1. Sakai at Rice: 3 Years and Counting Angela Rabuck Rice University
2. Rice Info Student body size Undergrad – 3,000 Grad – 2,150 Faculty – 610 Staff – 1,950 Median Class size – 15
3. History WebCT Campus Edition 4.1.3.8 previously used Very low adoption: <10% faculty Max - 75 courses/semester using it Reasons for switch: Licensing concerns WebCT/Blackboard uncertainty Modifiable code Project sites Ability to interact with other instructional tools Low Adoption
14. Hardware Changes July ‘05 Dec ‘05 June ‘06 Aug ‘06 Dec ‘06 Aug ‘07 Aug ‘08 Aug ‘09 1 VM Server Oracle File Store 2 VM Servers 3.5 GB, 32 bit Campus File Store 3 VM Servers 3.5 GB, 32 bit Campus File Store 3 Servers 8 GB, 64 bit Dedicated Storage
17. Dec ‘06 Started Installing Maintenance BranchInstall Patches During Weekly Maintenance Window Faster inclusion of New Features Fast Fixes Goodwill from Profs for solving their issues Upgrades performed 1/year during summer Winter break too short now for full upgrade Small patches, oracle patches More Fixes already in place with .x version Easier to add individual patches since closer to latest version
32. Campus Perception Changes Now Student clubs Librarian Roles in Courses Project sites across campus Fall 2006
33. Advisory Board Advisory board 7 members Cross campus participation Language Resource Center Continuing Studies Business School Sociology Physics Engineering Earth Sciences
34. Customizations Customizations Part time developer MWF scheduling Classroom info tool Hired edia for tool that was asked for Not enough resources to do it in-house
35. Lessons Learned Always use more communication Can never hit everyone Professors ask for help when they need it, not when you have training sessions Professors would rather call someone than look at online help 1-on-1 sessions are invaluable for building “campus champions” Usage scenarios more varied than ever could have envisioned Limit Dependencies Ex: Storage System Failure first 2 days of production
36. Course Site Usage WebCT 75/1700 = 4% courses Fall 2006 Published Courses 350/1950 = 18% courses Spring 2009 620/2000 = 31% courses
61. Most Requested Improvements User Interface/Interaction Professor Consistency of Use Site Tabs Gradebook Tests & Quizzes Resources Assignments
62. Spring 2009 Faculty Comments A great improvement in making documents and materials available to a group of students. Saves a lot of trees because it has reduced my use of paper communication. I have not used it. I don't like the proprietary aspect of it. If prospective students want to see what our classes are like they should be able to access the web site. I keep my own websites for each class. I think most Rice classes are small enough that this service is not needed. Not very easy to customize. Interface is very user unfriendly. It's invaluable, and even better - it's open source! Yeah! [Sakai] is a wonderful tool that has greatly facilitated my course environment. [Sakai] offers no useful functions for my classes. It does impede access to course materials that I would prefer to disseminate freely. The problem with communication via [Sakai] and/or email, is that students don't come in nearly as often for face-to-face visits during my office hours, so I don't get to learn as much about them as I used to. [Sakai] as is has been more than adequate for my modest needs thus far. It is simply clunky and difficult to manipulate files and information. The grading aspects are poor at best. The best feature is the "central location" aspect.
63. Spring 2009 Student Comments A useful tool. My professors all use it differently, and sometimes not effectively, but it is always either neutral or helpful, never a hindrance. It is a good thing. All teachers should be required to use owl-space and update their site frequently. [Sakai] still feels like a beta web 2.0 app. It's a great idea, but it needs a hell of a lot of work. Honestly, the only thing I use [Sakai] for is to retrieve documents for reading for class. I think it's a great resource and I hope Rice continues to develop it as a collaboration and class tool. I wish that all professors could use owlspace in the same way. For instance, part of the confusion of using owlspace is that each professor decides on his or her own to use it or not. It's working a lot better than last year. Not so many crashes. [Sakai] doesn't need more features, it needs more students and teachers to know its there and use it. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE encourage ALL professors to use [Sakai]. The classes I've taken where there was no [Sakai] page were awful because we couldn't access class resources and our assignments... Require professors to be consistent in use. The whole navigation system is a bit odd, what with having to click the buttons and not being able to use the back button on my browser.... very useful to have a place to have all class material and announcements...couldn't have done without it...keep it going... Course websites should not require you to be in the course to see them. This is silly, and I can't see any purpose to it for the courses that I have taken. At the very least, instructors should be able to make their course sites visible to everyone, if they wish. Get all professors to use it consistently by taking advantage of its options and posting information in the same place. All users of [Sakai] need training on how to use it. Rice needs standard guidelines for using [Sakai] to allow for this consistency.
64. Fall 2006 Comments “I really love Owlspace!!” “This is really cool” “Let me first send my congratulations to you and the group you represent. I found the owlspace pages extremely easy and quick to use.” “[OWL-Space] has become a wonderful resource for our students” “Despite the complaints I like OwlSpace and will continue to use it. It’s certainly a step in the right direction but is a work in progress” “And OWL-Space provides an excellent vehicle for distributing non-copyright protected material without wasting paper or forcing students to pay for a coursepack.” (Rice Thresher - 9/29/06) - 1 month after full rollout “I have really enjoyed working in OwlSpace” “First, let me just say, I think OwlSpace has been a great addition this year, and for the most part, my students are loving it!” “Owlspace has become a well-integrated tool within our laboratory!” “Overall we love using OwlSpace and the updates (such as the Message Center) just make things easier and easier to use.”
65. Fall 2006 Comments “I must admit that I’m really annoyed about the quiz/question feature in OwlSpace. It is wasting a HUGE amount of time, both for me and my TAs.” “I am about ready to throw OwlSpace to the ether! I cannot manage groups, I want to make a TA group to email and an Instructor group to email and the strangest things keep happening:” “I’m really disliking OWL-Space. The work-around we talked about on Friday, for the fact that we aren’t allowed to have point values in assignments be greater than the max points, and the fact that there’s no way to add an assignment grade for a student who didn’t submit it on OWL-Space, is problematic.” “I hate the confusion this is causing, and the extra work I and the TA have to do to make up for the shortcomings of the system.”
66. Summary 3 years and counting Usage expanding Still has perception of “beta” product for some users Open-source? Improvements noted after each new version Future? Portfolio? Sakai 3.0?
67. How Being Used Teaching with Technology Video Series http://edtech.rice.edu/TeachingMedia.html
69. Project Sites Student Clubs Faculty Senate & Subcommittees Curriculum Review Tenure Review Research Groups NSF Grant Proposals Construction Planning Hiring Committees Conference Planning/Notes Departmental Shares
70. Other Open Source Tools Future tools under “OWL-Space” umbrella CANS Context-aware Activity Notification System MDID Digital Image Database project Connotea Online Reference Management
