Shaping Academic Communities

Frank Benneker, University of AmsterdamJacques Koeman, Edia Education Technology

Lay-out of the talk

• Introductions

• elearning ecology University of Amsterdam

• History of Sakai at UvA

• Communities, a new target audience

• Start of the IIS communities initiative

• The different use cases

• Observations

Established in 1632 as Athenaeum Illustre

A comprehensive university

Over 60 Dutch taught programmes

Numerous high quality research projects

Strong internationalisation programme

Variety of international (English) programmes

Close links with the city of Amsterdam

University of Amsterdam (UvA)

not a campus university …

ICT in education @ UvA

• Expert group within the Information Technology Centrestarted in 1999 as a “small” project

• staff members are educational technologists with a focus on both the technology and the didactics of ICT in education

• Since 2006 a new department (ODG) is operational combining the expertise of web developers, educational technologists, educators and video & sound specialists.

We shall deliver state of the art IT solutions for students, teachers, researchers and faculties in a cost effective, focused and fun method.

E-services for Education

at the University of Amsterdam,

a plethora of e-learning systems

Three-pillar model

Focus on 3 pillars

1. Technology

2. Communication

3. Didactics

Three-pillar-& Implementation model is used in our projects

Implementation model

Pioneering phase

Volunteering phase

systematic integration

time

Level of integration

top-down (environment) zero realisation of guidance in

conditions creating cohesion

OSP

personal pages academic staff

streaming media

On-line course catalog

Portals @ UvA

Blackboard

Evasys

QMP

Sakai

U-drive

wiki

Maple-TA

Sakai @ University of Amsterdam When to get involved?

Influence on a product Ready & run product

Our Sakai history

2004

First interest in Sakai

Choice: OSP as a portfolio tool OSP (Sakai) in production

Starting with QA

Developing automatic code review routines

Alan Berg Sakai Fellow

IIS (Sakai) community server online

Sakai Amsterdam conference

2005 2006 2007 2008

Cooperation with Edia

Building a Dutch Sakai User GroupSurf Foundation

UvA (Sakai)Communities

Implementation model & sakai

Pioneering phase

Volunteering phase

systematic integration

time

Level of integration

portfolio

Communitysystem

zero realisation of guidance in

conditions creating cohesion

Setting the stage for communities

According to Etienne Wenger:

Communities of practice are everywhere and people are generally involved in a number of them

Communities develop around things that matter for people and as a result, their practices reflect the members' own understanding of what is important

We belong to multiple communities

Source: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

Shaping academic communities,we are the community

Wenger’s idea of belonging to multiple communities

• Heterogeneous population (not limited to the university) of lecturers, students, alumni, subject experts, corporate, and spectators

• Thematic approach to complex subject matters with multiple disciplines involved: e.g. sustainability, international law,

• Innovative didactics - e.g. collaborative scenario writing using wiki)

Shaping academic communities,Why ….

1. Collective knowledge management

2. Interest in exchange with experts in the field

3. Structural knowledge accumulation, building on previous achievements

4. course related activities

5. F2F with digital support

Generic new Tools developed by Edia for the community environment

• Skin manager• Enrollment tools• Google map• Fedora tool• Edurep tool• Sign up tool• Communications tool• Invite tool

• More info: http://sakaitools.edia.nl

Some figures

• In 2006 after a few months– 20 community sites & about 800 users

• By the end of the 2007– More than 200 project & community sites– About 6000 users

Developing ‘the blend’,Academic Communities in practice

• Mapping interdisciplinary education to communities in Sakai

• Development of tools to enhance community function

• Sharing tools with Sakai community

• Sharing good practices within the University and (dutch) higher education

And now, some of our use cases ….

TestweekLab

Researchers, world wide

New tools:•Repositoryintegration•Search & Find•skin tools

Sakai tools

• Wiki• Resource• E-mail

Goal:Community of researchers for psychological test data

Usage:under development (live september 08)

screenshot

ConflictStudies

Researchers, students & experts, world wide

New tools:•Google map•skin tools

Sakai tools

• Wiki• Resource• E-mail•Calander

Goal:This digital platform serves several courses on conflict studies and a growing community of scholars in this field.

Usage:most of it is .anon; open to the web

www.conflictstudies.nl

Forum forJudicial ..

national judges and magistrates .

New tools:• Sakai as external portal•User tools•skin tools

Sakai tools

• Wiki• Resource• E-mail

Goal:offering them the opportunity to upgrade their knowledge and expertise in international law.

Usage:under development (live september 08)

screenshot

Webclass

Prospective students

New tools:•user tools•skin tools

Sakai tools

• Wiki• Resource• E-mail

Goal: a three or 4 week pre-university introduction course,

Usage:a few hunderd users

screenshot

IIS- Community

Users:Researchers & students world wide

New tools:• user tools• skin tools

Sakai tools

• Wiki• Resource• E-mail• Quiz

Goal:Collective knowledge management. Interdisciplinary platform

Usage:a few hunderd students

screenshot

Proeve@UvA

Project Members

New:

Sakai tools

• Wiki• Resource• E-mail

Goal:bringing together project expertise and project planning

Usage:20 projectmembers

screenshot

Portfolio

StudentsTeachers

New:•Photo tool

Sakai tools

• OSP tools• Resource• E-mail

Goal:bringing together project expertise and project planning

Usage:700 students

Observations

• Communities are a new target audience with different needs then “regular” courses

• Look & feel are Important, each community is unique

• A community environment must be tailor-made

• Supporting the needs for a community is different than for regular e-learning environments, we didn’t find the right approach yet(cost effectively?)

Sakai implementation lessons

• Platform based approach instead of course based approach • No constrained to duration of course• Using new functions:

Wiki’s, search, podcast, rss etc..(social software)• Developing tailored functions: Open source if possible• Unique URL’s for sites within Sakai: e.g. www.conflictstudies.nl • Public access parts (.anon)• Skins per site (and per user)• User management per site

– On-site registration, enrollment and login– Access for experts, alumni, contract students– Access for externals required

Final remark

Our challenge:

Sustainability

Keep the teacher & student involved

Openness versus Governance

Contact:Frank Benneker (frank.benneker@uva.nl)

Jaeques Koeman (jaeques@edia.nl)