12 p.m., Nov. 14, 2008----When a university announces a major change to a key system on campus, one of the questions usually heard is, “How long can we keep using the old system?”

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As the University of Delaware announced that it was phasing out MyCourses, UD's version of the WebCT Learning Management System (LMS), in favor of Sakai, the question most often heard from faculty was, “When can I move to Sakai?”

Fall 2008 is the first semester UD has offered Sakai to all faculty teaching credit courses. “We had set goals of about 120 faculty using approximately 180 Sakai courses during fall 2008,” said Janet de Vry, IT-User Services. “Faculty use has exploded past those targets.”

She indicated that, as of Oct. 22, 327 faculty members are teaching 538 courses with Sakai@UD. “We've seen ongoing growth in faculty use of an LMS. This fall, over 1,100 courses are being taught with an LMS, and 48 percent of those courses are being offered on Sakai@UD.” (See accompanying chart)

Allen Prettyman, instructor in the University's School of Nursing, moved two classes (NURS620, Advanced Health Assessment, and NURS625, Episodic Care of the Adult) from MyCourses to Sakai@UD. He said that he used many of the tools developed by IT to help him convert his classes, adding that he “found the video clips that demonstrated step-by-step how to perform a task such as copying files” particularly helpful.

James Dean, professor of English, said he was going to wait to migrate, “But I realized that, since we are migrating anyway, I might as well take the plunge. I don't regret that decision at all.” Dean moved two of his classes to Sakai@UD: British Literature I (ENGL205) and Studies in Medieval Literature: King Arthur (ENGL323).

Prettyman said that his students, enrolled in both his on-campus course and his distance learning course, have found Sakai@UD easy to use. “The clean, crisp standardized layout makes navigating in a Sakai course painless for students,” he said.

Prettyman added that students adapt easily to the structure of the Resources tool and that they like being able to see an ongoing grade report at any time during the semester. “In fact, the online grading is an improvement over that in WebCT.”

Dean agreed, saying, “I particularly appreciate the full integration of all the features involved in grading. I'm pleased that I can provide students with special features using the Schedule tool, directing them in detail as to what they should read and what work they should turn in electronically.” He said that his students, like Prettyman's, were thrilled that their graded work-and their grade for the term so far-is so readily available to them.

Overall student reaction to Sakai@UD has been very positive. “At midterm, I asked both courses' students whether they liked Sakai,” Dean said. “They praised Sakai almost unanimously. Some volunteered that Sakai is much easier to use than MyCourses” [WebCT].

According to Carl Jacobson, acting vice president of Information Technologies, UD is one of many universities that is moving to Sakai in response to WebCT's purchase by a competitor, Blackboard. “Blackboard announced it is phasing out support for WebCT; beginning in October 2009, Blackboard will no longer offer full support for its WebCT customers,” he said.
Jacobson said that UD will provide support for WebCT through the spring 2010 semester, but plans to turn off WebCT in July 2010. “Therefore, faculty currently using MyCourses should start planning their migration to Sakai@UD as soon as they can,” he said.

According to de Vry, “The possibilities opened up to faculty and students by the wiki, blog, and other 'Web 2.0' tools in Sakai have excited students and faculty alike. Therefore, we think that faculty who move their courses to Sakai@UD during 2009 will be very pleased.”

'I love the wiki!'

When asked about things that have surprised him about his experience with Sakai@UD, Prettyman responded, “I love the wiki!”

Prettyman posted a case study on the wiki in NURS-620 (Advanced Health Assessment) and asked his students to develop a paper on the topic, “Arguments For and Against Patient-Centered Interviewing in a Clinical Practice Setting.”

“Eighteen students jumped in, and all contributed to a 19-page, well-written, fully-documented paper in the course of one week,” he said. “I simply provided some daily guidance and comments.”

The results of this exercise in collaborative authorship exceeded his expectations. “I sent the paper to a colleague, an editor for a national nurse practitioner journal, and she was impressed enough to suggest that I prepare the paper for publication.”

Prettyman said that publishing the results of this wiki assignment does pose a new issue: “I am still thinking about how to give all of the students credit for their work, should I pursue having this paper published.”

For further information, see Sakai@UD [www.udel.edu/sakai] or the University's LMS Committee web site [www.udel.edu/udlms].

Article by Richard Gordon