Using Sakai at the Claremont Colleges

Sakai at The Claremont Colleges

Elizabeth HodasDirector, Educational Technology and Media Services

Harvey Mudd College

The Claremont Colleges Consortium• 5 Undergraduate institutions:

• Pomona College (1887)• Scripps College (1926)• Claremont McKenna College (1946)• Harvey Mudd College (1955)• Pitzer College (1963)

• 2 Graduate institutions• Claremont Graduate University (1925)• Keck Graduate Institute (1997)

• Claremont University Consortium (1925) • Provides central services such as benefits and purchasing.

Sakai at TCC• Pilot program of Sakai at HMC in Fall 2005. In

production at HMC in Spring 2006. • In April 2006 the Academic Deans Council mandates

Sakai as the replacement for WebCT at all of The Claremont Colleges.

• HMC is chosen as “lead college” for Sakai.• Sakai in production at all 7 institutions in Fall 2006.

Sakai Implementation and Administration

• Sakai Implementation Team (SIT) coordinated implementation of Sakai at all 7 institutions.

• After implementation the team was renamed Sakai Administration Team (SAT).

• Comprises at least one member from each institution and from the Libraries.

Claremont-wide decisions

• Course sites are created automatically for all courses

• Registered users can create project and portfolio sites

• Users can add guest accounts to their sites

Support Structure for Sakai

• As lead college for Sakai, HMC hosts and maintains the Sakai application for The Claremont Colleges.

• At HMC, Tier 1 issues are handled by the Help Desk, Tier 2 issues by Educational Technology, and Tier 3 by the Sakai Administrator.

Support, cont’d• At the other Claremont Colleges Tier 1 and Tier 2 issues

are handled at the local level by Help Desk and/or Instructional Technology.

• Some colleges have chosen to handle all Sakai support in their Instructional Technology unit.

• Tier 3 requests and escalated issues are sent to HMC Help Desk and assigned accordingly.

• Created accounts for each college that are automatically added to each course site with maintain role. Used by IT staff for faculty support.

Examples of Issues• Tier 1:

• User can’t login• User can’t find their Sakai site

• Tier 2:• Faculty needs advice on which tools to use• User needs help with more advanced tool

• Tier 3:• Bug report• Feature request• Course imports

Next steps

• Develop project management strategy for Tier 3 issues.

• Would allow for better prioritization of bug fixes, feature requests, etc.

• Better tracking of support time provided by HMC.

• Also developing a formal SLA between HMC and The Claremont Colleges.

SAKAI SUPPORT FROM A CLIENT/USER PERSPECTIVE

July 2009 10th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A. 11

Benjamin RoyasInstructional Technology Specialist

Claremont McKenna College

Tier 1: The Easy Stuff

• Immediate resolution via phone or email• Users can’t login

• Check/verify username• Remind user of password conventions (case sensitive,

etc.)• Remind guest accounts not to use School Selector pull-

down menu when logging in• Guest password reset tool

July 2009 1210th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.

Tier 1: The Easy Stuff

• User can’t find course site• Explain tabs and “More…” pull down-menu

• User needs access to a particular course site• CGU students (manually add)• Re-activate inactive student accounts


Tier 2: Intermediate Issues

• Helping faculty with advanced tools• Troubleshooting, set-up, training• Gradebook, Tests & Quizzes

• Creating and managing guest accounts• Auditors• Troubleshooting/training


Tier 2: Intermediate Issues

• Managing student accounts• Auditors, TAs, etc.

• Importing materials/tools from older course sites• Old WebCT archives• Older Sakai course sites


Tier 3: The Difficult Stuff

• Beyond the scope of Inst. Technologist• Admin intervention required for closure• Examples:

• Combined course site creation• Academic dishonesty/data verification• New tool request • Bug reports


Tier 3: The Difficult Stuff

• More examples:• Specialized faculty course sites

• Summer internships• Faculty search committees• Math Placement Exam

• Course site population


Decision Making

• Sakai Administration Team (SAT)• Monthly meetings• Tool testing/reporting• Discussion of bugs, problems, concerns• Voting

• Default tools• New tools• Dates for upgrades, server reboots


Training & Common Resources

• Workshops• Semester and during breaks (fall, spring,

summer)

• Resources in SAT Project Site• Documentation• Videos• Wikis


Sakai at the Claremont Colleges: Administrative Uses

Mary McMahon Director of Instructional Services

Pomona College

Administrative Uses

• Single, secure place for all project

-specific materials

• Project sites self serve at Claremont

• Sustainability

Committee Work

• Sakai Administration Team

• Faculty Personnel Committee“Sakai use has proven to enhance confidentiality” Kris Fossum, Assistant Dean of Faculty

• Curriculum Committee

Academic Department Sites

• Meeting minutes

• Course evaluations • Van, cottage scheduling

• Telescope adjustment wiki

Overall Themes

Faculty Development

• First year seminar program shared curricular resources

• Archive particularly useful to new faculty

Advancement: Project Management

• Software implementation process

• Guest logins for vendors

• “Everything in one place.” Nadine FrancisDirector of Advancement Services

Residence Hall Management

• Forms repository: expense, video release

• Hiring process

• Equipment circulation wiki

Administrative Use Themes

• Materials repository

• De facto standard

• Ease of access

• Communication

Library Integration @ Claremont


Jezmynne DeneScience Librarian

Claremont University Consortiumjez91711@gmail. Com

Jez91711 on chat

Library Presence


Library Presence

• Pros• Familiar work environment for users• Faculty copy/reuse materials• File hosting for resources

• Cons• Users must search the directory to find the

site• Cumbersome to permalink from other sites


Ereserves


Ereserves

• Pros• Easy for library staff• Circumvents political issues of course access

• Cons• Not service oriented• Additional service time required for user

training & support• Faculty animosity over loss of service


Sakai at the Claremont Colleges: Training & ePortfolio

Susan RoigDirector Academic TechnologyClaremont Graduate University

Introduction

• Claremont Graduate University

• free-standing graduate school

• ~1500 students, ~100 faculty• Nine Schools:

•Arts & Humanities•Information Systems & Technology•Religion•Politics & Economics•Behavioral & Organizational Sciences•Mathematical Sciences•Drucker-Ito Management•Educational Studies• Global and Community Health


Claremont Graduate University

• Training modules• http://www.cgu.edu/pages/4990.asp

• ePortfolios• Contracted with Serensoft

• First used for advising• Fall 09 opening to individual students, courses

and schools


Using Sakai at the Claremont Colleges

Education

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