Indiana University
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Project: Oncourse

Primary UITS contacts: Anastasia Morrone, David Goodrum, Sara Chambers, Karen Watkins, Lynn Ward

Last update: October 11, 2009

Description: Oncourse CL, Indiana University's online collaboration and learning environment, supports teaching and learning, committees, projects, research, and portfolios for Indiana University's community of students, faculty, and staff.

Since January 2005, Oncourse CL development enhancements have been guided by suggestions from students, faculty, and staff on all IU campuses. Suggestions are gathered through the Oncourse Suggestion Form and tracked and cataloged through FootPrints, Indiana University's enterprise technology support management system. The Oncourse Functional Requirements Committee (FRC), which consists of staff from the campus centers for teaching and learning and related UITS units, thoroughly reviews and summarizes all suggestions and prepares an extensive report for the Oncourse Priorities Committee (OPC). The OPC consists of faculty members from all IU campuses who are committed to the continued enhancement of Oncourse CL. At a full day retreat, the faculty OPC works through the report prepared by the FRC, carries on extensive discussion and debate, and then votes on the final set of development priorities for the coming semester. For additional information, see Oncourse Enhancement and Development Process and Oncourse Enhancements Status.

Milestones and status:

  • Fall 2009 releases (completed June 6, 2009 and August 19, 2009)

    Enhancements in place for the fall 2009 semester include the following:

    • Ability to drop the lowest grade(s), give extra credit, and make other types of adjustments in the Gradebook
    • Ability to add items in bulk in the Gradebook
    • New Modules tool for creating structured content
    • New portal skin for an updated look and feel
    • Ability to view all items posted by a specific user in Forums
    • Summary of unread messages and forums posts in My Workspace
    • Ability to provide a model solution, save private instructor notes, and allow multiple submissions in the Assignments Tool
    • Addition of two new roles to course sites: Librarian and Librarian +
    • New Blogs Beta tool for creating blogs in course and project sites, as well as in My Workspace

    For a complete list of changes, see Oncourse CL changes and enhancements.

  • Related activities

    • Google Docs integration, an R&D project focused on enabling the powerful collaboration features of Google Docs directly within specific tools in Oncourse
    • Faculty pilot of a new Assignments tool with significantly improved Gradebook integration and support for multiple student submissions per assignment
    • Integration of Turnitin with the new Assignments tool
    • Technical review of Mneme and Samigo as possible replacements for the Original Test and Survey tool
    • Integration and pilot of OpenCast, an open source classroom podcast capture system, with the Podcasts tool
    • Integration and pilot of Turning Technologies clicker (classroom response systems) technology with a new device registration tool and the Oncourse Gradebook
    • Integration of WebEQ equation editor with the Oncourse WYSIWYG editor

Benefits and client impact: Participation in the Sakai open-source community provides IU with the ability to control its destiny and keep pace with faculty innovation through a worldwide community of scholars and educational technologists who are working together to create new and innovative tools for teaching and learning, and at the same time ensure that its priorities are met. There are currently over 100 Sakai institutional partners.

Comment process: Submit comments via the Oncourse Suggestion Form.

Related information: While continuing to expand and enhance the functionality of the Sakai 2.x platform, the Sakai community, under the leadership of foundation director Michael Korcuska, is crafting a bold new vision and the technological underpinnings for the next-generation Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment, Sakai 3 (also known as 3akai). Sakai 3 promises to deliver a vastly improved user experience with native support for social networking features similar to those found in Facebook and MySpace (but with an academic twist), easy-to-use tools for content creation and management, and an entirely new architecture that breaks down the dependence on sites and tools as the primary organizing principles. For up-to-date information about Sakai 3, visit the 3akai page in Confluence, the Sakai community wiki.

Risks: The Oncourse team continues to perform the testing necessary to mitigate the risks that come with implementing new functionality.

Support: As new functionality is implemented, the Support and Implementation team will ensure the changes are communicated properly and the necessary documentation and training materials are available to users.

Governance: The OPC sets the development priorities for each major release of Oncourse CL.

Project team and advisors:

  • Anastasia S. Morrone, Associate Dean, Learning Technologies, Office of the Vice President for Information Technology; Chair of the Oncourse Priorities Committee
  • David Goodrum, Director, Academic and Faculty Services, Learning Technologies, UITS; Chair of the Functional Requirements Committee; and Chair of the Support and Implementation Team
  • Sara Chambers, Director, Enterprise Academic Systems, Enterprise Software, UITS
  • Karen Watkins, Manager, Oncourse Development Team, Enterprise Software, UITS
  • Lynn Ward, Principal Systems Analyst, Academic and Faculty Services, Learning Technologies