Sakai Project

September 2006 - June 2007

Introduction

The Sakai Project is a community source software development effort to design, build and deploy a new Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) for higher education. The Project began in January, 2004.

Sakai includes many of the standard online tools such as discussions, announcements, assignments and quizzes, but in addition, collaborative tools such as Wikis and Blogs (not yet generally available in WebCT Vista/MUSO).

Over 85 institutions are now members of the Educational Partner’s Program. These include MIT, Harvard, Indiana, Yale, Brown, California State, Columbia and Carnegie Mellon.

Source: http://www.sakaiproject.org

Four Australian universities have joined the Sakai partnership. They are, the University of Melbourne, Monash University, Charles Sturt University and Australian National University.

The Faculty established a Sakai Evaluation Service in September 2006. The service was open for experimentation and small collaborations. Three units were be supported to pilot teaching on Sakai in Summer Semester 2006/07.

The trial was extended to Semester 1, 2007 and hosted MKF1120 Marketing Theory and Practice, a first year marketing student with over 600+ students.

Sakai features used in MKF1120:

• Announcements
• Resources (Lecture notes, tutorial and exam materials etc)
• Discussion board
• Tests and Quizzes
• Chat
• Podcasts
• External links

Project Timeline

• June 2006 - Faculty Education Office approves funding and support for a small pilot
• July 19th 2006 - Sakai Version 2.2 released
• September 18th 2006 - Sakai 2.2.1 (Demo) service established
• Evaluation
  • Open in September for evaluation and some small scale collaboration activities
  • A small number of units will be assisted to pilot teaching over Summer Semester 2006/07
• October 9th - Sakai 2.2.2 (Production) service established
• A summary of the project’s findings will be reported in March 2007
• Service decomissioned June 29, 2007

Pilot Participants

• AFW2051 - Financial Modelling @ Peninsula (Contact: Peter Krueger)
• MKW3141 - Issues in competitive advantage @ Peninsula (Contact: Kimble Montagu)
• MKF5391 - Sales management @ Caulfield (Contact: Kimble Montagu)
• MKF1120 - Marketing Theory and Practice @ Caulfield (Contact: Peter Wagstaff)

Project Enquiries

For further information on this project, please contact Ann Turner, Education Office on 990 32956 or by Email