From the start the Sakai community is working close together with the different library communities in the institutions. Several small scale tools and integration solutions were developed over the past two years.
Indiana & Michigan University decided it was time for a more structual approach on providing a mature solution for the integration of library systems and the Sakai platform. In this session the projectleaders provided a large audience (> 100) with the first results of the Sakaibrary project. The project started last January and will run for the next two years.
The main project goals are:
- to provide seamless integration between Sakai & Library ecosystems, based on newly developed tools by the project
- testing the newtools and scenario's by the usercommunity
- a prototype for discovering licensed content in library systems
The new tools will available the Sakai suite around the summer of 2007. The next year the projectteam will develop and test the tools in small scale pilots at Indiana & Michigan University.
Most of the present work went into the requirements & usage scenario's
The usage scenario's cover quite a lot of areas of interest, e.g.
- integration of Sakai resources tool and reference software
- integrated metasearch in Sakai on library databases & resources
- subject research guide in a relevant Sakai course
- different library tools available for the instructor in Sakai
- federated search tool with different options depending on role (instructor, student, librarian)
- storage of a discoverd article for later use in a course
- in-Line citation Management Tools to coordinate readings (e.g. in science courses)
Conclusion:
It's a fairly new project and workable tools will be available in 12 months.
I think that if the project will meet its goals in 2007 it will change the way elearning & library ecosystems will work together.
Addtional information
Slides from the presentation
project space on the Sakai wiki
woensdag, mei 31, 2006
Live from Vancouver
Marij Veugelers just delivered her presentation on portfolio implementation experiences in The Netherlands. She had a very interested audience.
I just visited a greet demonstration by IBM who is donating some serious stuff to the Sakai Foundation. They are donating a very capable SCORM player (including RTE) for SCORM 1.2 that can be tightly integrated into Sakai. It comes bundled (as I understood) with Sakai CLE offering by rSmart Group.
I just visited a greet demonstration by IBM who is donating some serious stuff to the Sakai Foundation. They are donating a very capable SCORM player (including RTE) for SCORM 1.2 that can be tightly integrated into Sakai. It comes bundled (as I understood) with Sakai CLE offering by rSmart Group.
Pictures say more than ....
Walking around a conference you meet quite a lot of (new) people.
The conference buzz and impressions are hard to capture and to remember after the conference. Therefore it's really fantastic that we don't only share idea's but also pictures & impressions.
To get an idea why you should be at the next years conference
have a look at this frozen moments of time: Sakai Vancouver06
The conference buzz and impressions are hard to capture and to remember after the conference. Therefore it's really fantastic that we don't only share idea's but also pictures & impressions.
To get an idea why you should be at the next years conference
have a look at this frozen moments of time: Sakai Vancouver06
dinsdag, mei 30, 2006
There is no "THEY"!
Nate Angell and Wende Morgaine today delivered a great workshop on implementing Sakai (and/or OSP).
They shared their experiences on implementing Sakai on Portland State University. Actually the audience turnout was larger then they expected, close to 50, so interaction within the group was not really possible.
Nate and Wende had a lot of messages for the audience, which was quite mixed. There were large schools, small universities, commercial organizations (Stoas and Leidse Onderwijsinstellingen, but also a consulting firm from Argentina that will be doing pilots with two universities in Argentina!) and quite a few people representing Europe (Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam, Twente, Hull and Limerick).
Here are the messages that I received from the workshop (which I will be using to create an implementation plan for our University):
What sort of surprised me is that quite a few (American) participants were not satisfied with their current VLE. This was said about Blackboard as well as about WebCT!
And about this weblog: I got some positive feedback on the way we are doing this in The Netherlands from our collegues from England.
Any other Dutch participants that would comment or add on this post?
They shared their experiences on implementing Sakai on Portland State University. Actually the audience turnout was larger then they expected, close to 50, so interaction within the group was not really possible.
Nate and Wende had a lot of messages for the audience, which was quite mixed. There were large schools, small universities, commercial organizations (Stoas and Leidse Onderwijsinstellingen, but also a consulting firm from Argentina that will be doing pilots with two universities in Argentina!) and quite a few people representing Europe (Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam, Twente, Hull and Limerick).
Here are the messages that I received from the workshop (which I will be using to create an implementation plan for our University):
- Communication, communication, and once again communication is something you cannot underestimate
- Create a larger vision and promote the larger vision (so it should not just be: "We will replace TeleTOP with Sakai")
- Do not use Sakai as the name for your new VLE
- Be aware that OSP is not as mature as Sakai (actually I can only agree with this; but with help of the UvA and the larger community we will sort things out)
- A pilot should not be used as an evaluation of a particular tool
- Be sure that you have at least three competencies on board the projectteam: marketing & communication, IT (to translate between business and IT) and faculty
- "There is no they" ("When will they deliver OSP 2.2?"): if you want something done, you have the oppurtunity yourself to make the change happen (you can write out requirements, you can commit developers etc)
- You only get one chance with faculty (people tell 40 people if they are not satisfied, but they tell only 3 people if they are satisfied): so your demonstration better be good!
What sort of surprised me is that quite a few (American) participants were not satisfied with their current VLE. This was said about Blackboard as well as about WebCT!
And about this weblog: I got some positive feedback on the way we are doing this in The Netherlands from our collegues from England.
Any other Dutch participants that would comment or add on this post?
Next stop: Vancouver
Tomorrow (well: actually today if you read this in Europe) will be the starting day of the 5th Sakai Conference in Vancouver. Today I was on a pleasant KLM flight with some collegues from Hull.
Just shortly after arriving at the airport I was already bombarded with a SMS from Marij Veugelers. She already had a meeting today at the University of British Columbia, I believe. I hope that she will tell us some more in this weblog :-) I already registered myself today and got a fine T-shirt and the rest of the official stuff.
Tomorrow I will be attending a fullday workshop where I will build a Sakai implementation plan that fits my campus.
Just shortly after arriving at the airport I was already bombarded with a SMS from Marij Veugelers. She already had a meeting today at the University of British Columbia, I believe. I hope that she will tell us some more in this weblog :-) I already registered myself today and got a fine T-shirt and the rest of the official stuff.
Tomorrow I will be attending a fullday workshop where I will build a Sakai implementation plan that fits my campus.
woensdag, mei 24, 2006
On forming a Sakai Special Interest Group
On May 22 we had our second meeting in The Netherlands with those institutions interested in Sakai. The following institutions were present, and as such are really working (or will start working soon) with Sakai: Saxion Hogescholen, University of Amsterdam, University of Twente, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. Also present were SURFnet and Stoas. SURFnet is the innovative networking partner for all HE institutions within The Netherlands. Stoas is the first commercial affiliate for Sakai in The Netherlands.
The meeting started of with all institutions, as well as Stoas, sharing current events and future plans. The plans are actually quite diverse, but can be characterized as being pilot or experimentation. We also discussed what the goal of a SIG should be, and which activities should be carried out. Furthermore we discussed how we could organize a common ground regarding specific Dutch (European?) issues and viewpoints. We could collate and prioritize these issues together and drive them to a desired outcome within the Sakai Foundation, according the working procedures within the Foundation.
On a more basic level we concluded that we should really strive to inform each other on a regular basis and as completely as possible. Stoas for example shared with us that they have been talking to a HE institution about the use of Sakai as their primary VLE. The name of the institution could not be disclosed during the meeting, but will be disclosed soon.
There were several action items that we have agreed upon. Some of them are:
(a) we will meet again on July 5, where we will discuss in detail what is happening at the institutional level,
(b) every institution will provide some more text, that we can (and will!) share with the worldwide Sakai community (keep watching this weblog for this information) and
(c) there is a need for a coordinator, that should drive the SIG in the right direction.
So, as you can see, there is really something good happening within The Netherlands. I hope that we can also gain some progress on a European level, during our BOF meeting in Vancouver!
The meeting started of with all institutions, as well as Stoas, sharing current events and future plans. The plans are actually quite diverse, but can be characterized as being pilot or experimentation. We also discussed what the goal of a SIG should be, and which activities should be carried out. Furthermore we discussed how we could organize a common ground regarding specific Dutch (European?) issues and viewpoints. We could collate and prioritize these issues together and drive them to a desired outcome within the Sakai Foundation, according the working procedures within the Foundation.
On a more basic level we concluded that we should really strive to inform each other on a regular basis and as completely as possible. Stoas for example shared with us that they have been talking to a HE institution about the use of Sakai as their primary VLE. The name of the institution could not be disclosed during the meeting, but will be disclosed soon.
There were several action items that we have agreed upon. Some of them are:
(a) we will meet again on July 5, where we will discuss in detail what is happening at the institutional level,
(b) every institution will provide some more text, that we can (and will!) share with the worldwide Sakai community (keep watching this weblog for this information) and
(c) there is a need for a coordinator, that should drive the SIG in the right direction.
So, as you can see, there is really something good happening within The Netherlands. I hope that we can also gain some progress on a European level, during our BOF meeting in Vancouver!
zondag, mei 21, 2006
It's official
As of May 16, 2006, the University of Twente has officially joined the Sakai Partners Program (SPP). This is serious milestone for us. We are very serious about Sakai and the potential of the community. Joining the SPP is one of our ways of giving back something to the community.
So where do we stand right now? We have started the definition phase of our project, which is called Campus Blend using Sakai (CBUS). We have Sakai up and running for some time now and are evaluating (technical as well as educational) how it compares to our current systems. To document our findings we have started using a Wiki. That works quite nice in my opinion. The wiki is not open to the general public, but sometime it will!
We are planning on starting some pilots with Sakai and/or OSP later this year. There seems to be quite a lot of interest so far from several departments on our campus on utilizing Sakai in their courses, so that seems very promising. We will be delivering some demo's and walkthroughs for those seriously interested in the course of next month, June. Our first official demo will be on June 9.
We will do our final evaluation of Sakai, the toolset, the community and the Sakai framework around May of next year.
We will keep you posted through this weblog. For some more information, in Dutch, you can still go to http://www.utwente.nl/elo.
So where do we stand right now? We have started the definition phase of our project, which is called Campus Blend using Sakai (CBUS). We have Sakai up and running for some time now and are evaluating (technical as well as educational) how it compares to our current systems. To document our findings we have started using a Wiki. That works quite nice in my opinion. The wiki is not open to the general public, but sometime it will!
We are planning on starting some pilots with Sakai and/or OSP later this year. There seems to be quite a lot of interest so far from several departments on our campus on utilizing Sakai in their courses, so that seems very promising. We will be delivering some demo's and walkthroughs for those seriously interested in the course of next month, June. Our first official demo will be on June 9.
We will do our final evaluation of Sakai, the toolset, the community and the Sakai framework around May of next year.
We will keep you posted through this weblog. For some more information, in Dutch, you can still go to http://www.utwente.nl/elo.
maandag, mei 15, 2006
1st European Sakai Day 6 & 7 September 2006
The 1st European Sakai Day takes place from September 6-7, 2006. The Luebeck University of Applied Sciences (LUAS) is delighted to welcome Sakai Friends and the Sakai Community Europe.
A special website (www.oncampus.de/sakai) is available with additional information and a agenda of the meeting. Several Sakai core developers will be present and they will give talks and participate in discussions.
The 1st European Sakai Day aims at discussing and supporting the further development and usage of Sakai in the European context.
Let's meet in Luebeck
A special website (www.oncampus.de/sakai) is available with additional information and a agenda of the meeting. Several Sakai core developers will be present and they will give talks and participate in discussions.
The 1st European Sakai Day aims at discussing and supporting the further development and usage of Sakai in the European context.
Let's meet in Luebeck
donderdag, mei 11, 2006
Sakai not only for education but also for Research
News from the Sakai website
Open Grid Computing Environments (OGCE) 2.0 released using Sakai
Open Grid Computing Environments (OGCE) 2.0 released using Sakai
| 2006-May-09 | |
| Paragraph #5 -- In conjunction with the NMI R9 release, Open Grid Computing Environments (OGCE), another NMI team, is announcing a major revision of its software that enables the creation of Grid portals or Web-based user interfaces that simplify the process of identifying and accessing Grid resources. In a single download and one-step build process, the OGCE Version 2.0 provides a complete toolkit for building science-portal gateways. Newly incorporated Sakai collaboration portlets provide access to their tools such as calendar scheduling, document sharing and chat functions. Also included are Grid portlet clients to the Globus Toolkit 4 services for credential acquisition, remote command execution, and remote file management. The release also features new portlets for Condor and the Storage Resource Broker and optional support for PURSe Grid account management. The OGCE portlet software and plugin modules are integrated with the GridSphere 2.1 portal container and include GridPort information and file management Web services, which may be deployed as separate "science gateway" services. Read the whole article at: http://www.gridtoday.com/grid/649667.html |
Follow up on May 22
As mentioned on this weblog before, on May 22 there will be a followup meeting with those people and/or institutions in The Netherlands that are really interested in Sakai. Those that previously expressed their interest have received an email regarding this followup meeting with a detailed agenda. We plan on starting up a special interest group (SIG) for Sakai.
This is the agenda for our meeting on May 22:
This is the agenda for our meeting on May 22:
1. Welkom en introductierondje
2. Discussiethema's:
- Wat is zinvolle samenwerking tussen instellingen?
- Welke mate en vorm van informatie-uitwisseling is nuttig?
- Welke werkvormen en taakverdeling hanteren we?
3. Europese samenwerking en lidmaatschap Sakai Foundation
4. Afspraken en vervolgstappen
5. Wat verder nog ter tafel komt (wvttk)
The meeting is open to everyone in The Netherlands that has a serious interest in Sakai. So if you haven't received the formal invitation, please make yourself known (preferably by commenting on this post, but email is also OK) and we will provide you with the full details.
2. Discussiethema's:
- Wat is zinvolle samenwerking tussen instellingen?
- Welke mate en vorm van informatie-uitwisseling is nuttig?
- Welke werkvormen en taakverdeling hanteren we?
3. Europese samenwerking en lidmaatschap Sakai Foundation
4. Afspraken en vervolgstappen
5. Wat verder nog ter tafel komt (wvttk)
dinsdag, mei 02, 2006
Presentations online
The presentations of the Sakai meeting in Utrecht (19th april) are available.
They can be found on this webpage from the SURF website.
They can be found on this webpage from the SURF website.
Sakai Status Update
Charles (Chuck) Severance, the Chief Architect of Sakai published an insightful post on his weblog. In this post he provides us, Sakai users and implementers, with the latest info on the issues that will be tackled during the development cycle for the next Sakai 2.2 release.
The link to his weblog is here
The link to his weblog is here
woensdag, april 26, 2006
Integrating Sakai - howto's
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!
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!
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!
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