Course Management System Conversion to Sakai
Goal
Convert the current Course Management System and associated services from Backboard/Vista to the Sakai open source Collaboration and Learning Environment, including the migration of existing courses to the new system.
Background
The current Course Management System is heavily used by more than 50,000 on-campus, distance education, and extension students. With more than 8,000 courses in the system, this service is of great importance to UF learning and outreach programs.
In April 2009 the CMS Review Committee, after extensive evaluation and testing, recommended UF adopt Sakai to replace the current CMS software which will no longer be supported by the vendor after October 2012.
Objectives
All to be accomplished by September 2010:
- Establish a Sakai governance committee integrated with UF-IT governance
- Create an open source programming team to support software maintenance and development
- Establish support and training programs
- Migrate 8,000+ existing courses in Blackboard Vista to Sakai
- Evaluate the feasibility of upgrading to Sakai 3 when it becomes available.
Project Sponsors
- Dr. Charles Frazier - Interim CIO
- Dr. Joe Glover - Provost
Impact
- Convert from a vendor supported system to a community supported system
- Enhanced online courses and pedagogy as a result of new tool availability
- Increased integration capabilities with related UF systems
- Improved support through the Sakai community and increased local capabilities
- Integration into a collaborative consortium of universities
Timeline
A preliminary timeline is shown below.
| Target | Action | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| August 2009 | Open source programming team identified. | OSPT to be created from full and partial FTEs as available as well as additional hiring if needed. |
| August 2009 | CMS governance committee created | Representation shall be recruited from across campus and will include student representation. |
| September 2009 | Develop detailed plan, budgets | |
| September 2009 | Implement Sakai 2.x for support staff training and development. Develop & implement training and support programs | Contract with 3rd-party support vendors for appropriate services (if needed), e.g. configuration and system tuning, system administration, template development, etc. |
| Sep. - Dec. 2009 | Initiate conversion testing program in the Fall term and identify instructors and courses for Spring pilot | Limited to a small number of selected courses and instructors. |
| Jan. - April 2010 | Initiate pilot | Limited to selected courses and instructors, but scaled up significantly from Fall beta program. |
| Jan. - Aug. 2010 | Initiate faculty training program | Face-to-face training courses will be available in addition to online resources. |
| Spring 2010 | New course creation switch-over | All new courses created in Sakai. Requires successful beta and pilot programs, training & support readiness, etc. |
| Spring 2010 | Migration of existing courses begins | The exact details of migration have yet to be determined. |
| May 2010 | Summer roll-out | Assumes successful Spring pilot. |
| August 2010 | Full production on Sakai | Assumes successful Summer roll-out. |
| 31 October 2010 | Current proprietary system license expires. |
