9:01 a.m., Jan. 30, 2009----Havidán Rodríguez, University of Delaware vice provost for academic affairs and international programs, through a letter in his absence, set the tone for the second Learning Management System (LMS) Committee Winter Retreat held Jan. 21 at the Courtyard Newark-University of Delaware.

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Rodríguez congratulated committee members on playing an instrumental role in the successful selection, promotion, and implementation of Sakai as the replacement for WebCT at the University of Delaware. "Due to your efforts and the efforts of the IT staff, we were able to offer Sakai to all faculty teaching credit courses this past fall," Rodriguez said.

According to Rodríguez, growth in the use of Sakai for course projects has tripled expectations. Currently there are 16,000 users on more than 1,000 sites.

"And now, as we have moved beyond the selection and initial implementation of Sakai, we face new challenges and opportunities. We are calling on the committee members to continue to be ambassadors for promoting best practices in teaching and learning through Sakai and by providing feedback to IT," Rodríguez said.

Throughout the morning, participants learned that Sakai has possibilities far beyond the course sites that are now in use.

John Hall, IT-Management Information Services, reported to the committee on the feedback faculty have provided on Sakai and the resolution of requested changes. Hall also outlined changes that will come with Sakai version 2.6, expected to be released to the University in summer 2009. The new version will improve Sakai's performance and offer new features such as a "real" student view that faculty can use to check how students will see their sites; Sakai 2.6 will also offer a more responsive Site Info tool.

Looking to the next major version -- Sakai 3.0 -- Mathieu Plourde, IT-User Services, said that Sakai will move beyond being a learning management system to become a tool that supports higher education more broadly. Sakai 3.0 will offer a revamped user experience, social networking, and an extended ability to link course resources to each other.

Speakers at the retreat urged committee members to be ambassadors to their colleagues and to spread the word about Sakai's possibilities. To this end, James Dean, professor of English, explained how he uses Sakai and how the English department is furthering its adoption through sponsoring training workshops and roundtables for faculty. Some of the things Dean appreciates about Sakai are its integrative tools and that he always knows where he is on the site. He reports that his fall-semester students were very happy with Sakai.

According to Dean, "Sakai really works and helps me think through a course before day one -- where I want students to start out and where I want them to end up. The organizational tools of Sakai help me accomplish this."

Several faculty and programs, including the Nutrition and Dietetics internship, Secondary Science Education, FYE, Latin American Studies, and Secondary English Education, are piloting a different use of Sakai: e-portfolios. Portfolios may be used as electronic storage devices, to assess a student's progress toward a specific learning goal, for self-reflection, and as a way to include external constituents.

Setting up an e-portfolio site is quite different from establishing a Sakai course. Faculty who wish to embark upon a portfolio project must have well-defined learning outcomes before beginning the process. Consultation with Information Technologies is crucial in establishing a portfolio project.

Beginning this spring, a long-requested feature of Sakai will become a reality when University faculty and staff will be able to create project sites. Project sites are not associated with UDSIS and have roles that are different from those in course sites. A project site includes an organizer role, members, and possibly observers.

Several groups have been piloting Sakai project sites. The Faculty Senate uses a Sakai project to accomplish committee work and Math 251 instructors collaborate on developing lesson plans and assignments.

Sakai projects would be ideal for small group work. They do require careful planning to be effective. More information on setting up a Sakai project site will be forthcoming in the near future.