As you might be aware of, Sakai intends to be a enterprise product. As such it needs to integrate with the existing ICT infrastructure that you might have in place at your institution. You will find a good starting point (in my opinion) on integration on the wiki of the community, that is very actively growing.
Mark Norton (Unicon) has created the page on this wiki called: "Integrating Sakai". He starts of his article with the the sentence: "Integrating Sakai into your university environment depends a lot on just how integrated you need it to be. The following kinds of integration can be considered: * Unintegrated * Database Integration * Enterprise Service Integration * Portal Integration". If you want to know more, just go to the wiki!
woensdag, april 26, 2006
dinsdag, april 25, 2006
Willem van Valkenburg: Sakai or not Sakai. Is that the question?
If you want to read a sort of reassuring piece (in the Dutch language) on why you should and could stick to Blackboard, I would like to point to the weblog by Willem van Valkenburg of the TU Delft. E-learn Weblog van Willem van Valkenburg: Sakai or not Sakai. Is that the question?
Let me be clear in my reaction: all the points that Willem makes, are more or less valid, at least for now (but how about the future?). I will leave you in this post with my response to the final argument of Willem. The final argument that Willem uses in 'defense' of sticking with Blackboard is that a migration to Sakai will cost a lot and will not be favored by the end-users. I think, especially in higher ed, that a lot of end-users are quite change-receptive (what about all those netgen students that will be flocking our campuses soon!). To conclude: we are planning to do pilots with Sakai next Fall, just to see what exactly the impact will be of using Sakai instead of TeleTOP. We will keep you updated!
Oh, for some facts and figures regarding the use of (and migration to) Sakai, here are some references:
1. Presentation by Unicon, one of the commercial partners in the US, held at a recent Educause conference on key succes factors for implementing Sakai.
2. A comprehensive website from the Charles Sturt University (Australia) on their endeavours in Sakai.
3. A weblog by the University of British Columbia (Canada) that is intended for end-users that are considering moving from WebCT to Sakai (great way of assisting the users!).
4. A very detailed comparison chart on Sakai 2.0.1 (named Scholar) and Blackboard 6.2 from Virginia Tech (USA).
5. The page on the wiki of the worldwide Sakai community where all information is gathered regarding migration. So far Moodle, WebCT and Blackboard are covered.
Let me be clear in my reaction: all the points that Willem makes, are more or less valid, at least for now (but how about the future?). I will leave you in this post with my response to the final argument of Willem. The final argument that Willem uses in 'defense' of sticking with Blackboard is that a migration to Sakai will cost a lot and will not be favored by the end-users. I think, especially in higher ed, that a lot of end-users are quite change-receptive (what about all those netgen students that will be flocking our campuses soon!). To conclude: we are planning to do pilots with Sakai next Fall, just to see what exactly the impact will be of using Sakai instead of TeleTOP. We will keep you updated!
Oh, for some facts and figures regarding the use of (and migration to) Sakai, here are some references:
1. Presentation by Unicon, one of the commercial partners in the US, held at a recent Educause conference on key succes factors for implementing Sakai.
2. A comprehensive website from the Charles Sturt University (Australia) on their endeavours in Sakai.
3. A weblog by the University of British Columbia (Canada) that is intended for end-users that are considering moving from WebCT to Sakai (great way of assisting the users!).
4. A very detailed comparison chart on Sakai 2.0.1 (named Scholar) and Blackboard 6.2 from Virginia Tech (USA).
5. The page on the wiki of the worldwide Sakai community where all information is gathered regarding migration. So far Moodle, WebCT and Blackboard are covered.
vrijdag, april 21, 2006
Bloggers in your audience: great fun!
I did know that we had two webloggers in the audience at our Sakai meeting on April 19. But I found one more blogger, being Keith Russell of the University of Utrecht.
Anyway, Keith (in English), Wijnand (in Dutch) and Wilfred (also in Dutch, quite detailed, very nice) took some time to share their impressions of our meeting on Sakai.
Anyway, Keith (in English), Wijnand (in Dutch) and Wilfred (also in Dutch, quite detailed, very nice) took some time to share their impressions of our meeting on Sakai.
woensdag, april 19, 2006
Sakai voorlichtingsbijeenkomst: First impressions
Today was a great day: we had our first Sakai voorlichtingsbijeenkomst, organised on behalf of the SURF Foundation. There where some 40 people present, of several HE institutions and commercial companies in The Netherlands.
My impression of today is as follows: it was fruitful meeting, where we have gotten a good feel of what the Dutch HE sector is thinking and doing with regard to Sakai. It was great to hear that at least one commercial company is actively involved with Sakai right now, being Stoas. I guess that a lot of questions that came up this afternoon, are very good breeding ground for the services that Stoas is planning to offer for the community.
What struck me where the questions regarding the uniqueness of Sakai, compared to products like Moodle of MS Sharepoint. My opinion is that this should not be the discussion we should be having right now. Sakai is just as bad or good as the products where you would compare it with. What is much more important, is what Frank has presented: the fact that you can have a definite influence in the process of where the Sakai Foundation will be heading. The Foundation is not about us and them, there is only 'us'!
On a formal note: The presentations will be available shortly, please pe patient. There is a followup meeting planned for the May 22, where we will try to give the Sakai NL community some more shape and substance with the institutions that are really actively involved with Sakai right now.
Update: my presentation is available on http://www.utwente.nl/elo
My impression of today is as follows: it was fruitful meeting, where we have gotten a good feel of what the Dutch HE sector is thinking and doing with regard to Sakai. It was great to hear that at least one commercial company is actively involved with Sakai right now, being Stoas. I guess that a lot of questions that came up this afternoon, are very good breeding ground for the services that Stoas is planning to offer for the community.
What struck me where the questions regarding the uniqueness of Sakai, compared to products like Moodle of MS Sharepoint. My opinion is that this should not be the discussion we should be having right now. Sakai is just as bad or good as the products where you would compare it with. What is much more important, is what Frank has presented: the fact that you can have a definite influence in the process of where the Sakai Foundation will be heading. The Foundation is not about us and them, there is only 'us'!
On a formal note: The presentations will be available shortly, please pe patient. There is a followup meeting planned for the May 22, where we will try to give the Sakai NL community some more shape and substance with the institutions that are really actively involved with Sakai right now.
Update: my presentation is available on http://www.utwente.nl/elo
maandag, april 17, 2006
Sakai 2.1.2 is now available!
On Thursday April 13th the Sakai Foundation launched their latest release of the Sakai suite version 2.1.2. This release offers several improvements and more efficient integration between several tools and elements.
The 2.1.2 release offers also a bundled release with the open source digital portfolio, OSP product.
More information is available on this website
The 2.1.2 release offers also a bundled release with the open source digital portfolio, OSP product.
More information is available on this website
dinsdag, april 11, 2006
Latest newsletter available
On sakaiproject.org you will find the latest Sakai Newsletter, dated April 6, 2006. There is a summary of the voting results, as mentioned on this weblog last week. Other interesting news is the job posting at the UC Davis for a senior programmer. Anyone interested?
donderdag, april 06, 2006
Sakai Newsletter: March 23, 2006
Sakai Newsletter: March 23, 2006
Just a short index to the topics of the newsletter
1. Sakai Conference Registration
2. Seeing Executive Director, Sakai Foundation
3. Position Opening: Open Source Implementation Specialist
4. Joseph Hardin to Speak at the University of Detroit Mercy
5. Unicon will Present Sakai at TechEd Conference
6. Unicon Offers Sakai Tools Developer Training
7. Events
The newsletter is available at the this link
Just a short index to the topics of the newsletter
1. Sakai Conference Registration
2. Seeing Executive Director, Sakai Foundation
3. Position Opening: Open Source Implementation Specialist
4. Joseph Hardin to Speak at the University of Detroit Mercy
5. Unicon will Present Sakai at TechEd Conference
6. Unicon Offers Sakai Tools Developer Training
7. Events
The newsletter is available at the this link
woensdag, april 05, 2006
Polling Results for Sakai 2.2 are available
Do you want to know which improvements Sakai 2.2 will have? Well, this is community effort, so you can find all the details on wiki of the Sakai Community. Just go to Polling Results for Sakai 2.2 - Confluence. There you wil find the results of the community voting, as well as the voting of the institutional representatives (the votes from those who are Sakai Partner).
I am glad to see that "Sakai Import and Export using IMS Content Packaging" is quite high on the list. This is really good news!
I am glad to see that "Sakai Import and Export using IMS Content Packaging" is quite high on the list. This is really good news!
dinsdag, april 04, 2006
UvA Sakai Pilot van start
Afgelopen 27 maart is de UvA gestart met een Sakai pilot. Het betreft de HvA webklassen die vanwege licentie technische redenen niet in Blackboard gehouden konden worden.
Bij het inrichten was het wennen voor de ondersteuning omdat daar een aantal verstokte Blackboard gebruikers bij zitten. Na wat uurtjes 'spelen' kwamen we tot de ontdekking dat Sakai veel te bieden heeft en op een aantal punten beter scoort dan Blackboard.
De pilot duurt vier weken. Ik hou jullie op de hoogte.
VIctor Maijer
Bij het inrichten was het wennen voor de ondersteuning omdat daar een aantal verstokte Blackboard gebruikers bij zitten. Na wat uurtjes 'spelen' kwamen we tot de ontdekking dat Sakai veel te bieden heeft en op een aantal punten beter scoort dan Blackboard.
De pilot duurt vier weken. Ik hou jullie op de hoogte.
VIctor Maijer
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