Most of us are already Sakai adopters and most of us like it a lot. As colleagues from peer institutions are looking at adopting a new LMS and are asking for our feedback, what are we telling them, for real? What are Sakai’s current strengths and weaknesses?

1. An Honest Look at Sakai: What
Should We Tell Potential Adopters?
Michael Feldstein, Oracle
Mathieu Plourde, University of Delaware
Hannah Reeves, Tufts University
Kevin Turner, IBM

2. Session Agenda
• Introduction
• Panel Presentations
• Tufts University’s LMS Search
• The Moodle Buyer's Experience
• University of Delaware’s Sakai Deployment
• IBM’s Vision for Open Source
• Conclusion
July 2009 10th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A. 2

3. The LMS Search Process @
TUFTS UNIVERSITY
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4. It All Started With This…
Dear Faculty, Students, and Staff:
The university, including the faculty-led Information Technology Committee in A&S
and SoE and the Library Steering Committee, has recognized a number of product
limitations with our current learning management system (LMS) and has affirmed the
need for a proactive process to replace Blackboard "Basic" LMS, in use on the
Medford campus since 1999.
Since that time, we have seen significant evolution in the LMS market and in the field
of educational and collaboration technologies. In coordination with the School of Arts
& Sciences, the School of Engineering and the Fletcher School, UIT Academic
Technology has formed an LMS core strategy team that will work with faculty,
students, and staff across the Medford campus this academic year. The core team will
facilitate a process of assessing community LMS requirements, identifying an
appropriate new LMS platform, and recommending a support and service model to
meet the diverse set of community LMS needs.
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5. Current Tufts LMS Terrain
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6. Current Tufts LMS Terrain
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7. What are We Looking for?
A Few Simple things
Functionality
Flexibility
Supportability
Customizability - for health sciences
Innovation – Google Wave?
Low cost
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8. LMS Systems Under Consideration
Angel Learning
Blackboard
Moodle
Sakai
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9. Perspectives on Proprietary (Bb)
Pros Cons
 Increasing distaste for
Familiar and trusted business practices
Migration, migration,  Wariness surrounding
migration reputation (service provider)
 User base  Cost
 Tufts’ history of creating own
“Better the devil you know” applications like VUE
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10. Perspectives on Open Source
Risky
Complex
Requires more resources
Poorly documented
Not ready for prime time
We can’t support
Future - uncertain
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11. Perspectives on Sakai
First impressions
Voices of experience/networks
Source of truth
Expense???
Functional gaps and product roadmap
Sustainability
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12. What We Need to Sell Sakai/Open Source
Documentation, documentation,
documentation
Showcase/Examples
Voices of Experience – network
How To – getting involved
Marketing information (TCO, product
roadmap, etc)
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13. The LMS Paradigm Shift
Proprietary? Open Source?
13
10th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.

14. THE MOODLE BUYER’S EXPERIENCE
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15. Sakai’s First Year at the
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
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16. It All Started With This…
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17. I Can Yap About Our Experience…
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18. The Sakai Paradigm Shift
CONTROLLED SELF-SERVICE
Attribution: Jeffrey Beall on Flick.com Attribution: Sean Munson on Flick.com
3/26/2009 LMS Committee Meeting - Sakai@UD Update 18

19. Fall 2008 Course Sites in a
Learning Management System at UD
1400
1200
1000
597
800
Sakai
WebCT
600
400 837
782
663
563 571
508
200
344
215
0 40
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
3/26/2009 LMS Committee Meeting - Sakai@UD Update 19

20. Spring 2009 Course Sites in a
Learning Management System at UD
1200
1000
800
723
600 Sakai
WebCT
400 797 782
676
596
453
200
365 362
219
141
0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
3/26/2009 LMS Committee Meeting - Sakai@UD Update 20

21. Unique Faculty Users
• Individual faculty who have created at
least one Sakai course:
Fall 2008 346
Winter 2009 68
Spring 2009 432
Individuals (all semesters) 573
3/26/2009 LMS Committee Meeting - Sakai@UD Update 21

22. Unique Faculty Users
• Individual faculty who have created at
least one Sakai course:
Fall 2008 346
Half of All
Winter 2009 UD Faculty!
68
Spring 2009 432
Individuals (all semesters) 573
3/26/2009 LMS Committee Meeting - Sakai@UD Update 22

23. Quotes from Spring 2009 Faculty Survey
“The greatest resources are the
ones that require little or no
instruction. Sakai approaches
this ideal.”
“I use [the Sakai Help Files]- it's the
easiest [resource] to find while I’m
actually using Sakai, and [they]
answers most questions”
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24. Quotes from Spring 2009 Faculty Survey
“Link to library for a list of specific articles I
would like them to have immediate access to
(electronic reserves).”
“Track student access to specific sites
within the course site - e.g., answer keys or
supplemental materials. This is about the
only thing from WebCT that I really miss.”
“I would like my students to work collaboratively on
a wiki, if it could be more user-friendly than the
current version. Please!!!”
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25. Lessons Learned at UD
• The Help Files are, by design, incomplete.
• We had to create a workflow to customize
them. Requires lots of energy.
• Our users do not like tool silos.
• Self-Service is greatly appreciated.
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26. But Which LMS is the Best Choice?
?
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27. Education for a Smarter Planet
THE VALUE OF OPEN SOURCE
Kevin J. Turner,
Associate Partner, Director, Education Sales, US
Sakai Conference, July 10, 2009
IBM Global Education
© 2009 IBM Corporation

28. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
Why Is IBM Involved With Open Source?
Pain Point Cause
Vendor lock-in Most products have their own
proprietary platform
Integration and maintenance are Integration is often point-to-point and
costly non-standard
Business processes are inflexible Business processes are tightly
coupled with software solutions
28 IBM Global Education 2009

29. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
IBM Strategy and Roadmap for Education
A Path Towards
 Seamless integration of teaching, learning and administrative services
 Anytime, anywhere, any device learning for all students
 Optimization and integration of internal and external business process
 Reduction of IT delivery, management and maintenance costs
Leveraging
 World class hardware, software, research
 Deep expertise in accessibility, education and integration services
 Broad set of partners and offerings that support an
Open Education Framework
Based On
 Services Oriented Architecture (SOA)
 Open Standards
 Open Source
29 IBM Global Education 2009

30. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
Why Is IBM Involved With Sakai?
Because Sakai Will Be The ‘Eclipse For Education’
Sakai Foundation
Education Partners
Developer Oversight Community
Community Tool API Collab. Tools
JSR-168 Tools
&WSRP Interoperability
SOA Commercial
Affiliates
IMS Packaging
SCORM
Common Course
Cartridge
Publishers
Consumers
30 IBM Global Education 2009

31. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
The Educational Continuum for a Smarter Planet
Smarter Classrooms:
Open learning
environments that increase
Primary student skills through
School
access, alignment and
Secondary
School Workforce insights
Skills
Higher
Education
Smart Administration:
Continuing
Education
The optimized processes that
Educational
Continuum leverage shared services
Intelligent
and interoperability
Economic
Instrumented Sustainability Innovation in
Research:
Interconnected high performance
computing that contributes
to knowledge and
economic sustainability
31 IBM Global Education 2009

32. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
A Smarter Classroom leverages 21st Century technology to
improve quality, increase access and lower costs.
• Classrooms, labs and
Students, Faculty, Teachers and Staff • Thin Clients and
Mobile Devices allow
mobile access built
every user to access
around virtual
services easily
desktops
• Business
• Virtualized computer VIRTUALIZED DESKTOP SERVICES Intelligence provides
resources of legacy insights on student
desktop applications performance
and services, using
Open Source to lower INFORMATION ON DEMAND
• Integrated Portal
costs.
On Demand Workplace provides consolidated
access to applications
BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE and content
• Open Source
eLearning & • Administrative
ePortfolios Industry Standard Framework Services provide for
Courseware, Content management of
and Services resources and assets
Legacy Desktop Services
to support learning
• Virtualized Cloud
Services centrally Open Education Resources • Network Services
supports a distributed Public Clouds provide high speed
set of campuses and connectivity between
classrooms thin clients and servers
IBM
• Web Services from
• IBM hosted delivery IBM and others for
as an option Public Infrastructure collaboration and
Centralized Infrastructure
productivity
32 IBM Global Education 2009

33. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
A Smarter Classroom leverages 21st Century technology from IBM
and our Partners
IBM’s Virtual
Students, Faculty, Teachers and Staff Consumer devices,
thin clients
Infrastructure
Access & Virtual
Client Solutions
VIRTUALIZED DESKTOP SERVICES
INFORMATION ON DEMAND
On Demand Workplace
BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE
Industry Standard Framework
Legacy Desktop Services
• Cloud Services from
IBM Servers Open Education Resources commercial providers
Public Clouds
& Storage
IBM
• IBM hosted delivery
as an option Public Infrastructure
Centralized Infrastructure
33 IBM Global Education 2009

34. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
Questions
 See our website on “Smarter Education”:
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/us/smartplanet/topics/educationtechnology/20090
601/index.shtml?sa_campaign=message/leaf1/smarterplanet/education
 Kevin Turner:
kevin.turner@us.ibm.com
703-447-0495 (mobile)
34 IBM Global Education 2009

35. Sakai’s SWOT Analysis
INTERNAL FACTORS
Strengths Weaknesses
EXTERNAL FACTORS
Opportunities Threats
35

36. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
Sakai SWOT – July 2008 Internal Marketing Calls
Strengths
 Marketing/Community
– Marketed at technical level of institutions well
– Word of mouth marketing currently is good
– Strong, open, transparent community
– Community-based governance is perceived as strength
– Lower cost for maintenance of system
 Technical Capabilities
– Good capabilities for web services
– Easier to configure than alternatives
– Sakai has a development roadmap to a very flexible, adaptable
– Sakai has learned from mistakes and is capable of re-engineering
– High degree of flexibility
 Functional Capabilities
– Designed to service at an enterprise level
– Not “just a silo’ed CMS” - it’s designed to be support a broad base of functions and services
– Large number of contributions and tools
– Multiple frameworks available
 Performance
– Sakai is very scalable
– Easier to measure performance and report on metrics, to drive continuous performance
– JIRA – transparent
– Ability to measure quality
36 IBM Global Education 2009

37. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
Sakai SWOT – July 2008 Internal Marketing Calls
Weaknesses
 Marketing/Community
– Sakai not marketed at all currently
– Sakai not visible at education conferences
– Role of CEO and Board not clear
– Diverse community that has sometimes divergent objectives. Consensus is hard to arrive at
– Contributions, tools not documented consistently
– Tools silo/lack of workflow capability
– Perception of need to put a lot resources into Sakai if adopted by an institution
– Perception of high Total Cost of Ownership of Sakai
– Perception of lack of no “assurance” of system similar to commercial product
 Technical Capabilities
– Sakai is difficult to install, hard for newcomers to get started
– Lack of ability to integrate with blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0
– Less workflow capabilities
– Lack of consistency in approaches to functions within Sakai
 Functional Capabilities
– Sakai administrative interface is very weak compared to Blackboard’s
– Generally, the interface is not “attractive”, poor User Interface, poor HCI – human computer interface
– There are gaps in functionality for fully-online courses
– Lack of consistency in user interface (e.g. drag and drop) and tools
– Hard to get a lecturer’s perspective within Sakai, no opportunity to create a “narrative” similar to what is available in Moodle for
the course site
 Performance
– Stack traces – perception of major meltdown
37 IBM Global Education 2009

38. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
Sakai SWOT – July 2008 Internal Marketing Calls
Opportunities
 Marketing/Community
– Good marketing would help increase adoption
– Many institutions would be happy to/are planning to migrate from Blackboard/WebCT
– Commercial partners/consultants could help with marketing
– High degree of confidence and clarity about future capabilities and roadmap
– Create a community of “experts” in various functional areas
 Technical Capabilities
– Enabling work in the roadmap – CARET/K2/Sakai 3.0
– Interoperability with other LMS/CMS’s, e.g. Moodle, Blackboard
– Developing a set of tools
– Integration with LAMS/RAMS for research and learning
– Migration tools to/from versions/products
– Create easy integration with Sakai
– T-Shines!
 Functional Capabilities
– Sakai taking advantage of/participating in cloud computing
– Providing backwards compatibility for versions, e.g V3.0 to V2.x
– Emerging User Interface initiative with Fluid is strong
– Binary tools, demo installers
– Potential innovative functionality
– Need to look at Sakai from a lecturer’s point of view
– Enhance
 Performance
– Transparent knowledge of system, performance – low cost support for the users and community
38 IBM Global Education 2009

39. Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning
Sakai SWOT – July 2008 Internal Marketing Calls
Threats
 Marketing/Community
– Sharepoint is viewed as
– Moodle marketing at a faculty level, very easy to install
– Google is emerging as a perceived alternative to ANY LMS. ”Why not just use Google”
 Technical Capabilities
– Potential instability of Sakai 3.0
– Difficult for new developers to get up to speed
– CM functionality
 Functional Capabilities
– Expectations rising by users (e.g. Web 2.0, Google)
 Performance
– None
39 IBM Global Education 2009

40. Contact Us!
• Michael Feldstein
michael.feldstein@oracle.com
• Mathieu Plourde
mathieu@udel.edu
• Hannah Reeves
hannah.reeves@tufts.edu
• Kevin Turner
kevin.turner@us.ibm.com
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