2. Agenda
Brief introduction to Tufts University
Paving the way for change
Strategic planning project – Q&A
Implementation and migration project
Lessons learned and tips for success
Q&A
3. About Tufts University
8 Schools
3 (US) Campuses (Boston, Grafton, Medford/Somerville)
~10,000 total students
~5,200 undergraduate students (A&S, Engineering)
~4,600 graduate and professional students
~2,000 faculty
~3,000 staff
4. How did we get here?
• Tufts LMS Terrain – a
rich ecosystem
• Project Drivers
• Laying the Groundwork
• Project Initiation
6. Before we began the project…
• Blackboard administrator proactively recognized
the need for a change in 2005
• Research/piloting of leading LMS platforms,
including ANGEL Learning, Moodle, Sakai in
2006-07
• Blackboard replacement proposal endorsed by
faculty committee and Deans
• Initial work focused on Tufts Blackboard context
7. Meanwhile…
• Blended & distance learning programs burgeoning
and seeking technological & instructional design
solutions
• Architectural and business model analyses of TUSK
to ensure sustainability into the future
• Hence, wisdom of pursuing a university-wide
planning process
8. Tufts Next-Generation LMS Strategy Project Charter:
• Define selection criteria based on university s
goals and community requirements
• Evaluate leading LMS platforms to determine
which best fits Tufts criteria
• Articulate a robust, coordinated support model
for migration and ongoing service to enrich TLR
at Tufts
• Recommend a comprehensive LMS strategy
for Tufts University
9. Strategy Project Model:
• Core Team – deep
experience with learning
management systems and
instructional services
• Advisory Team – multiple
vantage points from
educational to financial to
technological
• Executive Steering
Committee – holding the
university-wide focus
10. Strategy Project Communications:
• Letter to Schools introducing
project and inviting
participation
• Project updates via elist and
project site
• Importance of unified project
message and robust
communication with our
respective communities across
the university
13. University Opportunities & Challenges:
• LMS is the most ubiquitous educational
technology resource ( PeopleSoft of the academic
world ) => unprecedented opportunity to enhance
a system and service that almost all Tufts faculty
and students use regularly
• Opportunity for Tufts to gain more value from
same financial investment by adopting a common
platform and leveraging shared expertise &
common services
14. University Opportunities & Challenges:
• Opportunity for more sustainable and adaptable
LMS architecture that frees design & development
teams to focus on Tufts-specific and discipline-
specific functionality
• Opportunity to integrate instructional design and
faculty development more fully with LMS support,
thus enabling more meaningful use of available
tools
15. University Opportunities & Challenges:
• Facilitating strategic conversations and change
across Schools and organizations. Value of
planning toward university service with
coordinated multi-School, cross-organizational
approach
• Goal of continued end-user satisfaction
• Associated importance of robust communication
about project drivers, intended benefits, and
progress
• Opportunity to address questions that arise
through LMS project, but that extend beyond to
broader strategic directions for Tufts University
16. Big Questions for Tufts Teams:
• simplicity for most, extensibility for some
• stability/sophistication of commercial vs.
configurability/sharability of open source
• next-gen paradigm vs. old silo model
• relationship to portal for faculty/students?
• planning for core educational technology
production services
• mustering "army of too much help" in current
economic climate
17. Strategy Project Milestones:
Facilitate community requirements
gathering – round out with Dental, Medical,
and Veterinary Schools
Develop functional requirements toward
comparative evaluation / RFP
Learn from accessibility, architecture, SIS
integration, and security working groups
Structure and begin deep comparative
evaluation of alternative platforms
18. Strategy Project Milestones:
Finalize and send request for proposals
Introduce platforms to community via demo
sites and usability testing
Complete comparative evaluation of
alternative platforms
Recommend LMS strategy for Tufts
University, including platform and service
model scenarios
20. Tufts LMS Value Statements (shorthand):
common platform
responsible investment
meaningful use enabled by faculty development and
instructional design support
mostly simple, but also extensible
reliable/robust
sustainable architecture that enables integration
21. Unanimously Endorsed Strategy Recommendations:
Implement & Leverage a Common Platform for Tufts
Build upon a Leading Open-source Platform (Sakai)
Coordinated LMS Service Model
Implementation Project Model (EC, SC, CT, WGs)
Professional Expertise for Implementation (rSmart)
Hosting Strategy (in-house via UIT)
Three-phased Approach to Migration
Tufts Next-Generation LMS Strategy Recommendations – full PDF available on Trunk Support site
22. Questions about the strategic planning
process before we shift to implementation?
23. Pivot between Strategy Project Culmination (April 2010) &
Implementation Project Launch (Nov 2010):
High-level cost estimation
Funding model for Phases 1 & 2 and ongoing service
Project Plan
Contract with rSmart for implementation services and 2nd- and
3rd-tier support during first 18 months
Recruitment for LMS positions
Formation of implementation project teams
24.
25. Implementation Project Model:
• Same Executive Committee
• Implementation Steering Committee with university-wide
representation and opt-in flex by phase
• Cross-organizational Core Team and Working Groups
for Phase 1 (Academic Technology, Libraries, IT
training & documentation, et al.)
• rSmart implementation support
• Coordinated Trunk Support & Technical Teams for
ongoing service at Tufts + rSmart 2nd- and 3rd-tier
support
26. High-level Implementation Project Timeline:
• Phase 1 (Nov 2010 -> Sept 2011):
– University LMS infrastructure & coordinated service model
implemented and available
– Migration from Blackboard to Sakai for Course Sites
– Project Sites rolled out for full university community
• Phase 2 (Oct 2011 -> June 2012):
– Migration from ANGEL Learning to Sakai
– Course Evaluation functionality for university
– E-Portfolios piloted and service model defined
• Phase 3 (to be defined this year)
– Integration of TUSK with University LMS
28. Project Communications:
• Communications officer dedicated
• Plans developed in dialogue with Core Team and
working group leads
• Multi-pronged approach for faculty, students, staff
• Time-released communications
• Trunk Support site with targeted information for Phase 1
community
• Internal project wiki
29. Naming & Branding the Tufts Platform:
A. Trunk
B. Option 2
C. Option 3
31. Early Education for the Community:
Three Pillars of Sakai
Software Platform Community
Project/Foundation
32. Sakai as Software:
• Open source (ECL 2 license)
• Open architecture
• Feature rich
• Fully Scalable
• Widely adopted
• Constitutes a contemporary / next-generation paradigm
beyond the traditional LMS
33. Sakai as Project & Foundation:
• Project launched in 2003
(Michigan, Indiana, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley)
• Initial funding from Mellon Foundation
• Sakai Foundation chartered in 2004
• Sustaining funding from in-kind grants and Sakai
academic partner memberships (e.g., Tufts)
• Leadership - Sakai Board of Directors, Executive
Director
34. The Sakai Ecosystem:
Sakai Board
Foundation Staff
Executive Director, Ian Dolphin,
Product Manager, Clay Fenlason
Product Council
Sakai 3 Project Director
Administrative Staff
Partner Schools
Commercial Affiliates
Individual committers, users
35. Sakai as Community:
• Open
• Active
• Innovative
• Participatory
• Meritocracy
• Collaboration is key
37. Training and Support for Instructors:
• Support site: http://sites.tufts.edu/trunksupport/
• Quick Start Guide in every mailbox
• 96 Workshops and open labs beginning May 16, 2011
• “Getting Started with Trunk”
• Advanced Trunk workshops (Discussion Forums, Gradebook
& Assignments, Creating Content, Copyright & Library
Resources)
• Content Migration: 314 requests + self-service option
• Email, phone, and drop-in support for Trunk (1150
support tickets resolved thus far)
38. • 565 people have attended workshops; ~88% completed the evaluation
• Primary affiliations: Faculty; Staff; Student; Other (TA/misc)
• School: A&S; Eng; Fletcher; Other (Central Admin/Boston)
39. Training and Support for Students:
• Support site: http://sites.tufts.edu/trunksupport/
• Workshops
• Email, phone, and drop-in support for Trunk
• Quick Start Guide and FAQs
41. Tracking & Prioritizing Potential Trunk Enhancements:
1. Review options for distributed administration roles and
mechanisms and for handling sections
2. Define and implement Mobile Trunk (beyond OOTB)
3. Trunk Math Editor
4. Trunk TurnItIn Integration
5. Trunk Adobe Connect Integration
6. Kaltura Implementation
7. CALT-Trunk Integration
8. Trunk MediaMarkup Integration
9. Trunk iClicker Integration
10. Sakai for Administrative Training for Staff & Faculty
11. And the list continues to grow….
42. What else has worked in our context?
• Weekly project calls with rSmart
• Trunk project facilitators (steward, PM, service owner, core team,
infrastructure, support, and training teams) meet weekly and frame
steering committee meetings with care
• Steady flow of communication from us, Deans, department chairs –
snail mail, email, in-person…
• Peer institution connections.
• Several of us attended the Sakai Annual Conference in June
• Sakai User Group – initiated by Hannah Reeves via NERCOMP. Next
meeting 11/10/11.
• Informal conversations ongoing.
• Several Tufts delegates attended the AAEEBL World Summit in July with
focus on Sakai-based Portfolios. Will be an institutional host in 2012.
43. Encouraging Lessons:
We can work across organizations in a highly decentralized institution
Communication will never reach everyone, but most people
appreciate a thoughtful process and the opportunities to learn and
participate
Leverage students – “Content Migration Engineers” and “AT Fellows”