Hkust Sakai China Day Presentation

SAKAI China DaySakai中国日讨论会

Sakai in Hong KongSakai在香港

Center for Enhanced Learning & Teaching

The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology 香港科技大学教学促进中心

1 Mar 2008

Sakai in HK• About HKUST• 关于香港科技大学• History of LMS and SAKAI in HKUST• 科大应用 LMS 和 SAKAI 的歷史• Major customization on SAKAI 1.5/2.1/2.4• SAKAI 在科大应用上需改动的部分• Current usage statistics in HKUST• 目前在 SAKAI应用上的一些統計

Sakai in HK

• Lesson Learnt•建设 SAKAI 过程中所得到的经验

• Recommendations for SAKAI implementation

•建设 SAKAI 上的一些建议

• Moving Forward•下一目标

About HKUST

• HKUST - A dynamic, international research university in Hong Kong

• Official opening in Oct 1991

• Located in Clear Water Bay with beautiful scenery

• With around 6,000 UG students, 3,500 PG students and 450 teaching staffs

About HKUST

• School of Science

• School of Engineering

• School of Business & Management

• School of Humanities & Social Science

• HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School (located in Nansha IT Park)

About CELT

• Center for Enhanced Learning & Teaching

• CELT supports the University's mission of advancing knowledge by providing a dynamic and supportive environment for students, faculty members and other teaching staff to continually improve their teaching and learning.

History of LMS and SAKAI in HKUST

• 1991 – WWW not available– Face to face teaching & learning activities– Course notes distribution by paper

• 1997 – Teaching.ust.hk– A common web server for course file distribution– HTML / FTP for content update– Cgi programming for interactive courseware– Problem: Require technical skills to publish web contents

• 2001 – WebCT / Lotus Learning Spaces– User can self-develop online courses– Some interactive functions available (forum, chat and calendar)– Ease of content update by non-technical persons

WWW

History of LMS and SAKAI

• Problems / issues in using commercial products– Very few vendors available– Inflexible to cater users’ needs– No control / ownership of enhancements or problems– License cost

• Decision in 2005 : Implement an open-source eLearning system to better fulfill the needs of users– SAKAI and Moodle has been considered– Final choice is SAKAI

History of LMS and SAKAI• 2005 – SAKAI 1.5 (Pilot)

– Named as LMES – Learning Management & Evaluation System– Implemented with SCORM support tool (Runtime using Java Applet)

• 2006 – SAKAI 2.0 and SAKAI 2.1 upgrade– Tests & Quizzes– Enhanced Grade book– JForum Discussion– Wiki & RSS News– SCORM support is missing for version 2.0 and 2.1 due to major

structure change in SAKAI from version 1.5 to 2.0

• 2007 – SCORM support in LMES 2.1– Re-developed the SCORM support using AJAX– Integrated with the Resources Tool– Developed resources access tracking and reporting tool

History of LMS and SAKAI• 2008 – SAKAI 2.4 upgrade

– The current version of SAKAI using in the HKUST– Enhancements on assignments, grade book and test & quizzes– Better group support in various tools– Mailtool, Blog, Podcast & Poll

Authentication using CAS

Usage example in HKUST

LMES main page

Usage example in HKUST

Resources tool with SCORM support

Usage example in HKUST

AJAX-based SCORM Player

Usage example in HKUST

Customizable Tracking Report

Usage example in HKUST

Library reserves of a course

Usage example in HKUST

Debate by linking to phpBB

Usage example in HKUST

Online Debate with Customized phpBB

Usage example in HKUST

Synchronized video and lecture notes review using SCORM

Usage example in HKUST

Video Podcast

Other variants of LMES in HKUST

• eLOP (eLearning online platform) for the Hong Kong Virtual University– For high school students– Mainly online

• CL3 (College of Life Long Learning)– For public– Blended with classroom & online training

Development Resources

• Development team– 1 system architect – 2 programmers

• Operation and support team– 2 operation & support staffs

Production platform

• Application server– Redhat Enterprise Linux 4.0– 8GB RAM, Dual Xeon CPU– Tomcat

• Database server– Redhat Enterprise Linux 4.0– 16GB RAM, Dual Xeon CPU– Oracle 10g Standard One Edition

Usage Statistics

• 273 course sites in Fall 2008• Most used tools are Resources and Discussion• Total number of unique students - 7,000• Total number of unique teaching staffs and TA –

450• Data volume – 40GB (3GB data, 37GB file)

Major customization on SAKAI• Integration with student records system

– User (students, instructors, TA)• Customized provider for the “User Directory Service”• Link up & synchronize with the enrollment & teaching records

– Course • Modified “Site Management Service”• Retrieve information from the course information system• Future development : Making a customized provider for the “Course

Management Service” under SAKAI instead of modifying the Site Management Service directly.

• User-interface customization– Mainly on CSS / image

Student information system

Student information system

Courseinformation system

Courseinformation system

Major customization on SAKAI• Tool debugging

– More tool debugging required in the previous version of SAKAI– Less problems found in release 2.4

• SCORM tool implementation– SCORM package upload & verification– SCORM runtime player (store/retrieve interaction)

• Access tracking for both SCORM and non-SCORM item

• Customizable Report for access record and SCORM interaction details

• Data Migration and file storage management

Lessons Learnt• Technologies used in Sakai were changed heavily from v.1.5

to v.2.0

• Development / customization done in one version may not be easily portable to a new version

• Substantial effort is required for version upgrade (6 man months for v.2.1 -> 2.4)

• Some tools are not mature enough, require more testing and fixing

• User's expectation and reluctance from WebCT to LMES

• Data migration need extra caution (need to fully test the migrated system before release)

Recommendations for implementation

• Recruit developers with appropriate skill sets (i.e. technologies used in Sakai)

• Plan for usage expansion• Plan for user support and training• Minimize customization to the system unless

necessary for easier upgrade• Collaborate with the SAKAI community for any

enhancements / improvements required• Submit your fixes, enhancements to the

community to strengthen the system

Moving Forward

• Share all fixes and customizations to the community• Collaborate with SAKAI community to improve the

SCORM functionalities (e.g. to support SCORM 2004)• Customize the jForum to support debate functions• Develop an activity sign-up system and integrate with

SAKAI• Integrate with uPortal• Integrate with LAMS with LMES• Integrate the course evaluation system with LMES• 2010 - Major expansion of the system to support all

courses in the University– 4 Application server with load balancing & session clustering– 1 File server link up with the University’s SAN

Thank you

Contact information:

Mr. William Wan 尹頌明Teaching Technologies

Center for Enhanced Learning & Teaching

HKUST

Email: [email protected]

Tel: (852)2358-8037