Faculty Participate in New Learning Management System Pilot

Working with the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, IET is coordinating a campus initiative to implement the UC Davis version of Sakai, a set of open source collaboration and learning management tools. These new tools will replace the course management modules (e.g., GradeBook, Quiz Builder, etc.) now available through the MyUCDavis portal. A pilot with selected courses was launched in Fall 2005 in the School of Medicine, and in early January the project team kicked off a campus pilot with faculty from various disciplines and schools. For this pilot, participants are focusing on testing various tools in support of teaching, and providing feedback to the project team in preparation for a broader campus roll-out in 2006-07. A second campus pilot with a larger group of faculty members, including some from the School of Veterinary Medicine, will occur during Spring 2006. By then, the system will have been modified to interface with the Banner Student Information System and the campus computing accounts system. For more information on the national Sakai consortium and project, see http://www.sakaiproject.org.