1. Jumping Into the Frying Pan Lessons learned deploying and supporting Sakai in a liberal arts environment Mary P. Glackin & Julie Habjan Boisselle Mount Holyoke College Copyright: Julie Habjan Boisselle & Mary P. Glackin, 2007. This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors.

2. Background WebCT campus for 6 years Year-long product evaluation & user feedback process 3 products short-listed: Moodle, WebCT, Sakai Why Sakai? Broad long-term scope, open-source

3. Sakai Implementation: One-year overlap with WebCT license Jump-start with Unicon Brand local instance as ella Cross-departmental implementation team, including: networking, web lead, librarians, instructional technologists & archivist Pilot goal: 20 course sites first semester

4. Implementation Planning: PlannedActual System InstallSummer 2006Test July 2006 Production mid-Aug 06 Staff Training Summer 2006mid-August 2006 PilotFall 2006: ~ 20 courses, encourage incoming faculty 86 courses Early Production Spring 2007: Migrate current WebCT courses, automate course site creation; pilot curricular project sites WebCT material, integrate e-reserves, manual course creation and enrollment; ~100 non- curricular project sites ProductionFall 2007: Automate course site creation and enrollment MySQL->Oracle DB transition; Automation; 279 course sites published

6. Who is Using ella? Courses with ella sites: 60% Humanities: 70% Social Sciences: 70% Languages: 58% Visual & Performing Arts: 49% Sciences: 45%

7. Outcomes After 1 Year Fall 2007: ~280 course sites & 150 diverse project sites User feedback overwhelmingly positive, “basics are easy to learn” Delivery of electronic reserve readings improved ~Half course sites represent new faculty users of LMS

8. Introducing ella http://ella.mtholyoke.edu http://ella.mtholyoke.edu

9. Example Course Site

10. Words of Advice 1. Partnering with a vendor was very helpful for start-up 2. Everyone says that you need a 1/2 FTE programming & systems staff for care and feeding: it’s true!!! 3. Combined librarians, instructional technologists and systems support team is incredibly effective 4. Constant cross-departmental communication is critical 5. Avoid the lure of new-found ability to customize before you know your system :) 6. “Desk-side coaching” for faculty targeting course learning goals works 7. Balance of localized and external training documentation works well. Don’t spin your wheels unnecessarily 8. Market the new system as a solution: ex: e-reserves

11. A Few Caveats 1. Everyone says that you need a 1/2 FTE programming & systems staff required for care and feeding: it’s true!!!– negotiate this ahead of time and formalize it 2. Open source is a constantly evolving arena, make sure your team understands the implications. Project planning and decision-making is continuous; process differs from commercial products 3. While auto enrolling students in ella pleased the community, it also created confusion about course registration status 4. Cross-departmental collaboration is wonderful, however -- Who’s in charge? Who owns the system? :) 5. Sakai reporting features are minimal making assessment challenging 6. Don’t do too much too fast!

12. Interesting Outcomes 1. Branding the local install ella created a buzz, everyone identified with it and “owned” it 2. Community liked open-source nature, instilled pride 3. They looooooooooooove project sites 4. Faculty adapt simple tools in incredibly diverse ways ex: wiki 5. Migration of e-reserves to the LMS enticed faculty users to try other tools

13. The Cliff Notes: 1. It costs more than you expect (people, commitment and time) 2. You need engagement of all stakeholders 3. You can do it -- successfully

14. Our contact info: Mary Pat. Glackin mglackin@mtholyoke.edumglackin@mtholyoke.edu Julie Habjan Boisselle jboissel@mtholyoke.edujboissel@mtholyoke.edu Our thanks to all the folks who helped Mount Holyoke implement Sakai especially our ella development team Questions & Discussion?