What is the Sakai Project?
The Sakai Project is a collaboration among IU, the University
of Michigan, MIT and Stanford to develop open source software
for the needs of higher education. The project was launched
with a $2.4 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Why is IU involved in the Sakai Project?
Indiana University has developed a number of local systems that have served the university well. IU had the flexibility to change these local systems as needed, but it also had to pay for all ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs. The Sakai Project software will allow IU to maintain flexibility to make changes as needed to the open-source Sakai software, but IU can also share the maintenance and upgrade costs with the other universities. In sum, IU gets a better cost of ownership while still being able to innovate for the needs of IU students, faculty and staff.
Which IU systems will be replaced or upgraded with Sakai software?
During the next few years, IU will launch improved versions of Oncourse and OneStart based on Sakai. IU will continue to use Oncourse and OneStart local names for these services, and other new systems to support research collaboration will also be added.
Will IU make these changes all at once?
The Sakai software will be placed into limited release for refinement and testing by many user groups. There will be a phased cut-over period to the new software and eventually a retirement of the old systems when the transition is complete. Most existing IU content in these systems will be migrated to the new systems, but it is not anticipated that such systems will undergo any significant changes in order to accommodate this migration. As always, OneStart content is the responsibility of the information or service providers and this migration of the OneStart framework in no way changes that.
What does Sakai mean? Is it an acronym?
The name “Sakai” is not an acronym. The project was initially conceived as extending the CHEF technology architecture. Chef Sakai is a Japanese cooking artist.
What is the ePortfolio Project?
The ePortfolio software project is also an open source development project that IU is developing with other partners including the Open Source Portfolio Initiative (www.theospi.org), with the support of a $518,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. EPortfolios represent a new teaching and learning application for Indiana University that will be linked to Oncourse. Portfolios allow students to create a personal, digital collection of assignments, documents, videos, etc. that help demonstrate a portfolio of learning achievement (similar to an artist’s portfolio). The portfolio can be used by instructors, potential employers, and the students themselves to assess their progress.
Is the ePortfolio software part of the Sakai Project?
The ePortfolio Project is a separate project and separate grant. It uses the same technical architecture as Sakai, and will be easy for other universities to adopt who use the Sakai software.
What is the Sakai Project?
The Sakai Project is a collaboration among IU, the University of Michigan, MIT and Stanford to develop open source software for the needs of higher education. The project was launched with a $2.4 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Why is IU involved in the Sakai Project?
Indiana University has developed a number of local systems that have served the university well. IU had the flexibility to change these local systems as needed, but it also had to pay for all ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs. The Sakai Project software will allow IU to maintain flexibility to make changes as needed to the open-source Sakai software, but IU can also share the maintenance and upgrade costs with the other universities. In sum, IU gets a better cost of ownership while still being able to innovate for the needs of IU students, faculty and staff.
Which IU systems will be replaced or upgraded with Sakai software?
During the next few years, IU will launch improved versions of Oncourse and OneStart based on Sakai. IU will continue to use Oncourse and OneStart local names for these services, and other new systems to support research collaboration will also be added.
Will IU make these changes all at once?
The Sakai software will be placed into limited release for refinement and testing by many user groups. There will be a phased cut-over period to the new software and eventually a retirement of the old systems when the transition is complete. Most existing IU content in these systems will be migrated to the new systems, but it is not anticipated that such systems will undergo any significant changes in order to accommodate this migration. As always, OneStart content is the responsibility of the information or service providers and this migration of the OneStart framework in no way changes that.
What does Sakai mean? Is it an acronym?
The name “Sakai” is not an acronym. The project was initially conceived as extending the CHEF technology architecture. Chef Sakai is a Japanese cooking artist.
What is the ePortfolio Project?
The ePortfolio software project is also an open source development project that IU is developing with other partners including the Open Source Portfolio Initiative (www.theospi.org), with the support of a $518,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. EPortfolios represent a new teaching and learning application for Indiana University that will be linked to Oncourse. Portfolios allow students to create a personal, digital collection of assignments, documents, videos, etc. that help demonstrate a portfolio of learning achievement (similar to an artist’s portfolio). The portfolio can be used by instructors, potential employers, and the students themselves to assess their progress.
Is the ePortfolio software part of the Sakai Project?
The ePortfolio Project is a separate project and separate grant. It uses the same technical architecture as Sakai, and will be easy for other universities to adopt who use the Sakai software.
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