How to transition your CMS to Sakai Lessons Learned and Pitfalls to Avoid Dede Hourican Support Specialist Marist College Poughkeepsie, NY

Presentation Overview Who is Marist College? Overview of prior CMS Why change CMSs? Four Pronged Attack Plan ◦ Communication Strategy ◦ Data Transfer Process ◦ Course Migration Guide ◦ Training Program

About us….. MARIST COLLEGE  5,000 on Main Campus  750 adult continuing education students  854 full and part-time graduate students  200 Full-time Faculty  450 Part-Time Faculty.

About us….. MARIST COLLEGE Academic Technology & eLearning Supports technology-enabled learning  We assist in the design, production, and evaluation of web-based instructional materials.  We provide training for developers and faculty on digitization, web authoring, and distance learning.

Introduction Before Sakai Used a less well known application made by Ucompass’ called Educator It is written in a unique language Marist has used it for over 8 years Wasn’t scaling to our needs

If you want to make enemies, try to change something. - Woodrow Wilson

An evil plan hatched by administration to create more work for everyone… Why change

Increase in institutional requirements and strength A strategic assessment of our future technology needs showed that we needed a new solution IT has had an “open-source” strategy for last decade. We want to change on our timeline, not someone else's…

Sakai at Marist Sakai = ilearn Piloted over an year in IDCP Gap Analysis showed all critical capabilities of Educator are available Richer functionality, supports more uses Supports ad hoc collaboration Scalability and sustainability

Resources & Limitations Educator has a unique language No readily available interface between iLearn & Educator AT&E Resources ◦ 5 full-time graduate student workers ◦ 2 full-time AT&E staff ◦ 1 full-time training consultant

Four Prong Attack Strategy Communication Strategy Data Transfer Process Course Migration Guide Training Program

Communication Strategy College leadership briefings by the Director started in Fall 2006 ◦ Deans Council, President’s Cabinet Faculty communication ◦ Faculty “Sakai Luncheons” were held Fall ‘07 ◦ Vice President of Academic Affairs announced transition to all faculty in Spring ‘08 ◦ Director attended faculty school meetings ◦ Regular faculty updates via

Data Transfer Process Export from Educator Tools  Bitkinex is an SFTP and WebDAV client for Windows  E2i Test transfer tool Benefits ◦ Reduced data transfer time (hours > minutes) Pitfalls ◦ Graduate Student Staff log in as an administrator

Bitkinex

Improvement Logged in as themselves Only into the course that they are currently working on

Course Migration Guide General Export and Import Tips Announcement Syllabus Assignments Starting a Forum ◦ Starting a Topic Packets Examinations/Quizzes

Training  Offered 13 Summer Institutes over the summer training 200+ faculty  Best attended were two part, half-day sessions  Offered a Graduate Student worker for assistance  Offered incentives (gift bags and an “iTeach” T-shirt, mousepads, etc)

Course Management Usage Trends Initial target set for Fall 08 was 150 courses in iLearn (20%) As of October 8 th, of all course using CMS: ◦ 67% are running iLearn ◦ 33% in Educator

Success Stories

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