Sakai at Rice: 3 Years and Counting

Angela RabuckRice University

Rice Info

• Student body size• Undergrad – 3,000• Grad – 2,150• Faculty – 610• Staff – 1,950

• Median Class size – 15

History

• WebCT Campus Edition 4.1.3.8 previously used• Very low adoption: <10% faculty• Max - 75 courses/semester using it• Reasons for switch:• Licensing concerns• WebCT/Blackboard uncertainty• Modifiable code• Project sites• Ability to interact with other instructional tools• Low Adoption

Version Changes

July ‘05

• 2.0• Pilot

Dec ‘05

• 2.1

June ‘06

• 2.1.1

Aug ‘06

• 2.1.2• Prod

Dec ‘06

• 2.2.x

Aug ‘07

• 2.4.x

Aug ‘08

• 2.5.x

Aug ‘09

• 2.6.x

Usage Changes

Fall ‘05

6 Courses

Spr ‘06

16 Courses30 Projects75 WebCT

Courses

Fall ‘06

350 Courses100 Projects3 WebCT

Courses

Spr ‘07

375 Courses5 WebCT

Courses

Fall ‘07

450 CoursesWebCT

Removed

Spr ‘08

475 Courses

Fall ‘08

575 Courses

Spr ‘09

620 Courses~1,000

Projects

Hardware Changes

July ‘05

1 VM ServerOracle File

Store

Dec ‘05 June ‘06 Aug ‘06

2 VM Servers3.5 GB, 32 bitCampus File

Store

Dec ‘06

3 VM Servers3.5 GB, 32 bitCampus File

Store

Aug ‘07 Aug ‘08

3 Servers8 GB, 64 bitDedicated

Storage

Aug ‘09

Changes to Install Process• Maintenance Window• Every Wednesday 5am – 7am

• Dec ‘06 Started Installing Maintenance Branch• Install Patches During Weekly Maintenance Window • Faster inclusion of New Features• Fast Fixes• Goodwill from Profs for solving their issues

• Upgrades performed 1/year during summer• Winter break too short now for full upgrade

• Small patches, oracle patches • More Fixes already in place with .x version• Easier to add individual patches since closer to latest version

Our Setup• All Rice members receive Sakai userid and password• Guest accounts

• Created by Admin• On-line guest account process soon available

• Project sites• Faculty and grad students

• By request• Not self serve

• Undergrads • Can request with faculty sponsor• Ex: club site, study group, etc

• 2 levels of Teaching Assistant• Librarian Role • Member roles

Staff• Support staff

• Small numbers, big impact, customer service is key• Always available• Short wait times

• 1 Full Time Instructional Technologist• Support• Troubleshooting• Training• Manage Installs/Patching etc• Supervise Customization Programming

• Part Time Staff• Developer• Oracle Admin• System Admin• Web Developer• IT Help Desk

Campus Perception Changes

• Now• Student clubs• Librarian Roles

in Courses• Project sites

across campus

Fall2006

Advisory Board

• Advisory board• 7 members

• Cross campus participation• Language Resource

Center• Continuing Studies• Business School• Sociology• Physics• Engineering• Earth Sciences

Customizations

• Customizations• Part time developer• MWF scheduling• Classroom info tool

• Hired edia for tool that was asked for • Not enough resources to do it in-house

Lessons Learned• Always use more communication

• Can never hit everyone• Professors ask for help when they need it, not when you

have training sessions• Professors would rather call someone than look at online

help• 1-on-1 sessions are invaluable for building “campus

champions”• Usage scenarios more varied than ever could have

envisioned• Limit Dependencies

• Ex: Storage System Failure first 2 days of production

Course Site Usage

• WebCT • 75/1700 = 4% courses

• Fall 2006 Published Courses • 350/1950 = 18% courses

• Spring 2009• 620/2000 = 31% courses

Growth

December 2006 Current

Number Guest Accounts ~ 400 > 4,800

Max no. of unique logins in a day < 1,900 > 3,100

Average no. of unique logins in a day

~ 1,000 ~ 2,000

Max no. of total sessions in a day < 3,900 > 8,000

Average no. of total sessions in a day ~ 1,900 ~ 5,000

File Storage Growth by Semester

• F05 – .75 GB• SP06 – 3 GB• F06 – 44 GB • SP07 – 36 GB• F07 – 81 GB• SP08 – 74 GB• F08 – 92 GB• SP09 – 102 GB

• Oracle Database• 30 GB

Web Trend Stats

December 2006 Current

Avg page views/day

30,458 103,504

Most active day of week Wednesday Monday

Least active day of week Saturday Saturday

Most active hour of day 3:00pm - 4:00pm 11:00pm-Midnight

Least active hour of day

5:00am - 6:00am 6:00am - 7:00am

Login Stats

How often do you visit?

Students Faculty

Daily (once or more)

Few times a week

Once a week

Few times a month

Few times a semester

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

F08Sp08F07Sp07

Daily (once or more)

Few times a week

Once a week

Few times a month

Few times a semester

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

F08Sp08F07Sp07F06

Expertise Perception

Novice Intermediate Advanced0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

F08Sp08F07Sp07F06

Students Faculty

AdvancedIntermediateNovice

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

F08Sp08F07Sp07F06

Student Perception of Use in Class

Extensive Moderate Limited0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

F08Sp08F07Sp07F06

Recommend to Colleague?

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

N / A0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

F08Sp08F07Sp07F06

Learning to Use OWL-Space

Neutral Easy Somewhat Easy Somewhat Difficult Difficult0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

F08Sp08F07Sp07

Students

Asking for Help

Ask my I

T support

repres

entati

ve

Contact O

WL-S

pace su

pport

Ask a c

olleag

ue

Contact H

elp Desk

Keep tr

ying o

n my o

wn

Consult t

he onlin

e help

documen

tation

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

F08Sp08F07Sp07F06

Students Faculty

Didn't use

support

Ask (cl

assmate

, frien

d or facu

lty)

Consult o

nline h

elp

Keep tr

ying o

n my o

wn

Contact H

elp Desk

Ask Stu

dent C

onsulta

nt0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

F08Sp08F07Sp07F06

Spring 2009

Impro

ving I

nstructo

rs' Te

aching

Accessi

ng Mate

rials

Impro

ving I

nstructo

r-to-St

udent C

ommunication

Savin

g Tim

e

Manag

ing Course

Activiti

es

Impro

ving S

tudents'

Learn

ing

Impro

ving S

tudent-t

o-Instr

uctor C

ommunication

Impro

ving S

tudent-t

o-Studen

t Communica

tion

No Benefi

ts

I do not u

se inform

ation te

chnologie

s in m

y course

(s)Other-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

FacultyStudent

Most Important benefit of using Information Technology in courses

Spring 2009

• How many different course sites have you used OWL-Space for (ex F08 and Sp09 different courses)?

None 1-2 3-6 7-10 More than 10

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

FacultyStudents

Spring 2009

• Value of Tools in course-related activities

Announcemen

ts

Assign

ments

Blogger

Chat Room

Drop Box

Email

Archive

Foru

ms

Gradeb

ook

Mailtool

Messag

es

Modules

My Works

paceNews

Podcasts

Polls

Post 'Em

Presen

tations

Resource

s

Roster

Sched

ule

Sylla

bus

Tests

& Q

uizzes

Web

ContentW

iki0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

4.00

4.50

5.00

FacultyStudent

Spring 2009

• Value of Technologies in course-related activities

Blogging T

ools

Collab Doc S

haring

File S

torage

Group Cale

ndar

Handheld

Device

s

Instant M

essag

ing

OWL-S

pace

websit

e

Online q

uiz

Online m

edia

Online s

urveys

RSS new

s fee

ds

SMS T

ext M

essag

ing

Socia

l Netw

orking s

ites

Clickers

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

4.00

4.50

5.00

FacultyStudents

Spring 2009• How has using OWL-Space affected in-class time? (Open-ended response)

No Change

More effi

cient u

se of ti

me

Access

to mate

rials

More focu

sed

Impro

ved co

mmunication

Enco

urage s

tudents

not to co

me to cla

ss

More time s

pent o

n how to use

OWL-S

pace

Made t

hings ea

sier

Profs

put in le

ss eff

ort0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

StudentFaculty

Spring 2009

• Most Important Improvement (Open-ended response)

User In

teracti

on

No Change

Gradeb

ook

Spee

d/Reli

abilit

y

Assign

ments

Instructo

r's use/

consis

tency

New Fe

ature

Resource

s

Documen

tation

Roster L

ist

Tests

& Q

uizzes

Anonymous F

orums

Studen

t View

Surve

y

Statisti

csW

iki

Calendar

Facu

lty Tr

aining

More Open

Collaborati

ve docs

Tabs (

placem

ent a

nd names)

Instant c

hat

Messag

e Board

Annc/Communica

tion

Chatroom

Sylla

bus

Google Fe

atures

DropBox

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

StudentFaculty

Most Requested Improvements

• User Interface/Interaction• Professor Consistency of Use• Site Tabs• Gradebook• Tests & Quizzes• Resources• Assignments

Spring 2009 Faculty Comments• A great improvement in making documents and materials available to a group of

students. Saves a lot of trees because it has reduced my use of paper communication.• I have not used it. I don't like the proprietary aspect of it. If prospective students want

to see what our classes are like they should be able to access the web site. I keep my own websites for each class. I think most Rice classes are small enough that this service is not needed.

• Not very easy to customize. Interface is very user unfriendly.• It's invaluable, and even better - it's open source! Yeah! • [Sakai] is a wonderful tool that has greatly facilitated my course environment.• [Sakai] offers no useful functions for my classes. It does impede access to course

materials that I would prefer to disseminate freely.• The problem with communication via [Sakai] and/or email, is that students don't come

in nearly as often for face-to-face visits during my office hours, so I don't get to learn as much about them as I used to.

• [Sakai] as is has been more than adequate for my modest needs thus far. • It is simply clunky and difficult to manipulate files and information. The grading

aspects are poor at best. The best feature is the "central location" aspect.

Spring 2009 Student Comments• A useful tool. My professors all use it differently, and sometimes not effectively, but it is always either neutral or helpful,

never a hindrance. It is a good thing.• All teachers should be required to use owl-space and update their site frequently.• [Sakai] still feels like a beta web 2.0 app. It's a great idea, but it needs a hell of a lot of work. • Honestly, the only thing I use [Sakai] for is to retrieve documents for reading for class.• I think it's a great resource and I hope Rice continues to develop it as a collaboration and class tool.• I wish that all professors could use owlspace in the same way. For instance, part of the confusion of using owlspace is that

each professor decides on his or her own to use it or not.• It's working a lot better than last year. Not so many crashes.• [Sakai] doesn't need more features, it needs more students and teachers to know its there and use it.• PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE encourage ALL professors to use [Sakai]. The classes I've taken where there was no [Sakai] page

were awful because we couldn't access class resources and our assignments...• Require professors to be consistent in use.• The whole navigation system is a bit odd, what with having to click the buttons and not being able to use the back button

on my browser....• very useful to have a place to have all class material and announcements...couldn't have done without it...keep it going...• Course websites should not require you to be in the course to see them. This is silly, and I can't see any purpose to it for

the courses that I have taken. At the very least, instructors should be able to make their course sites visible to everyone, if they wish.

• Get all professors to use it consistently by taking advantage of its options and posting information in the same place. All users of [Sakai] need training on how to use it. Rice needs standard guidelines for using [Sakai] to allow for this consistency.

Fall 2006 Comments• “I really love Owlspace!!”• “This is really cool”• “Let me first send my congratulations to you and the group you represent. I found the

owlspace pages extremely easy and quick to use.” • “[OWL-Space] has become a wonderful resource for our students”• “Despite the complaints I like OwlSpace and will continue to use it. It’s certainly a step in the

right direction but is a work in progress” • “And OWL-Space provides an excellent vehicle for distributing non-copyright protected

material without wasting paper or forcing students to pay for a coursepack.” (Rice Thresher - 9/29/06) - 1 month after full rollout

• “I have really enjoyed working in OwlSpace”• “First, let me just say, I think OwlSpace has been a great addition this year, and for the most

part, my students are loving it!”• “Owlspace has become a well-integrated tool within our laboratory!”• “Overall we love using OwlSpace and the updates (such as the Message Center) just make

things easier and easier to use.”

Fall 2006 Comments• “I must admit that I’m really annoyed about the quiz/question feature in

OwlSpace. It is wasting a HUGE amount of time, both for me and my TAs.”• “I am about ready to throw OwlSpace to the ether! I cannot manage

groups, I want to make a TA group to email and an Instructor group to email and the strangest things keep happening:”

• “I’m really disliking OWL-Space. The work-around we talked about on Friday, for the fact that we aren’t allowed to have point values in assignments be greater than the max points, and the fact that there’s no way to add an assignment grade for a student who didn’t submit it on OWL-Space, is problematic.”

• “I hate the confusion this is causing, and the extra work I and the TA have to do to make up for the shortcomings of the system.”

Summary

• 3 years and counting• Usage expanding• Still has perception of “beta” product for some

users• Open-source?

• Improvements noted after each new version• Future?• Portfolio?• Sakai 3.0?

How Being Used

• Teaching with Technology Video Series• http://edtech.rice.edu/TeachingMedia.html

Contact Info

• Angela Rabuckadehart@rice.edu

Project Sites

• Student Clubs• Faculty Senate & Subcommittees• Curriculum Review• Tenure Review• Research Groups• NSF Grant Proposals• Construction Planning• Hiring Committees• Conference Planning/Notes• Departmental Shares

Other Open Source Tools

• Future tools under “OWL-Space” umbrella• CANS• Context-aware Activity Notification System

• MDID• Digital Image Database project

• Connotea• Online Reference Management