8th Sakai Conference4-7 December 2007 Newport Beach Teaching and Learning Community Gathering Let’s talk Teaching with Sakai

8th Sakai Conference4-7 December 2007 Newport Beach Josh Baron Director, Academic Technology and eLearning MARIST COLLEGE

Welcome and Introductions Introducing today’s meeting planners Who else is in the room? –Faculty? –Instructional/Support staff? –Developers? User Experience? –Other? Have you been following the Pedagogy list? –Use of “teaching and learning” vs. “pedagogy” This is a working session, please participate!

Why are we here? Sakai is a teaching and learning tool An importance voice has been missing We want to add this voice to the existing chorus (developers, UX, requirements, QA) Bursts of activity on “pedagogy” list Discussion and group not sustained If we can work together to solidify this group we will all benefit! (please be selfish!)

Meeting Overview NOTE: Session spans first two time slots Review of Breakout Group Topics (20 minutes) –Group #1: Mission and Roadmap –Group #2: Sharing Exemplars –Group #3: Faculty Engagement –Group #4: Requirements Coordination –Group #5: Faculty Support Breakout Group Meetings (30 minutes) BREAK (15 minutes) Group Reports and Discussion (45 minutes) Wrap Up and Next Steps (15 minutes)

Background on Breakout Topic Issues have been identified through prior discussions (online/phone conferences) Breakout groups will be formed around them –Pick a group to participate in! Each group will have a “Discussion Guide” Roles and facilitators will be assigned GOAL: Identify action items and action leaders for follow up after conference

Mission and Roadmap (#1) Objective: Draft a mission or vision statement for the teaching and learning group and develop specific plans for coordination with other groups within Sakai. 1.What are the key challenges the T&L group will focus on? 2.What limits, if any, should be placed on the scope of issues this group will work on and address? (e.g. Should we spend time addressing usability issues?) 3.Which groups within Sakai will we want to collaborate with on a regular basis? 4.What are the needs of these groups and how will T&L help address them? 5.How will this collaboration be organized? Would having “liaisons” that would work within both groups be useful? Should efforts be made to actively participate in pre-conference session in the future?

Sharing Exemplars (#2) Objective: Identify specific types of exemplars that would be of value to the Community and develop a specific plan for sharing these exemplars 1.How might we develop and share exemplar courses? Exemplar tool use? 2.How to we decide what is an “exemplar” and was is not? 3.How might we develop and share “best practice” documents (e.g. How to facilitate an online discussion?) 4.How might we map tool use to pedagogical concepts? (e.g. How tool X can be used to facilitate project-based learning) 5.Are their professional societies or other organizations with whom we might work? (e.g. EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, Quality Matters, etc.) 6.When sharing content how do we ensure it can be used at the local level where course sites and skins may be very different? 7.What tools or technology would be best to collaborate on and distribute exemplar materials (e.g. RSS feeds, Confluence, etc.)?

Faculty Engagement Objective: Identify specific plans for increasing faculty involvement within the Community and connecting faculty across institutions. 1.What is the “value proposition” for faculty members to engage with Sakai? (Might we find ways to help with issues like accreditation, tenure and promotion, publishing, etc.) 2.How might we increase faculty attendance at conferences? 3.How might we implement a local, regional, and/or international “Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award” program? 4.What might a local or international “Faculty Showcase” event look like and would it be useful? 5.Would creating a “social network” within Sakai for faculty be useful? If so, how might we create such a network (e.g. using something like LinkedIN)?

Requirements Coordination (#4) Objective: Identify specific ways in which the T&L group can help coordinate local faculty requirements gathering with the Community-wide requirements process. 1.What value, if any, would establishing a standardized local faculty- based requirement process be to the existing requirements process? 2.What type of standards might be useful to establish? (e.g. cycle for requirements gathering, etc.) 3.How might local requirements groups coordinate with each other? Would such coordination be useful? (e.g. math instructors from a range of institutions working together on requirements). 4.How do we ensure a balanced process by including input from both the “early adopters” as well as the more mainstream faculty?

Faculty Support (#5) Objective: Identify specific ways in which the T&L group can collaborate on providing high quality faculty support. 1.How should this group relate to/replace the user “café” group? 2.How might we improve the process for sharing support documentation and related materials (i.e. flash movies, etc)? Is there a way to facilitate the “localization” (i.e. skin differences, etc.) of these materials? 3.Would an online regular “Tool Demonstration” “by faculty, for faculty” be useful? If so, how might this be organized and run? 4.Would it be useful to develop RSS feeds (from podcasts, blogs, wikis, etc.) that were focused on instructional or discipline-specific topics (e.g. Creative uses of forums or using Sakai to teach math)? Faculty could subscribe to these from within their My Workspace. 5.Could we establish a “dev list” for faculty or support staff? (e.g. Can anyone help me with how to best use this tool for such and such instructional need..)

Breakout Group Ground Rules Each group has been assigned a facilitator Each group should identify: –Scribe (use a laptop if possible) –Presenter (create slides if possible, 5-8 min.) –Time Keeper (you have an important job!) –If you cannot stay, please do not take a role Please post your notes/slides ASAP Be realistic and practical in identifying action items and action leaders!

NOTES

Wrap Up and Next Steps BOF later in the week?