Sunset to Sunrise (University of Windsor)

Sunset to Sunrise: The University of Windsor Evolution

of SakaiPurita BristowAssistant Director, Enterprise Information Systems Services

Branden VisserApplication Programmer,IT Services

Terry CollinsLMS Administrator & Coordinator,Centre for Teaching & Learning

Lorna StolarchukLearning Technology Trainer, Centre for Teaching & Learning

• Project management is like juggling three balls - time, cost and quality.

211th Sakai Conference - June 15-17, 2010

• Programme management is like a troupe of circus performers standing in a circle, each juggling-three balls and swapping balls from time to time.

G. Reiss http://www.projectauditors.com/Company/Project_Management_Quotes.html

About the University of Windsor• Mid-sized University in

South-West Ontario, Canada, across the river from Detroit, MI.

• Approx. 16,000 students• 150 bachelor, master's

and doctoral degree programs

• 524 Faculty• Student/faculty ratio:

26:1


Session Outcomes

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Describe at least three lessons learned about the deployment of a Sakai system in a mid-sized university

• Identify at least three pros/cons regarding system support

• Discuss at least three effective pedagogical practices discovered when using the Sakai system


Sakai Rollout Processin Windsor

• 2004-2005. Mandate to evaluate and select a new LMS

• Why look for another LMS?• Current LMS: ViCKi (Virtual Course Kit)

• Limited Development and ResourcesLimited Development and Resources• Difficult/expensive to upgradeDifficult/expensive to upgrade• Limited ToolsetLimited Toolset



• Fractured SupportFractured Support• Distance between divisions (technical, administrative and Distance between divisions (technical, administrative and

academic)academic)• Failed to Meet Everyone’s NeedsFailed to Meet Everyone’s Needs

• Encouraged a patchwork of online environments• U of W was at a place where it needed to improve its U of W was at a place where it needed to improve its

capacity to deliver on-line learning environmentscapacity to deliver on-line learning environments• We were falling behind other universities in our We were falling behind other universities in our

capacity to offer solid, interactive and scalable online capacity to offer solid, interactive and scalable online course web sitescourse web sites



• Commercial vendors: Desire2Learn, WebCT and BlackBoard.

• Sakai was added afterwards • University of Michigan - 2004• Educause 2005

• Entry into Open Source world• University requirements a priority vs profit

• a very powerful, flexible and affordable tool for handling the growing demand for on-line course management

• a research collaboration tool.



• source code available• best way to get the software developed quickly and at

virtually no cost• creates a community of avid supporters, people actively

involved in promoting and helping others use the software. • Fairly large number of developers working on a very

sophisticated code


S/I 2006 Fall 2006 Winter 2007 S/I 2007 Fall 2007 Winter 2008 ->

Pre-Pilot

Phase I (5 courses – no DE)

Development Implementation

Phase II (15 courses - incl DE)


Phase III (add S/I 2007 DE +) Development Implementation

Phase IV (open to all)


Phase V

Migration of ViCKi kits to Sakai



Multi Phase Implementation PlanPre-Pilot (Intersession/Summer 2006) • temporary Server set up• Sakai version 2.1.2 (not Oracle based; MS based

DB)• 1 course Theater – designed and taught• LMS coordinator hired to provide ongoing client

support (tier 1, 2 & 3).



• Purchased Production Server • Installation/Setup included:

• hardware (Solaris) T2000 model• sakai 2.1.2

• Oracle based• Enterprise backup• Established ldap/eds connection

• Authentication

• Class lists from SIS db



Phase I – Development (Intersession/Summer 2006)

• Admin/Technical training conducted in August 2006 via rSmart

• Candidates selected for development of non-DE courses for delivery in Fall 2006

• Instructors briefed on Sakai format and features• Established organizational structure and detailed

implementation plan1211th Sakai Conference - June 15-17, 2010


Phase I – Implementation (Fall 2006) • 5 non-DE courses delivered in Fall 2006 from

• Education, Engineering, Psychology, Business, Computer Science

• Installed rSmart CLE 2.2 • 1st tier support switched to ITS HelpDesk• Training for participants• Instructor training to be conducted in

November/December 2006 via rSmart1311th Sakai Conference - June 15-17, 2010


Phase I – Implementation (Fall 2006) • Selection of instructor candidates in Winter 2007

done through the Deans’ Office• Training of new instructors on CLE 2.2• 15 new courses to be developed in Fall 2006

(including DE) for delivery in Winter 2007• Representation from all Faculties except Law

(Phase III)



Phase I – Implementation (Fall 2006) • Education -- Human Kinetics• Engineering -- Psychology• Social Work -- Women’s Studies• Business -- Computer Science• Biology -- Earth Sciences• Nursing



Phase I – Implementation (Fall 2006) • University of Windsor branding applied through

“Name the LMS” Contest. New Name: CLEW

• LMS Trainer (ITS) hired to begin training faculty in 2007



Phase II – Implementation (Winter 2007)• Promotional campaign begins with consultation

from PAC• Hiring of EISS developer• ITS Helpdesk assumes Tier 2 support• Feedback from new courses



Phase II – Implementation (Winter 2007)• All DE courses from Summer/Intersession 2007

to be developed, plus carryover where applicable from Phase II

• Project sites for researchers, graduate students and non-academic associations become available as training provides



Phase III – Implementation (Summer/Intersession 2007)

• Promotional campaign continues with consultation from PAC

• All Summer/Intersession DE and non- DE sites developed are delivered

• All U of W courses that require on-line resources or delivery to be developed



Phase III – Implementation (Summer/Intersession 2007)

• Selection and conversion of existing ViCKi kits to Sakai begins

• Timetable for eventual discontinuation of ViCKi to be established



Phase IV – Development (Summer/Intersession 2006)• Promotional campaign continues with consultation

from PAC• “Open to All” – all U of W courses that require on-line

resources or delivery to be developed, plus carryover where applicable from Phase III



Phase V – Migration of ViCKi to Sakai (Summer/Intersession 2007)

• Timetable for eventual discontinuation of ViCKi to be established

• Fall 2008 – Planning for release 2.5 • Fall 2009 – Release 2.5• Fall 2010 – Plan for release 2.7• Intersession/Summer 2010 – Vicki Server retired


ViCKi to Sakai Conversion Steps

Conversion strategy• Contacted via email those with existing

Vicki kits.• Developed a program to create a Sakai site

from existing Vicki Kits upon request

Note: Over 1000 Vicki Kits, 300 Converted, less than 30 complex kits


Project Administration Model

• Governance model based on input from across Governance model based on input from across campuscampus• Administration, Faculty, Student Associations, Administration, Faculty, Student Associations,

Support Services, Library, Public AffairsSupport Services, Library, Public Affairs

Project Teams and Committees:• Steering Committee

• Executive overseer of the project.



Project Teams and Committees:• Implementation Team

• a self directed team that handled the overall management of the LMS project. Membership: Assistant Director of Enterprise Information Systems Services, Assistant Director of Client Support Services, Manager – Centre of Teaching and Learning



Project Teams and Committees:• Client Support Team

• LMS Administrator, LMS Developers, LMS Trainer, + Implementation team

• Technical Team• Representations from

• Systems Programming, Main Library• + Client Support Team, + Implementation Team



Project Teams and Committees:• Advisory Team

Representations from all the Faculty areas across the University + Implementation Team

• Other Teams:• rSmart• Sakai Foundation



• The model The model • Strengthened relationship between Centre for Strengthened relationship between Centre for

Teaching and Learning, IT Services and the Faculty Teaching and Learning, IT Services and the Faculty areasareas

• Successful Delivery of projectSuccessful Delivery of project• Committee model worksCommittee model works


Environment Web: F5 BigIP LTM v9.0

Upgraded from Apache HTTPd 2.0 + mod_proxy Database: Oracle 10g on AIX App Servers: Sun Solaris, Tomcat 5.5.28 LDAP for user and group “provider” and

authentication Synchronizes from SIS

Database content storage JIRA holds many more Sakai environment details1


1 http://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/PROD

Robust, Reliable and Stable• Jump-started with commercial support from rSmart

• Stability didn't come right away

• Lots of unknowns

• Further JVM tuning required

• Further database tuning required

• Software bottlenecks in Sakai 2.4

• Lessons learned:

• More interaction with the Sakai Community to estimate usage and resources

• More thorough load testing (e.g., JMeter)

• More thorough performance monitoring (e.g., JMX, JSTAT, custom scripting)


Contributing• Contribute where possible

• It's win-win• It seems like the right thing to do

• Ways to contribute1

• Technical• Design• Teaching & Learning• Bug reports / Feature requests

• Ways we contribute• Bug reports / Feature requests• Software patches


1 http://sakaiproject.org/contributing-sakai

Making Technical Contributions Getting started

Joined the “lists”1

Set up the development environment2

Jump-start: Attended a Programmer's Cafe3

What needs to be done? Found “bite-size” issues in JIRA4 and tackled them What do your users want done?

Report, discuss, test and fix!


1 http://sakaiproject.org/join-email-lists2 http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/BOOT/Development+Environment+Setup+Walkthrough3 http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/BOOT/Programmer%27s+Cafe4 http://jira.sakaiproject.org/secure/Dashboard.jspa

Instructors: Converting to Sakai• Pros/cons of phasing out our previous LMS• ViCKi (LMS in Lotus Notes) - May 2010: Severs were turned off

PROS 1. Sakai was exciting 2. Many new tools to useCONS 1. Replacement Tools – not always better 2. Many relied on 2 being replaced (Assignments & Discussions). 3. Many users were asked to leave a system they knew very well. Migrate to CLEW Content converted to web pages & viewed through Content Viewer


Windsor’s Customization

• Early adopters came into Sakai willingly.• Reluctant faculty needed a reason to move.• Customizations helped them make the move.• Windsor’s Customizations:


•Dashboard•Course Site Requests /Approvals•Content Viewer•Email Instructor•Quizzes & Tests

Troubleshooting• Pros/cons of troubleshooting the system and responding

to instructors • Dashboard & Site Requests / ApprovalsPROS 1. Innate knowledge of the system and users 2. Trusted relationship 3. AccountabilityCONS 1. Optimum level of communication & details (fine-line) 2. Problems with other systems = Sakai problems (CLEW is Down) 3. Not a shared role (one administrator)


Training: Then, Now and Next


Calendar

Announcements

Syllabus

Resources

Interactivity

Assessment

Managing Student Work

Structuring Lessons

Basics

Learning Community


Learning Community

Quotes from participants• “likes diversity and make-up of group, both

technically & faculty”• “See all possibilities & keeps me alert to

what I could do”• “Connects with Resource people who are

knowledgeable”

11th Sakai Conference - June 15-17, 2010 38

Goals of Learning Community


Ways of Being Together

• Keep confidentiality in mind• Be respectful and empathetic• Don’t cut people off or take too much time• Be encouraging and support creativity• Have fun while learning• Trust the model, model the trust


Ways of Being Together cont’d

• Tolerate those who are passionate• Be brave enough to be honest• Capture the memories and history of the

meetings• Share food and don’t choke• Tidy the room when done


Support Evolution

• Moving from providing “tool” training to integrating with pedagogical principles

• Evening classes are appealing, particularly to sessional instructors who work elsewhere

• Some faculty prefer phone/email/one-on-one vs. class


Individuals Attending Classes


Aug. 09 - June 10

Workshop Attendees by Time of Day


Aug. 09-June 10Note: evening classes began Dec. 09

Support:Personal and Phone Consultations


Aug. 09 - June 10

Online Education Course:Using Sakai

• Wiki was an effective tool


Online Education Course:Using Sakai

• Forums was an effective tool


Online Education:Using Sakai

• Melete (Lessons) posed us some challenges


Next Steps

• Develop group processes more clearly next offering of Online Education

• Work to integrate and embed more content directly into lessons with accessible visuals

• Develop group interaction Sakai training classes

• Develop Learning Community – other locations host, review goals annually


Questions


Remember to complete the session evaluation @http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sakai10

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sakai10


• Dashboard

Back


• Course site requests

Back


• Course site approvals

Back


• Content Viewer

Back


• Email Instructor

Back


• Quizzes & Tests

Back

Sunset to Sunrise (University of Windsor)

Technology

Transcript of Sunset to Sunrise (University of Windsor)