Faculty, students get a glimpse into Sakai

On Monday, Peabody Hall was the halfway point between Sakai and Blackboard.

About a dozen faculty gathered to address the transition, voicing their support of Sakai’s offerings while expressing concerns about transferring data and learning the new system by December 2012, when the University will fully turn its back on Blackboard.

Kimberly Eke, teaching and learning interactive manager for Information and Technology Services, presented Sakai’s features at the first of several public information sessions for the new platform. The sessions are open to students and faculty.

Faculty can register for group workshops or individual consultations on the Sakai blog, which also offers video tutorials and frequently asked questions.

Eke touched on the transition and some of Sakai’s different features, including its ability to share information with people outside the school.

She said a program called bFree, which pulls content from Blackboard and uploads it directly to Sakai, should be available by midsummer.

Eke said no one is required to use Sakai, but hopes that its new features will encourage more faculty to participate. She said only 35 percent of all courses use Blackboard — a stable but small level.

She said Blackboard was developed primarily to manage courses, while Sakai is more focused on a research collaboration platform, which better suits UNC.

“A lot of these things have to do with the unique context of the university,” Eke said.

Though administrators are trying to make the transition as smooth as possible, the duplication of platforms is frustrating for some students.

Marissa Boraski, a junior psychology major who used Sakai while taking Spanish, said using both at the same time was difficult.

“It’s hard to keep it all organized in your head. It’s a lot easier to have one place to go,” she said.

Charlie Green, assistant vice chancellor for teaching and learning of ITS, said Sakai’s open source nature and the collaboration it provides is one of its biggest advantages.

“Having a more effective collaboration of resources on campus of this nature sort of adds value to the University,” Green said.

He said UNC will save $80,000 annually on the licensing fee, not to mention savings on software applications.

To improve Blackboard, the University had to buy new applications through the company, Eke said. But with Sakai, UNC can develop its own applications or use other schools’ applications for free.

“I was extremely excited to see we were adopting Sakai,” said Frank Jones, a student in the TransAtlantic Masters Program who attended the session.

He said schools use incorporated software without considering open source because companies try to get students using their products habitually before they enter the business world.

At a Sakai conference in Los Angeles this summer, Eke said she will collaborate with other schools to bring free new features to UNC.

“We hope to make a group on how to support Sakai with no new money and no new staff,” she said.

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