Management. open source community experience distilled. Sakai CLE Courseware. The Official Guide. experience to new level

Sakai CLE

Courseware

Management

The

Official

Guide

Take your

e-learning, research,

and collaboration

experience

to

new

level

Alan

Berg

Ian

Dolphin

open

source

community experience

distilled PUBLISHING

Table

of Contents

Preface

1

Chapter

1: What is Sakai?

7

Sakai tools

8

The

Sakai Foundation

9

Sakai worksite 11 The

community

13 Branches

13

Workgroups

14

Developers

14

Rogues

Gallery

15

Sakai's

academic

background

16

A brief

history

17

The

Java-based tool

creation

17

Sakai 1.0

17

Present

day

18

What's

Next?—The

Sakai open academic environment 19

Advantages

for

organizations

19

Summary

21

Chapter

2: Feet First:

Running

the Demo

23

Installing

the demo

24

Administrator's

account

27

Expanding

the

demo

28

Help

is

your friend

29

Live demos 31

Building

from the source 32

Table

of

Contents

Chapter

3:

Sakai

2.x Anatomy

35

The Sakai

framework

36

The

aggregation

layer

37

The

presentation

layer

39

The

tools

layer

40

The

services

layer

40

Core

technologies

41

How

Sakai is

deployed

atscale

43

Load

balancing

45

Frontend

servers 46

Database

preferences

47

The Java

Virtual

Machine

48

Enterprise

data

integration

49

Sakai OAE

anatomy

50

Architectural overview

51

Client-side

anatomy

("3akai-ux")

52 Nakamura

server-side anatomy

("Nakamura")

53

Summary

53

Chapter

4:

My

First Site

55

Tool-specific help

57

Managing project

sites

58

Browsing

the

demonstration

58

Site creation 61

Creating

a course

site

64

Tools of immediate value 71

Maintaining

your site

details

75

Starter

tips

78

Descriptions

are

important

78

Password

strength

78

The motivation

for sections 79

Creating

sections 79

Summary

81

Chapter

5:

Enterprise

Bundle Tools and

Quality

Assurance

83

Using

Core tools in

Sakai

2.6 84

Core tools since Sakai

2.6

85

From Contrib to

Provisional

86

Stealthily

to

Core

90

Enterprise-level

quality

92

The

Quality

Assurance

process

93

Maintenance

releases 95

Automated

testing

96

Automatic code

analysis

99

Summary

104

Chapter

6: Worksite Tools

105

Creating

flashcards

106

Commonalities

between tools

109

The Resources

tool 114

Using

course tools

together

117

The

context 118

Making

a

communication

plan

119

Placing

Content

119

Assessing

individual

students

120

Introducing

Portfolios

120

Towards OSP

integration

in Sakai

OAE

124

Summary

124

Chapter

7: Contributed Tools

127

An

apology

of

sorts

128

The range of contributed tools 128

Sponsoring creativity

128

Pros and cons 129

A

list of tools

130

Example deployments

133

The

University

of

Michigan

135

Interview with David Haines, Senior

Developer

at

Michigan

138

The

University

of

Cape

Town 139

Creating

tools 141

Building

tools 141

SASH 143

Interview with StevenGithens,the force

behind SASH 144

Summary

146

Chapter

8:

Putting

Sakai to Work

147

The tools and structure ofa Sakai

site

147

Sakai's

site structure 148

My

Workspace

148

The

Home tool contents 150

The basic collaboration tools 151

Siteadministration 152

The basic_teachingand learningtools 153

Table

of

Contents

Types

of Sakai sites

154

Problem-based courses 155

Small discussion courses

156

Large introductory

courses

158

Project-based

courses 161

Collaboration sites

161

Building

your Home

page

162

Check out thenew look 163

Edit

your page

163

Replace

the site

description

163

Customize the Home

page

164

Ready

to roll 166

Summary

167

Chapter

9: The Administration

Workspace

169

What

is a Sakai

administrator?

169

The Administration tool

set

171

Basic

concepts

176

Internal ID 177

Java 178

Realms 183

sakai.properties

187

An interview with

Anthony

Atkins 188

Summary

190

Chapter

10: Web

Services:

Connecting

to the

Enterprise

193

Protocols 195

Playing

with Telnet

195

Installing

TCPMON

196

Requests

and returned

status

codes

198

SOAP

200

JSON

201

REST 202

Existing

web services

203

Recapping terminology

203

Default

web

services

204

Sakai and SOAP

207

My

first web

service 207

My

first client

208

Amore realistic client

example

208

Finding descriptions

of services

210

Authenticating

213

Aclient-side

coding

example

213

Interview

with author Aaron

Zeckoski,

the author of

Entity

Broker 214

WSRP 215

Summary

217

Chapter

11:

Tips

from the Trenches

219

The

benefits

of

knowing

that frameworks

exist

219

Using

the

third-party

frameworks

220

The benefit of

using Spring

220

Hibernate for database

coupling

221

The

many

Apache

frameworks 222

Looking

at

dependencies

223

An

expanded

tour

of

Java

226

Introduction 226

Profiling using

JMX 229

The

Apache

webserver 232

Migration

233

Migrating

course content

233

A bit ofhistory 233

EnablingLMScontent

import

235 A noteabout IMS Common Cartridge 236

Using "Import

from File" 236

Interviews

atthe

deep

end

237

Megan May

237

Seth

Theriault

240

David Howitz 242

Summary

244

Chapter

12:

Understanding

Common Error

Messages

245

A

policy

of containment

of

errors

246

Reporting

247

Quality

Assurance

analysis

248

Production

systems

248

Configuring logging

250

Common error

messages

252

Java version

253

Port

issues

253

Out

of

memory

254

The

portal

256

Table

of

Contents

Search

258

sakai.properties

259

File

permissions

260

Class

not

found

261

Information sources 261

Summary

263

Chapter

13: Show Cases

265

Acknowledgements

266

CamTools:

Using

Sakai to

support

teaching

and

learning

in a

research-intensive

university

267

About the

authors

267

CamTools: Sakai

at the

University

of

Cambridge

268

Evidence-informed

approaches

to virtual

learning

environment

development:

the caseof Plant Sciences 271

New directions

273

Sakai

@

the

University

of

Amsterdam

273

About

the author 274

About the

University

274

E-learning

275

The

SURF

Foundation 275

UvA communities-a Sakai collaboration

environment

276

Web Klassen 277

Conflict Studies 277

IISCommunities 278

The

Hague

Forum for Judicial

Expertise

278

Projectsite 278

Testweeklab ₂₇₈

Digital

Portfolio—a

differentuse case

279

Why

Sakai?

279

University

of

Michigan

279

Sakaisuccess

story

280

Transforming

the education

experience

281

Supporting

the

dissertation process

281

Streamlining

academic administration

282

Future directions

283

UFP-UV: UFP

in the Sakai

project

283

Abstract

283

Introduction 283

Sakai usage, full

adoption

285

The current Sakai skinat UFP 286

The

UFP

tools

286

Concurrentusers

during January

2006

-January 2007 288

September

2006-September2007 289

Up

toSeptember,2007 289

Marist

College

and

Sakai

289

Background

289

The

commercial

partner implementation

model

290

Migrating

a

campus

to Sakai 291

Tangible

outcomes 293 rSmart 294

Overview

294

History

295

Easy

to

adopt

296

Easy

to

try

297

Crossing

the border into

research:

A case

study

of students'

engagement

witha virtual

research environment

298

About the

authors

298

Background

299

Tutor

engagement

300

Data

collection 301

Student

engagement

301

Key

themes 302

Conclusions and recommendations

303

SOLO—Taking e-learning

offline 304

About

the author 304

Background

304

Internet

bandwidth

and cost 305

North-West

University

(South Africa)

305

How Solo works

308

The LAMP

Consortium—like

a bundle of sticks 308

About the author 309

Introducing

the

project

309

Award

winning

310

Winning

factors 310

The LAMP

experience

313

Criminology—a

distancecourse in

Sakai

313

About the authors

313

The

Department

ofCriminology 314

Description

of the distancecourse 315

Experiences—Lessons

learned 316

Clarifying

the structure ofa course 316

Theimportanceof the group 316

Table

of

Contents

The absence of feedback 318

The need of

support

318

Future

development

318

Conclusion

319

Summary

319

Chapter

14:

Innovating Teaching

and

Learning

with Sakai

321

The

Teaching

with Sakai Innovation Award 322

Case studies from the winner's circle

324

2008's

First

place

winner: Biomedical

Engineering (University

of

Michigan,

USA)

324

Course

description

324

Course

development

and

delivery

325

Teaching

innovation 329 Innovation

snapshot:

_{Forensic science goes online}

332

Project

overview 332

How Sakaiwasused 333

Implications for Teachingand Learning 334

Lesson learned 334

2008's Second

place

winner: International Law

(University

of

Cape

Town,

South

Africa)

334

Coursedescription 335

Course

development

and

delivery

336

Teaching

innovation 341 Innovation

Snapshot:

Facebook meets

history

342

Project

overview 343

How Sakaiwas used 343

Impactonteachingand_learning 344

Lessons learned 344

Conclusions 345

Passive versusactive

learning

346

Teacher-centered

versus

student-centered

learning

346

Less

innovative

versus more innovative uses

of tools

347

Summary

348

Chapter

15:

A

Crib Sheet for

Selling

Sakai to Traditional

Management

349

Introduction 349

Context 350

The

University's

IT

department

350

The

challenges

ofa shared service center 352

Educational

systems

and administrative

systems

354

Open

sourceatthe IC 355

Introduction

355

Sakai on the

fringes

357

Sakai at UvA 357

An interview with the director

360

Summary

363

Chapter

16:

Participating

in the Sakai

Community

365

The Sakai Foundation

366

Consensus

building

366 The

Foundation

acting

as the

legal

home 367

Partnering

up

368

The

community

370

DoOcracy

371

Transparent

communication

372

Conferences

372

Collab -

Mailing

Lists 374

Work

Groups

375

Asynchronous

communication

377

Open code,

Open

Standards

378

The QA

network 384 The risk of information loss 384

The current wish list 386

Summary

388

Chapter

17:

Looking

Ahead: Sakai OAE

389

Early experiments

and functional

principles

390

Sakai OAE 392

Managing

the

project

to build thenewenvironment 394

Educators'

input

395

Summary

396

Appendix

A:

Terminology

397

Appendix

B:

Resources

405

Sakai Foundation

support

405

The

community

406

Best

practices

407

Training

material 408

Tools 408