10:03 a.m., July 17, 2009----Mathieu Plourde, project leader in IT-Client Support and Services at the University of Delaware, has been named a 2009 Sakai Fellow. He was one of only six people worldwide selected for the honor.

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According to a formal blog announcement by Michael Korcuska, executive director of the Sakai Foundation, “The Sakai Fellows program seeks to foster community leadership and participation in all aspects of community activity through the recognition and support of exceptional contributors.”

Sakai is an open-source collaborative and learning environment currently in full production in nearly 200 schools worldwide, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Michigan, Indiana University, Stanford University, and Rutgers University.

By the end of spring 2009, there were more than 1,500 courses and 200 project sites using Sakai at the University of Delaware.

Of Plourde, Korcuska said, “Mathieu Plourde has been an active participant in the Sakai teaching and learning community, playing a leadership role in the Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award and helping reinvigorate the wiki space for that group. He has done an excellent job in bringing the needs of faculty and students to the attention of those who are developing Sakai, ensuring that future versions of the product will do an even better job at meeting campus needs. Finally, Mathieu organized much of the social networking and content sharing for this year's very successful Sakai conference in Boston. He generally seems to be everywhere at once and always contributes with good humor, humility and a sense of really trying to make things easier for others. I, personally, was thrilled to see the community recognize his efforts with the Sakai Fellow award. It is well deserved.”

“I am much honored to have been named one of only six fellows worldwide,” Plourde said. “Last year was a busy one for UD with the deployment of Sakai to replace WebCT as our centrally supported learning management system. Although this is an individual award, I could not have won it without the constant support of the whole IT organization here at UD.”

Plourde added, “The effort I put towards the Sakai community tends to be focused on long-term software development strategy and educational practices, which strikes a nice balance with our day-to-day operations.”

Plourde received his award at the 10th Sakai Conference, held from July 8-10 in Boston. The award is accompanied by a $2,500 stipend to be used for Sakai-related activities, including travel, equipment, and professional development.