Poliforma-T, the Sakai-based on-line campus for the UPV: history of a success. Raúl E. Mengod López Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain)

Overview Introduction: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) Moving one step beyond: Perspectives for the new year. The Project: Poliforma-T. A suitable solution. Implementation Facts. Questions & Discussions

Introduction Universidad Politécnica Valencia (UPV)  Public academic institution since 1971  A leader in Technical innovation  Official and non-official studies  Post – Graduate studies The UPV in numbers  4 Campuses  15 Colleges  40 Official Degrees  20 post graduate studies  Students  Teachers

Initial status 3 Departments with similar e-learning functions  Official Colleges  Microwebs. Repository support for presential education.  Highly extended. Very popular.  Post Graduate School  Distance and non deistance courses and masters.  E- learning solutions only for distance education.  Open University  Only distance education  Many services in an out of date system

Initial status (II) Multiple Systems  Different home-grown system in each department.  High maintenance costs.  Different tools available on each system.  Contents moving platform  Redundant information  Non-homogeneous appearance.  Non institution styles  Low integration  Multiple logins for the same users.  80% of the users work on the minimum system (Microwebs)

Requirements (I) Technical requirements  Support for all the activities, subjects and courses in the university. So the system should support a large number of users. Compatibility with institution infrastructure  Corporate servers  Oracle DataBase  UPV SSO System  Other University Applications Developing Language  Java, PL/SQL Mature Life Cycle  Focus on Stable systems

Requirements (II) Support in other organizations  Evolution Capabilities  Collaborations Possibilities  Long term maintenance and support. Standards Support  IMS, SCORM  Transfer information to other systems

Why is Sakai our alternative? Positive  Implemented campus wide to all the areas, courses and users.  It was able to fit in the university infrastructures (Java, Oracle)  Possibility to collaborate in future developments.  Evolving in important organizations.  Contents re-use in/from other systems. Negative  Non translated into Spanish  Mono lingual. (Valencia is a bi-lingual region)  All systems investigated required some modifications.

Implementing the solution Integration with the server infrastructure (IAS/Tomcat) Customization I18n Integration with UPV SSO Integration with UPV Enrollment System Integration with TELDE Tool Help guides Integration with Europe Programs Integration with UPV communications Other applications

Integration with UPV infrastructure DataBase Infrastructure  Database running on enterprise HP-UX System  Oracle 10g  Use the current Database Servers Servers infrastructure  Corporate Application Server is Oracle-IAS  Non compatible with IAS in the actual version  Deploy on Tomcat. (2-4 Servers) Improvements  Storage system enlargement  € Investment

Appearance Customization Name-logos Institutional layout and colors CSS changes only

Internationalization Initial Status  Sakai 2.1 running on mono-lingual platforms  Spanish version not available  Universidad de Lleida started the job  Some initiatives (Nagoya) for the multi-lingual version Work done  Translation of properties files  Code search for texts not included in the bundles  Translation and trick for database texts (Decide the language of the contents)  Melete Translation

Integration with UPV SSO UPV SSO  Developed in the UPV  Highly extended Integration with Sakai  Container Login Capabilities  Develop the access to the UPV-SSO

Integration with UPV Enrollment System Providing Users, Subjects, Groups for all the courses and students.  Centralized repository  Database Synchronization (all kind of information) Future  Timetable for subjects and students  Examination dates

TELDE tool Integration TELDE  Tele Educación para el Desarrollo  Collaboration project with Valencian and Latin-American Universities  Quick video production system Integration with sakai  New tool to register TELDE resources  Instructor customization.  Synchronization with the Resources tools (URL Item)  Based on external streaming servers Future  Better integration with sakai Demonstration

Help Guides Procedure Guides (instructors)  Available in Different formats (HTML, Flash, VIDEO)  Developed by Instructors  How to use tools to create properly e-learning solutions  Use cases examples Use Guide  Students  Instructors

EHES  European Higher Education Space (Bolonia Process)  European studies information standard Integration in sakai  Complex tool required  A non initiated project External application  Outsourcing  Closer to the actual UPV procedures  Summary information shown as a new page in sites  Bibliography shown as Resources  Syllabus and Melete Inherits Structure

Integration with UPV communications Mail  Webmail embeded in ‘mi Workspace’ News  Develop RSS Feeds for the UPV News SMS integration  Plans for the future

Future Plans Library repository  Library resources integration.  TwinPeaks / SakaiLibrary  Ex libris Metalib integration Thesis and PFC Management  GradeTools is not suitable  Institutional Requirements  External tool or Sakai tool

Test Suites Test Platforms  1 server  Developers Integration Pilot  Complete Test Pilot (4000 Sites)  Jmeter Performance Test Pilot  2 servers  Courses covering all categories (10 courses)  Real users  6 months  Feedback

Formation, diffusion and promotion Diffusion of information  Main Web Site  Presentations to the university community Promotion among Instructors  Flyers  Banners Training of Instructors  Training Courses  Feedback Promotion abroad  Sakai Community  Spanish America Promotion

Evaluation Plan Measure and Evaluation  Surveys  Number of Sites with Contents  Number of Accesses Exposition of results and experiences

Implementation Facts (I) Appearance Customization  Fully integrated with the sakai standards  New UPV skin  CSS chages only Internationalization  Multi lingual version not 100% finished  Many problems with hardcoded options  Things not solved yet  Database stored strings  Data formats  Gateway Site  Multi-lingual contents version????

Implementation Facts (II) Single Sign On  Use of UPV CAS  Container Login capabilities  ContainerLogin.java modification  Xlogin available for external users Data Providing to Sakai  Centralized Repository  XML for information exchange between departments  Instructor setup of the sites before creating them in sakai  Non use of sakai providing facilities  Direct synchronization Repository to Sakai  More flexible. Provided on demand.  Provide information to other tools (Resources, Sections, Melete)  Transparent contents migration

Thank You