[Using Sakai] Sakai & Canvas...

Tue Mar 10 13:10:32 PDT 2015

Nice to 'meet' you too, Barb! It looks like we're neighbors. Good to know
Bradley is a Sakai school too. There are a number of small private schools
who use Sakai - Rutgers, Pepperdine, Tufts, Duke....

We may not have the numbers Indiana or Michigan did, but there are many
ways even the small guys can contribute to the evolution of Sakai. Notre
Dame doesn't have developers to contribute, but when our faculty
experiences a pain point they eagerly collect funds for us to pay
developers to take care of it. When they particularily want a feature, the
same. Notre Dame eagerly contributed funding for the Gradebook enhancement
project which we'll hear more about in a webinar this month. I know there's
also a place for us to contribute to quality assurance, testing real life
scenarios we know and care about, and we're doing that now through our
vendor Longsight...

I hope to see you at Open Apereo in Baltimore. I'm sure many of us will be
discussing what we want the future of Sakai to be and contributing to its
roadmap. If I don't see you there, maybe I'll just have to come visit
Peoria!

Take care,

Laura

Laura Gekeler
LMS Administrator //Concurrent Instructor
Teaching and Learning Technologies
University of Notre Dame
P:(1) 574-631-2402

On 10 March 2015 at 12:50, Barbra Kerns <brk at fsmail.bradley.edu> wrote:

> Thank you for addressing this, Laura.  And, it is nice to meet you!
>
> We have heard similar negative comments toward Sakai arise - both on and
> off our campus.  We did our research into the LMS market, Sakai product,
> and Sakai community, and came to similar conclusions that you have nicely
> articulated.  We have defended Sakai to our campus constituents to dispel
> fears of Sakai becoming obsolete.  We are continuing to evaluate our needs,
> the LMS market, and what other systems may be coming in the future that may
> displace the LMS.  And we are looking forward to the coming enhancements
> that are currently being "staged" in Sakai.  Staying tuned!
>
> Barb Kerns
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Barbra Kerns, M.S.Ed.
> Center for Teaching Excellence & Learning
> Director, Instructional Design & Learning Technologies
> • Co-Chair, Teaching Technology Task Force
> • Part-time Instructor, Teacher Education
> Bradley University, Peoria, IL
> brk at bradley.edu
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2015 at 8:12 AM, Laura Gekeler <LGekeler at nd.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi Gregory,
>>
>> I'll take a shot at this topic. You probably don't know me but I was
>> elected to the Apereo Foundation Board this past year to serve a 3 yr term.
>> I thought I'd start with that "full disclosure" since Sakai is a project
>> under the Apereo Foundation umbrella. So, here's what I know -
>>
>> Canvas was chosen as an exploratory platform by a new consortium called
>> "Unizin."
>>
>> Unizin's members *do* include Indiana University and University of
>> Michigan, who were among Sakai's founding members. In that respect, the
>> Canvas rep's statements are true. Stanford is not in that group, so that
>> part isn't true at all. However, Stanford is piloting Canvas this winter
>> quarter
>> <https://coursework.stanford.edu/access/content/group/UX%20Managed%20Content/gateway/spotlights/canvasPilot.html>
>> (2015).
>>
>> It's the Canvas sales rep's job to sell (hosting subscriptions).  The
>> sales rep doesn't sell Canvas itself, since, like Sakai, Canvas has been
>> licensed as open source. Though *unlike* Sakai which is open in totality
>> and from inception, only Canvas "basic," or Canvas "light" is freely
>> downloadable and installable on its own.
>>
>> Is there a future in Sakai now that Indiana University and the University
>> of Michigan no longer contribute to Sakai? You betcha. The torch has been
>> passed; the Sakai community is solid.
>>
>> Bigger questions, as the Sakai community continues to evolve and grow, is
>> how do we as a community leap-frog over Canvas? You know the list in Sakai
>> called "Edit Tools" that contains all the tools native to Sakai as well as
>> all the 3rd party extensions like Kaltura and Piazza, etc? Canvas has that
>> list too, with an eye-popping icon representing it. So, the tool list
>> itself was an idea that came from Sakai, The icons? The iPhone, right?
>>
>> To your question, the Sakai community of innovators is alive and well. We
>> *are* in a staging period, which makes us look like not much is
>> happening, but behind the scenes, it is.
>>
>> Laura
>>
>>
>> Laura Gekeler
>> LMS Administrator //Concurrent Instructor
>> Teaching and Learning Technologies
>> University of Notre Dame
>> P:(1) 574-631-2402
>>
>>
>> On 10 March 2015 at 08:31, Gregory Guthrie <guthrie at mum.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> I got an interesting comment from a Canvas LMS representative;
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “Sakai is such a cool concept but I do wonder where it will end up in
>>> the future, as most it's founding schools (and the schools putting
>>> resources into developing it) have now left and come to Canvas (U of
>>> Indiana, U of Michigan, Stanford)…”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I wondered what level of reality this statement has?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
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