[DG: Teaching & Learning] UPDATE > Sakai Teaching and Learning Initiative

[Max Whitney]

Hello to the Teaching & Learning mailing list:

At NYU we talked through the draft Teaching & Learning capability review process, and we're very excited to get involved. NYU just completed a transition from Blackboard to Sakai CLE 2.8. A key reason we moved from Blackboard to Sakai is the open source nature of Sakai and the ability to contribute to improving the tools over time.
Members of our LMS service team will be chiming in with more detail in coming days, but I can give you some high-level feedback from our conversation:

The perspective of the teacher really needs to be baked in to tools. Some consultations start with faculty saying straight out "Who built this? Did they talk to a teacher?"
Getting feedback into the process and having it impact design and development is important.
"Teaching and Learning Review" is a good way for soliciting feedback. We'd like to include faculty members, being mindful of using their time effectively.
"Usability Review" also sounds like a good way forward. We've done some formal UX testing here at NYU and may be able to contribute test scripts.
Regarding "Best Practice Documentation," gathering links to existing documentation and videos is useful. Trying to establish a single best practice caused some concern in our conversation, as within NYU our schools have divergent needs and teaching models. One size does not fit all in our experience. 

- Max

Max Whitney
Manager, Academic Technology Systems
Academic Technology Services - ITS
New York University
max at nyu.edu
212.998.3506


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Josh Baron <Josh.Baron at marist.edu>
> Date: Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 5:57 PM
> Subject: [Using Sakai] UPDATE > Sakai Teaching and Learning Initiative
> To: pedagogy at collab.sakaiproject.org, portfolio at collab.sakaiproject.org, sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
> 
> 
> Colleagues, 
> 
> I wanted to report out on the Sakai Teaching and Learning call that was held today as the group is starting to move towards an actionable plan and it would be very useful to get input from a broad cross section of the community.  I also know that not everyone who has been on the prior calls was available today and thus wanted to make them aware of the discussion. 
> 
> After a series of conference calls following the Open Apereo conference (see https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/BwrzB), the Sakai Teaching and Learning Group has begun to develop plans to engage in a process to review the Lesson Builder/Lessons tool being developed by Rutgers University (and others) as means to identify new capabilities and new user interface designs that would enhance its use from a teaching and learning perspective.  Our hope is that this process, once matured, could become a model for work with other Sakai tools and capabilities as well as means to engage in longer-term strategic planning for the product.  Central to this work is the commitment that once new capabilities and designs are identified, that the group would work to engage institutional decision makers as means to help find the resources needed to support the related development effort. 
> 
> Over the past couple of weeks there has been an effort to engage in a preliminary effort  to review the Lesson Builder/Lessons tool which has been lead by Marilyn Dispensa and Rob Fentress as well as several others.  Some of the outcomes of this work are documented at: https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/PED/Lessons+Tool%3A+Best+Practices+and+Suggestions.  At the same time, the group has identified the need to also engage in a usability review and wish to make this part of the review process as well.  Based on this preliminary work and discussions, the Teaching and Learning group is now starting to draft a document that would outline how we might engage in a review process. 
> 
> You can find a draft T&L Capability Review Process document at: https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/QwzzB 
> 
> We are encouraging everyone to look at this draft and either add to it or post comments as means of providing feedback.  Our hope is to complete the process document in the next 1-2 weeks and then engage in the review effort more formally.  As we start up the more formal review process we will be rescheduling our calls as we know there are folks interested in participating who cannot make the current call schedule. 
> 
> Josh 
> 
> -----------------------------
> Joshua Baron
> Senior Academic Technology Officer
> Marist College
> Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
> (845) 575-3623 (work)
> Twitter: JoshBaron
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> -- 
> Francesca Socolick
> Instructional Designer and Usability Engineer
> Educational Technology Services
> Academic Technology Services, ITS
> New York University
> phone: 212-992-6786
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