New
Course Management
and Collaboration Tools
for UC Davis Faculty
Kirk Alexander
Initial Pilot Users Meeting
January 20, 2006
MyUCDavis / 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 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 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 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 View
My Wor kspace
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 mod ifying their
setup
Schedule
for posting and viewing deadlines, events, etc
Anno uncements for posting current, time-critical information
Lesson Buil der
for posting web pages and sequential content
Resourc es
for posting and sharing documents
Quiz & Test
for online assessments and surveys
Disc ussion
for structured conversations in written form
Chat
for real-time conversation in written form
News
for viewing content from on line sources
Assignments
for posting, submitting, and grading online
DropBox
for private file-sharing between instructors and students
Email Archive
for viewing ema il 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 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 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