eLearning - Confluence

Welcome to ….
The 8th Sakai Conference
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 – Thursday, December 6, 2007
A Presentation By:
The CampusEAI Consortium
www.campuseai.org
The Fashion Institute of Design
& Merchandising
www.fidm.edu
1
FIDM / The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
Two year, specialized, private college with 6,500
students
Offers AA and Professional Designation programs
in 16 majors all relating to the fashion,
entertainment, and merchandising industries
WASC and NASAD accredited
Campuses in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San
Diego, and Orange County, California
New Bachelor’s program in Business Management
2
FIDM / The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
Mission Statement
FIDM’s focused curriculum integrates creative and leadership skills
to develop graduates for the global industries of Fashion, Visual
Arts, Interior Design, and Entertainment. Combined with these skills,
FIDM graduates value ethical choice, demonstrate an awareness of
cultural diversity, communicate effectively, think critically, and
possess the knowledge of technology essential to their professions.
3
FIDM / The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
6,500 students and over 35,000 alumni
Almost 1000 staff and faculty
All are customers to the various online resources
that FIDM provides:
Student portal
Alumni portal
Online stores
eLearning Program
Extensive network of satellite sites for high-school students, employers
Staff and faculty ePortal and Intranet
SIS
4
FIDM / The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
Most resources are managed on FIDM’s IBM
System I hardware and WebSphere Application
Server
Just deployed an all-in-one VOIP solution based
on 3Com’s telephony technology and IBM’s
System i:
(http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/i5/october07/ca
sestudies/17400p1.aspx)
5
FIDM eLearning Program History
eLearning Program began in 2001 out of a need to
cater to professionals and fulltime students
24/7 availability was the major priority: student support and system
availability -- needed to partner with a vendor
Lotus Notes was chosen as the platform
Already used it as groupware
Set up Learning Space 3.5 on Domino
Developed four courses: just web pages and
whatever Learning Space software made available
75 students hand-picked for grades and computer aptitude
One developer
6
The FIDM eLearning Team
The FIDM eLearning team consists of five full-time
staff: instructional development and academic
support.
A marriage of IT and Education Department
intended to bring best practices of technology
and pedagogy together.
eLearning Team imports course material submitted by eLearning
faculty
Works with faculty to ensure usability, design consistency
Makes suggestions for supporting learning outcomes
Facilitates technology support
7
The FIDM eLearning Team
eLearning Planning Committee established early:
eLearning developers, instructional coordinator, and department
chairs from the FIDM Education Department to steer eLearning
growth and support faculty.
Faculty advocacy
Program development
Oversight for meeting accreditation objectives and goals
8
Fast forward to 2006…
500+ enrollments in the eLearning Program, 31
courses, 20 faculty and growing rapidly
Curriculum has grown to include podcasts, multimedia, video, audio,
synchronous lectures
9
Fast forward to 2006…
Our population was changing
Students now more demanding, technologically savvy, mobile
Instructors now requesting more flexibility and accountability
Our degree programs were changing
Added Bachelors degree
Technology was changing
Integration, IT requests going up
New internal apps developed for eLearning
Business needs were changing
10
FIDM eLearning Program Enrollment Trends
11
eLearning: Always Changing
Course development was cruising along just
fine…
The LMS and student management became our
weak link; it couldn’t keep up with our business
needs
Accessibility not so hot
Unreasonable software requirements = high attrition and frustrated
faculty
Apple users left in support limbo
12
eLearning: Always Changing
Students were requesting more features
Why can’t it be like MySpace?
Can’t I just email my instructor the file?
It doesn’t work on my Mac.
It just doesn’t work!
@#$!#?@$%*&#
13
eLearning: Always Changing
Faculty was requesting better reliability
Discussion Boards were unusable
Not enough mechanisms for feedback
Wanted online grade support
Wanted more freedom and control over their own courses
14
eLearning: Always Changing
Education starting to mention ePortfolios more
and more…not to mention what the eLearning
Team wanted:
Blogs
Wikis
Podcast/RSS support
IMS standards compliance
BETTER (less) WORKFLOW
15
eLearning: Now What?
Software Vendor:
“We will not be continuing development of this product”
16
eLearning: Now What?
Application vendor was backing out of the market
Software platform was not being developed
further
Students and faculty were clamoring for better
tools and user experience
Education department was requesting more
functionality and accountability out of the
software and team
17
eLearning: Now What?
We needed a tool to support “flexible” growth
Support more students and thus enrollments
Allow students to have a “home” online quarter to quarter
Wanted to support professional growth -- giving
faculty more control to explore and choose better
teaching tools
Had to fit FIDM’s IT strategies:
The mission of the Information Technology Department (IT) is to
create and support a reliable, secure, and integrated network
infrastructure that supports student learning programs and services
to improve institutional effectiveness.
18
RFP Process: Decisions, Decisions…
Began early with a focused project management
approach
We needed a new application AND a new host!
Needs assessment studies done to assess
different packages out in the market
Looked at four different software platforms
Solicited requirements from faculty
Pored over student support tickets for common themes
Conferences (How many toy cars and key chain flashlights do you
have?)
Talking to other schools
19
RFP Process: Picking the Platform
We picked Sakai
Open source
A nod from IBM
Community support
Tools that even we hadn’t thought of yet
Flexible and extensible framework
Potential for future integration with internal systems
20
RFP Process: Hosting and Support
FIDM has found a partner in CampusEAI
Consortium
We selected the CEAI Hosted Solution for Sakai
Felt we would be in good company
CEAI came well-recommended
They asked me more questions than I asked them!
Felt greater sense of support with membership rather than being
just another customer
Rapid timeline for deployment: by the first day of
the FIDM Fall semester – 7 months
21
First Phase: Requirements Gathering
We were overwhelmed with choices
We knew where we wanted to go, not how to get there.
CEAI helped us out along the way
Jerry Davidson, Project Manager and Jason Shao, Consultant
CEAI wanted to know our business needs FIRST
Worked with our “content publishing” model
Listened to our concerns about preserving our workflow with
faculty while opening up more doors for them
22
First Phase: Requirements Gathering
FIDM eLearning Team are IT folk with expertise
in integrating technology with pedagogy
This means we know enough about technology
to be dangerous to server administrators
23
Next Phase: Implementation
First, a test instance of Sakai
Establish some experience for our team in using the instructor side
of Sakai
Built some courses and played with some tools
Began to import our content slowly to experiment with different
presentation models
Time for us to document desired instructor and student workflow in
the application
CEAI listened and noted our suggestions, incorporating all of them
into the project plan along the way
24
Next Phase: Implementation
Next, our final home on a CEAI server!
Uploaded our content
Implemented our internal map for activity flows in courses
Worked with CEAI on implementing tools and modifications to tools
to meet our needs
CEAI looked to the Sakai community for additional support needs
with customization
25
Next Phase: Implementation
Training
CampusEAI trained the FIDM eLearning Team: 3 days of on-site
Sakai Admin training.
Chance to learn the Sakai interface from an Admin perspective
Chance to perform special configurations to fit FIDM’s business
needs
A lot of hands-on exercises: realms, permissions, adding users
Helped us prep for the instructor training session
Chance to meet Jason from CEAI!
26
Next Phase: Implementation
More Training
Train-the-trainers with the faculty
4 hour sessions with different groups of faculty (they even came in
on their break!)
Trained on important functions of teaching online with Sakai
Syllabus (and their grading rubric)
Melete Modules tool
Assignments
Gradebook
Discussion Board
…and how they all tie together!
27
Final Phase: Deployment
Deployment
Go-live date was October 5 when our student login emails went out.
Prep work continued as the final touches were put on the system
Reviewed:
Security: domain pointing, SSL, permissions verification
Usability: student and instructor workflow with grading
UI: The special FIDM look and feel
First day of class! October 10, 2007
They all went straight to the chat room
28
Demo of FIDM’s CEAI Hosted Solution for Sakai
29
The UI
The portal
framework allows
for more
information and
less navigation…
30
Syllabus
Hub of eLearning
courses at FIDM.
Contains all
requirements,
rubrics, and
policies.
31
Melete
Using Melete
exclusively for
lecture module
presentation and
“flow” guideposts
for students and
instructors
32
Melete
Legacy HTML
content easily
migrated in to
Melete eased the
transition
33
Assignments
We had to pay
attention to point
values, handouts,
and due dates…
all with feedback
from instructors.
34
Gradebook
The Gradebook is
a favorite of
instructors and a
time saver for
reporting grades
to the registrar.
35
Post-Launch
FIDM Courseware Evaluation Study launched
October 2007
Designed to judge Sakai’s implementation at FIDM: noticeable
improvement in meeting student learning outcomes and
effectiveness of LMS as a learning tool.
Surveyed faculty and students
36
Faculty reported an overall
improvement in usability,
workflow and time saved in
teaching their online courses.
Faculty additionally felt that
Sakai definitely was of
greater aid in helping them
verify and document student
achievement of outcomes,
and that the collaborative
tools helped students
support each other
STUDENTS
FACULTY
Post-Launch
Initial student findings are
favorable: less complaints
about technical issues but
our content navigation needs
a little work.
Felt more in touch with the
class and instructor than
prior quarters.
Improved and consistent
feedback helped students
achieve.
37
Post-Launch
The Future
Integration with FIDM internal systems
For participant enrollment information from student portal
For our QuestionMark system
Portlet display, grades and student announcements
38
Post-Launch
The Future
Expansion of eLearning’s role at FIDM
ePortfolio
Opening up more functionality to instructors
Expanding our own toolkit for innovative curriculum development using
Sakai as a new, robust platform for delivery
39
Post-Launch
The Future
Our role with CEAI and the Sakai Community
We’re the new kids…
We are looking forward to meeting everyone and learning more and
more…
Sharing best practices and experiences is the key to success in
higher-ed
40
Lessons Learned
Open source doesn’t have to mean “open doors”
Get your users’ requirements well documented
Watch scope creep
Be an evangelist and cope with nay-sayers
Know when to ask for help and advice.
41
Thank you very much … Questions?
Dave Melone
eLearning Supervisor
FIDM/The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
[email protected]
42