Located in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

• Approximately 5700 students (FTE)

• 200 full-time faculty, 500 part-time

• Strategic focus on distance learning

Implementation TimelineImplementation Timeline

• Phase I: Testing the waters (June 2005)– Sakai 2.1 with 25 students, 2 instructors

• Phase II: Expanded Production (Fall 2006)– Sakai 2.2.2 with 100 students, 10 instructors

• Phase III: Transition Start (Fall 2007)– Sakai 2.4.1 rSmart CLE w/ 350+ students– Transition to Messages, Forums and Lessons– Focused on faculty and student adoption

iLearn (Sakai) EnvironmentiLearn (Sakai) Environment

• Blade 64 bit servers (app, web, & database)– Important for future scaling and performance

• Running Linux, Apache, Tomcat, mySQL

• Considering move to DB2/WAS

• Working on integration, critical for scaling– Implemented CAS for authentication– Working on SIS integration (moving to Banner)

• Developing course migration process

Implementation ResourcesImplementation Resources

• Equivalent to resources needed for older system– 2 FTE’s – will expand temporarily during transition

• 85% of a IT technical support/Java Developer• 15% of an IT Project Manager• 100% of Me (but I put in 400% effort ) = 25%• 75% Support Specialist/Instructional Designer• High-level administrative support• Partnership with rSmart helping to free local

resources for innovation

Local Lesson Learned To ShareLocal Lesson Learned To Share

• “Production Pilots” provide a lower stakes real world deployment – good balance

• Select a range of users and subjects– They teach differently, have different needs

• Finalize tool selection before transition

• Develop faculty/student communications plan– “built for educator, by educators” message– Gap analysis at fine grain level is key– Engage with student government and RAs

8th Sakai Conference

4-7 December 2007Newport Beach

Lance SpeelmonLance SpeelmonManager Online DevelopmentManager Online Development

Indiana UniversityIndiana University

Oncourse CL

Indiana UniversityIndiana University

• Eight campuses statewide• Research, Commuter

• Central delivery of common IT services

• 97,959 Students

• 7,032 Faculty

• 11,537 Staff

IU Intelligent InfrastructureIU Intelligent Infrastructure

• Hardware Virtualization

• VMware ESX - Redhat, Apache, Tomcat

• IBM LPAR - AIX, Oracle

• Hitachi TagmaStore SAN

• BlueArc NAS

IU Virtual CloudsIU Virtual Clouds

IU Oncourse CLIU Oncourse CLCurrent ConfigurationCurrent Configuration

• 8 x Application V.Servers (32 CPU, 96GB RAM total, 10GB heaps)

• 1 x Database V.Server (13 CPU, 32GB RAM total)

• 35,000 web requests per minute peak (so far)

Oracle DatabaseOracle Database

IU Adoption RateIU Adoption Rate

IU Tool UsageIU Tool Usage

14

Implementation ResourcesImplementation Resources

• 12 FTE Developers• 2 FTE UX Designers• 1 FTE QA Coordinator• 2 FTE Tier2 Support, Large Tier1 team• Implementation Cost - FY05-06

– Yearly activity based costing– $1.2M total – $10.40/user

Unique AspectsUnique Aspects

• Oncourse Priorities Committee

• Course Load - all participants all sites

• Combine Sections / Sites

• Final Grades Reporting / SIS Integration

• Centralized IT Organization

• Scalability / performance

• Customer expectations

8th Sakai Conference 4-7 December 2007Newport Beach

Mondo – Stockholm University Mondo – Stockholm University Implementation of Sakai Implementation of Sakai

Magnus Tagesson

IT Educational Developer

Introductions and BackgroundIntroductions and Background

• Stockholm University– Stockholm, capitol of Sweden– Teaching/Research (Humanities, Law, Social

Science, Natural Science)

– ~1500 courses, ~130 programs

– ~39000 under graduate students,

– ~4600 faculty/staff

Implementation TimelineImplementation Timeline• Pilot with Sakai 1.5 Autumn 2005• As of May 2nd 2007, in production with Sakai 2.3.1

• Future goals/objectives:– Upgrade to 2.5 in the spring– Enterprise integration

• Local course management integration• Plagiarism detection system• Calendar

– Course Evaluation

MondoMondo

Tech EnvironmentTech Environment

• Linux, Apache mod_proxy balancer, – 2 servers, 4 tomcats

• MySQL

• AFS for file storage

• Shibboleth for authentication– Externalized authentication for WebDAV

Implementation ResourcesImplementation Resources

Currently:

• 0.2 FTE on technical side

• 2.0 FTE on support and training

• Centrally funded

… … after 6 months…after 6 months…

• >500 sites• ~ 270 course sites

• Distance and campus based courses

• Response has been great

+

… … after 6 months…after 6 months…

• Some limitations– Group awareness in Message Center– Navigation between tools

• Course management system– Limitation in sections and groups–

-

Requirements…Requirements…

• Creation of a requirements and priorities group– Participants from the Division of IT and University

Teaching and Learning Centre

– Decide of upgrades and prioritize requirements, follow the international Sakai project.

– Discussion how to best collaborate with the Sakai international requirements group

Lessons Learned to Share…Lessons Learned to Share…

• Collaborate with the University Teaching and Learning Centre

• Try to meet user requirements– Give feedback on opinions and requirements– Honest, open approach on limitations

• Internationalization? – Terminology consistency

• Keep local hacks to a minimum– Work with the framework rather than against it!

8th Sakai Conference 4-7 December 2007Newport Beach

Michael OstermanMichael Osterman Middleware Analyst, Emerging Technology

Introductions and BackgroundIntroductions and Background

• Institution Information– Whitman College– Walla Walla, Washington, US

Population 35,000– Undergraduate liberal arts

and sciences– 1454 students,

~120 full-time faculty

Implementation TimelineImplementation Timeline

• Began pilot project Fall 2005 on Sakai 2.0• Fully migrated from Blackboard Basic in Fall 2006• Currently running Sakai 2.4.x

– 3/4 full-time faculty using Sakai– 90% student body with one or more course– Continue to add more faculty each term

• Future priorities determined by advisory committee– Spring 2008

• Resources Viewer• Blog Wow! Fixes• Various bug fixes

Tech EnvironmentTech Environment

• 1 x production server, 1 x hot standby• Apache Tomcat standalone, MySQL server• Future plans

– Load balanced multi-instance app servers– Connect to MySQL database cluster– SSL performance enhancements

• Integration:– central authentication web service– LDAP for demographic data– Load SIS enrollment data via web services

Implementation ResourcesImplementation Resources

• Technical Staffing– Pilot - 0.5 FTE – Conversion - 0.75 FTE– Production - 0.25 FTE

• Support Staff– 0.25 FTE between terms

• Material costs & expenses– Foundation membership $5,000/yr– Server hardware & licensing ~ $20,000/4 yr– Travel - variable

Local Lesson Learned To ShareLocal Lesson Learned To Share

• Build executive awareness & buy-in• Be extremely thorough• Transparency in processes• Acknowledge Faculty volunteers• Let users market whenever possible• Participate in the Sakai community• Manage scope and expectations• Customize carefully

Oregon Health & Science UniversityOregon Health & Science UniversityMaggie McVay lynchMaggie McVay lynch

Introduction & BackgroundIntroduction & Background

Institutional Profile• 5 Hospitals• 30+ Clinics statewide• 5 colleges

– Medicine– Nursing– Dentistry– Science & Engineering– Interdisciplinary (Pharm,

Paramedic, Ethics)• 16,000 employees

Academic Profile• 2/3rds FTfaculty are researchers

and/or clinicians• 1,800 Students• ~500 Faculty (100 adjuncts)• ~600 Preceptors• 5 campus sites – 4 rural, 1 urban• Nursing partnership with all

community colleges in state with common undergraduate curriculum

• Medical partnership with rural clinics

Implementation TimelineImplementation Timeline• Previous LMS, eCollege in Nursing since 1998, Blackboard in Medicine since

2003.• Sakai pilot in Nursing Winter-Spring 2007• Sakai pilot in Medicine and Engineering, Spring 2007• Production Sakai school wide Fall 2007

– 120 Courses in Nursing– 11 Courses in Medicine– 22 Courses in Dentistry– 9 courses in Science & Engineering– 3 courses in Interdisciplinary

• Legacy systems unavailable to Nursing as of Fall 2007, unavailable to Medicine as of Fall 2008.

• HIVE integration November 2007, production Fall 2008• Adobe Connect in use Fall 2007, integration Fall 2008?

Technical EnvironmentTechnical Environment

• Sakai rSmart CLE, hosted• HarvestRoad Hive, integrated, hosted• Adobe Connect, linked through Web Content,

hosted • Local Streaming Server for video/audio• Load student, faculty, and site data from Banner• Future – single sign on, portal integration (5 years

out)

Implementation ResourcesImplementation Resources• Central Faculty & Student Support (2 people)

– Sakai– Adobe Connect– Hive

• School of Nursing Faculty Support– 3 Instructional Designers– 1 Multimedia / Programmer– Director / Project Management

• School of Medicine– 2 somewhat technical support personnel– Plans to add instructional designer

• Other Schools identify/support needs as desired• Central tutorials linked to all My Workspace areas

Local Lessons LearnedLocal Lessons Learned

Successes• Pays to gain consensus on

vision and commitment on move early

• Having a drop-dead date for legacy systems is critical

• Preparing lots of video tutorials in advance of production release with students.

• Sakai 123 course requirement for students in primarily online curriculums

• Communicate 10 times more than you think you need to do

• Faculty showcase quarterly• Assist junior faculty in

assessment and preparing journal articles

• Interact regularly with faculty senate on challenges& solutions

Avoid These• Implementation of three new

technologies at once• Upgrading to new system one

week before term begins even if testing seems to be fine

Common Lessons LearnedCommon Lessons Learned

• Importance of contributing to the community– Contribution can take many forms

• Managing “change” (driven by innovation)

• Communication with users– Importance of transparency

• High quality support is critical

• Conversion from “old system”– Importance of local branding