Here we grow again…

This semester we have approximately 4,000 people enrolled in 57 course sites! Welcome new professors and students from courses including Arabic, Italian, German, French, Medicine, and Audiology.

• Scan the list of UNC course & project sites for Spring 2010.

Next week we will announce new Sakai workshops for February and March. Stay tuned!

If you would like to use Sakai, please open a help request and choose “Sakai Support” as your issue.

New faculty interview video: Sakai is a robust system. It works!

Dr. Dennis Orthner, Professor in the School of Social Work, has been teaching for nearly 40 years. He wasn’t interested in Sakai specifically and doesn’t particularly care about what goes on technologically “behind the scenes.”  However, he was interested in teaching his course in a “hybrid” mode (partly online and partly face-to face). Therefore, he wanted a system that would “make the interface with his students transparent and easy.” Sakai did that. Hear what he has to say!

UNC & Sakai: More News!

There are two meetings and an article from one of our own that you might find interesting.

Sakai: Open Source … Open Minds

• Check out the article in Learning Solutions Magazine by our own Larissa Biggers!

Teaching and Learning with Technology Collaborative (TLTC) Inaugural Meeting

Wednesday, January 20
1 - 2:30 pm
Toy Lounge, Dey Hall

• Streamlining Course Coordination with Sakai
  a presentation by Anastacia Kohl (see her video interview)
• Elluminate web conferencing

The (Last) LMS User Group Meeting

Thursday, January 21
2-3:30 pm
205 Undergraduate Library

• See the full agenda of presentations

Want to spend more time on teaching? Use Sakai!

Hear what Dr. Joelle Powers, Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work has to say about creating a “hybrid” Research Methods course using Sakai. In particular, she talks about how using Sakai has changed the way she prepares for classes and allows her more time for teaching. If you’ve got 2 minutes, have a listen!

NEW for Spring 2010!

What’s new this term?

1. More course and project sites, more Sakai users! Why? Who? People collaborating on projects or grants find Sakai easy to learn and flexible enough to meet their needs. Faculty who teach multiple sections of a course (or oversee multiple sections as discussed in the fall) like the way Sakai streamlines course management and makes communications simpler, easier, faster. We are pleased to welcome new faculty (and students!) in Arabic, Italian, German, and French as well as the School of Medicine, Allied Health Sciences, Audiology, Radiology, the School of Social Work, and more.



2. Lunch-time help sessions online! For the first two weeks of the semester (through 1.22.10), we are available online to our UNC faculty, staff, and students every weekday from noon to 1 pm to answer questions, provide advice, or see the innovative ways you are using Sakai! Details and the link are provided in the Sakai Innovators site. If you want to participate but you aren’t in Innovators (yet), just open a help request.



3. Automatic course, enrollment, and user information is integrated into our system. This means that each evening, add/drops are automatically updated. It also means that it’s easier than ever to add UNC-affiliated people to your project sites. Just go to Site Info > Add participants > [add the user's onyen to the top text box]

Soon we’ll announce upcoming demos, brown bag lunches, and other learning opportunities in the hopper. May this be your best semester yet!

Using Sakai for course design is “fun!”

Dr. Iris Carlton-LaNey is a professor in the School of Social Work who shares her experience using Sakai to redesign a course from a traditional, face-to-face seminar to a fully online, self-paced course. Take 1 minute to hear what she has to say!

Sneak peek: Sakai 2+3 hybrid (”pre-alpha”)

As some of our Sakai pilot participants have said earlier, one of the interesting and appealing aspects about Sakai is the ability to participate in its development and future directions. (See Phil Edwards and Bill Maisch discuss).

The 3 minute video below provides a first glimpse of the hybrid integration between Sakai 2 and Sakai 3. (Note, we are currently on Sakai 2.6). This is a very early look and is not showing finished product, but instead enough of the user interface to begin real discussion and refinement.

Sakai 2+3 Hybrid pre-alpha from Lance Speelmon on Vimeo.

If you are interested in participating in the discussions around Sakai 3, you can! Here’s more Sakai 3 information for those with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Sakai Webinar: 5 Big Ideas

Join us from the comfort of your home or office computer for an introductory overview of Sakai!

We’ll cover 5 Big Ideas central to Sakai. We’ll log in to UNC’s Sakai environment, peek into sites, demo tools, and do our best to answer your questions afterward. All in one hour!

The session is open to all interested UNC faculty, staff, and students. “Seating” is limited so please register.

Sign me up!
Tuesday, December 15
11 am - noon
Register for the 12/15 webinar: 5 Big Ideas!

Monday, December 21
9 am - 10 am
Register for 12/21 webinar: 5 Big Ideas!

A few disclaimers:

1. Prior to the session, you will receive the URL & instructions
2. If you want to hear and speak, you’ll need one of the following:
   • computer with speakers and a microphone OR
   • a headset with a noise-canceling microphone
3. These are our first Sakai webinars — so let’s agree to collectively embrace any technical difficulties that emerge and aim to grow from the learning experience.

Hope to see you there!

Less is More: Social Work Field Seminars Use Sakai

Rebecca Brigham is responsible for administering the School of Social Work Field Seminar program. The courses in the program were redesigned as hybrid courses with students alternating between one week in the classroom followed by one week online. Sakai is used to bridge the learning and conversations that occur in the classroom as well as off-site in students’ individual fieldwork locations.

In particular, the 8 sections of Field Seminar tend to use only a few Sakai tools — primarily the Discussion Forum and the Gradebook. Because only a few tools are used, students and faculty find the course sites easy to navigate and use.

Take 1 minute to hear what she has to say!

UNC Sakai Pilot Evaluation: Results Summary

When we published the Sakai Pilot Evaluation Final Report, we knew that most people would prefer a visual summary rather than reading the 74-page document or even the Executive Summary. We hope that the 15-slide summary below will do just that. For the nitty-gritty details, however, please see the report.