[Announcements] Sakai Newsletter August 6, 2009

[Margaret Wagner]

Sakai Newsletter

August 6, 2009

1.  From the Executive Director

2.  SiteStats 2.0 Released!

3.  rSmart Welcomes Chadron State College to the Sakai Community

4.  Johns Hopkins Job Opening:  Programmer Analyst

5.  Two Navel Postgraduate School Job Openings

6.  Recent Email Group Discussions

7.  Events


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1.  From the Executive Director

The Sakai Foundation Board of Directors is proposing two changes to the existing bylaws. To change the bylaws we need to circulate the proposed changes to the community for 30 days of commentary. In addition, for one of the changes we need approval of the Sakai Foundation Membership.

You can read all about the changes and the process for approving them on the Sakai wiki:

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/f4DnAw

To briefly summarize:

- Change 1:  To stop requiring that the board approve/appoint the conference program chair. Even if the Board wants to do this it is an operational issue and shouldn't be in the bylaws.

- Change 2:  To allow the Board to appoint up to 2 individuals to the board. Today, every Board member is elected. We'd like flexibility to recruit expertise from outside the community (e.g., financial expertise).

- Process:  After a 30-day period of commentary, the Board and the Membership would officially approve these changes and new by-laws would be filed with the State of Michigan.  The particular details of Membership voting will be announced at a later time.
The goal is to have this completed by the end of October in time for the next round of Sakai Board elections.

Feel free to add your comments to the wiki page or discuss this on the management email list.  You can join the management email list at:

http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/management

Regards,

Michael Korcuska
Executive Director, Sakai Foundation
mkorcuska@...
phone: [phone] (Google voice)
skype: mkorcuska


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2. SiteStats 2.0 Released!

Hi all!

I am very pleased to announce the 2.0 release of SiteStats for Sakai!

SiteStats allows authorized users to view site usage statistics related to user visits, tool activity and resource activity. This version is available for Sakai 2.6 and Sakai 2.5.

SiteStats 2.0 is major rewrite of previous version with several optimizations, a new exciting ajax-based UI with powerful reporting options and enhanced tool support. This release incorporates over 70 bugfixes and enhancements! (http://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/STAT/fixforversion/11273) (Release notes: http://jira.sakaiproject.org/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10150&styleName=Html&version=11273)

Features:

Overview page with summary information presenting most instructor requested information related to site visits, tool activity and resource activity:
. . . . . . Simple statistics (e.g., 'Most active user', 'Enrolled users that did not visit site', 'Most opened file', ...) New!
. . . . . . Expandable area with compact chart and table view with predefined grouping (e.g., 'By date', 'By user', ...) and filtering (e.g., filtering by user role, date, ...) options    New!

Reports page with support for:
. . . . . . User-defined reports, per site   New!
. . . . . . Predefined reports, available on all sites   New!

Advanced reporting capabilities:
. . . . . . Type of activity to report (visits, tool activity, resource activity)
. . . . . . Time period to report
. . . . . . Target users to report
. . . . . . Results grouping capabilities   New!
. . . . . . Report presentation: table and/or chart   New!
. . . . . . Printable
. . . . . . Exportable (Excel, CSV or PDF)

Admin tool capabilities:
. . . . . . Browse statistics per site
. . . . . . Build predefined reports to be available on all sites   New!
. . . . . . Build admin reports to report against all sites   New!

Highly configurable:
. . . . . . Use Sakai database or an externally specified database (support for MySQL and Oracle)
. . . . . . Aggregate events instantly or on a regular time interval (e.g., once a day)
. . . . . . Aggregate events for all sites or only for sites with the SiteStats tool placed
. . . . . . And many other configurable options!

Other:
. . . . . . Support for a large number of tools   New! (1)
. . . . . . Apache Wicket as rendering engine
. . . . . . Automatic event registration for tools implementing Entitybroker  Statisticable capability   (https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/entitybroker/trunk/api/src/java/org/sakaiproject/entitybroker/entityprovider/capabilities/Statisticable.java)   New! (2)
. . . . . . Import reports from other sites (Site Info -> Import from site)   New!
. . . . . . Help contents available (English only)   New!
. . . . . . Available in English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Swedish

(1) Some tools can have limited or no support on Sakai 2.5 (unless SAK-10801 is applied)
(2) Not supported on Sakai 2.5


SiteStats 2.0 release information:

List of features
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/STAT/Features

Screenshots
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/STAT/2.0+Release+Screenshots

Installation guide
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/STAT/Installation+Guide
 

Configuration options   

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/STAT/Configuration+Options

Download
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/STAT/Home


For more information, please consult the SiteStats official page:
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/STAT/Home


Thank you,

Nuno Fernandes
nuno@...


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3. rSmart Welcomes Chadron State College to the Sakai Community

You may have met them at the Sakai conference in Boston -- the many attendees from Chadron State College (CSC). rSmart is happy to welcome Chadron State to the Sakai community as one of the most recent rSmart Sakai CLE support clients.  CSC is one of three state colleges in Nebraska, located in northwest Nebraska just south of the Black Hills of South Dakota. CSC is a comprehensive four-year institution with limited master's-level degree programs, serving over 2500 students. The college offers numerous online undergraduate and graduate degree programs to students regionally, nationally and internationally, in addition to traditional campus-based programs. Chadron will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2011, In 2008, U.S. News & World Report placed Chadron State College on its list of best baccalaureate colleges in the Midwest.

CSC chose rSmart to implement and support the College's entry into the open source learning environment.  rSmart provided CSC with a cost- and time-effective way to configure and implement Sakai without adding additional technical staff. Initially, Sakai will be used for teaching purposes, but faculty have expressed interest in the portfolio feature for student submissions and for faculty promotion and tenure documentation, as well as the project features for sharing research and information. Even though CSC is still in the initial phase with Sakai, faculty have been impressed by the variety of features, the ease-of-use, and the flexibility that it offers. "The rSmart Sakai CLE appears to be an effective 'next step' advancement in online learning support and management; especially for relatively small institutions like CSC with limited resources," says Steve Taylor, Assistant Vice President for Extended Campus Programs, Chadron State College.

Mike Zackrison
VP of Marketing and Strategy
rSmart
Direct: [phone]
Mobile: [phone]
www.rsmart.com


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4. Johns Hopkins Job Opening:  Programmer Analyst

Johns Hopkins University seeks a Programmer Analyst to support our growing portfolio of educational technologies.

Primary Duties:  The programmer analyst will develop extensions and integration methods for one or more course/learning management systems such as Blackboard and Sakai. The Programmer Analyst will develop integration methods for and tools to support Adobe Connect and other educational technologies. The Programmer Analyst will investigate and address issues for course/learning management systems, Adobe Connect and other educational technologies. This includes developing code fixes and workarounds as well as articulating issues to the software development community or vendor. The programmer analyst will write code according to specifications, meet with clients to gather requirements, work within and adhere to scheduled timelines and development methodologies, participate in peer code reviews, author documentation and conduct formal testing. The programmer analyst will keep the team apprised of progress and proactively identify and solve issues. Once priorities are set, the programmer analyst has some range of autonomy and is responsible for meeting deliverables with supervision. Innovation and teamwork are expected. Participates in planning, development, implementation and support of the centralized administrative and educational/academic computing systems, affecting all divisions of the university; scope of duties span the university's enterprise. Work assignments range from routine maintenance and support to design and development for new initiatives to participating in the definition of strategic directions for technology initiatives. A willingness to consider and propose unconventional methods to solve complex problems is expected. The programmer analyst may participate in user groups and in various university committees or professional organizations. Must be able to function as a contributing member of a dynamic team. Secondary Duties: The programmer analyst will act as secondary support investigating and resolving issues for WebCT, a legacy course management system. The programmer analyst is expected to stay abreast of technologies that are relevant to his/her daily duties through formal training programs or independent study, as well as to explore new technologies that would benefit the organization or its initiatives.

Qualifications: Bachelor's degree required. Additional experience may substitute for education. Job Specific Knowledge:  Knowledge of, and experience with, user interface technologies (such as ASP.NET, JSP, Velocity, HTML, CSS and Javascript), structured programming languages (preferably VB.NET, C# or Java including J2EE), relational databases such as SQL Server and source code management (Subversion preferred). Understanding of and experience with the full software development lifecycle. Experience with user interface design, usability and accessibility concepts. Strong verbal and written communication skills and ability to interact effectively with functional and technical communities. The Programmer Analyst may participate in user groups and in various university committees or professional organizations. Must be able to function as a contributing member of a dynamic team.  One year related experience required. Additional education may substitute for experience.  Experience with course/learning management systems, educational technologies, student information systems and/or university administrative systems is highly desirable.

To apply, visit JHU's employment site at http://jobs.jhu.edu/.  For a full job description, applicants can search for requisition #40691 by using the "find your new job" link. We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits, including tuition remission, in a smoke free/drug free environment. JHU is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to recruiting, supporting, and fostering a diverse community of outstanding faculty, staff, and students.  All applicants who share this goal are encouraged to apply.

Steve Hellen
Director of Academic Applications
IT @ Johns Hopkins - Student Systems and Educational Technologies
steve.hellen@...
410.735.4431  443.514.5533 (mobile)


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5. Two Navel Postgraduate School Job Openings

Navel Postgraduate School  (NPS) is looking for a Sakai Project Lead and Sakai Infrastructure Support Analyst.

The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, has an exciting opportunity to build an online community from the ground up. NPS is developing a Sakai instance for US Military officers stationed in various international locations.  This portal will allow these officers to attend NPS courses, continuing education, and training, as well as collaborate with officers in other parts of the world.  This portal is being designed to serve as a showpiece and example for the rest of the Department of Defense community.

The Sakai Project Manager will lead a three-person team to develop and provide high quality enterprise-level infrastructure services for the learning and collaboration system. A qualified candidate will have a minimum of 5 years of web application development or management experience, preferably in higher education. Preferred qualifications would include some of the following experience: Sakai, Web Design, CSS, Project Management, Apache Tomcat, Flash, Graphic Design, Java, MySQL, Identity Management, Shibboleth, LDAP, VMWare ESX, & Linux.

The Sakai Infrastructure Support Analyst will be responsible for a variety of tasks including configuration and maintenance of Sakai, hardware and OS support, business continuity planning, systems integration, and system improvement/development.  A qualified candidate for this position would have most of the following experience: 3+ years experience in an application administration in higher education, demonstrated experience maintaining a high availability web application, Apache Tomcat, Linux (Red Hat), Sakai, Java, VM Ware ESX, MySQL, SQL, CSS, and SSL.  Please contact Jon Russell (jdrussel@...) for more information.


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6. Recent Email Group Discussions

[Building Sakai] Agora
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Agora-td3401493.html#a3403535

[Building Sakai] Crucible or other code review tools?
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Crucible-or-other-code-review-tools--td3394227.html#a3394227

[Building Sakai] project/code name for Sakai 3.0
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--project-code-name-for-Sakai-3.0-td3218977.html#a3224890

[Building Sakai] MySQL UserID/PW Specification in sakai.properties
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--MySQL-UserID-PW-Specification-in-sakai.properties-td3399771.html#a3399771

[Building Sakai] Site page ordering, programmatically
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Site-page-ordering%2C-programmatically-td3175163.html#a3175163

[Building Sakai] EntityBroker IP Filtering
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--EntityBroker-IP-Filtering-td3386118.html#a3386118

[Building Sakai] Synoptic Tool for Yaft
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Synoptic-Tool-for-Yaft-td3392901.html#a3392901

[Building Sakai] SiteStats 2.0 released!
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--SiteStats-2.0-released%21-td3391920.html#a3391920

[Building Sakai] Stack trace on startup for v2.6.x
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Stack-trace-on-startup-for-v2.6.x-td3385475.html#a3386716

[Building Sakai] Assignment web service
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Assignment-web-service-td3362774.html#a3362774

[Using Sakai] Roleplay (user alias) tool added to contrib
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Roleplay-%28user-alias%29-tool-added-to-contrib-td3383915.html#a3383915

[Building Sakai] [DG: Teaching & Learning] Sakai 3 groups, roles, and course sites
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Sakai-3-groups%2C-roles%2C-and-course-sites-td3322053.html#a3322053

[Portfolio] IE8 and 2.6 Portofolios tool
http://n2.nabble.com/-Portfolio--IE8-and-2.6-Portofolios-tool-td3345987.html#a3345987

[Using Sakai] Sakai Instructor Roles/Permissions
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Sakai-Instructor-Roles-Permissions-td3385571.html#a3400850

[Using Sakai] Resources: Uploading Files
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Resources%3A-Uploading-Files-td3393203.html#a3393203

[Building Sakai] Roleplay (user alias) tool added to contrib
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Roleplay-%28user-alias%29-tool-added-to-contrib td3383915.html#a3383915

[Using Sakai] [WG: Sakai QA] [Building Sakai] Safari 4.0 and Sakai 2.6
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Safari-4.0-and-Sakai-2.6-td3379184.html#a3379184

[Using Sakai] Anybody already addressed this "who accessed worksiteX" query?
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Anybody-already-addressed-this-%22who-accessed-worksite-X%22-query--td3346389.html#a3347167

[DG: User Experience] Group mental models brainstorm
http://n2.nabble.com/-DG%3A-User-Experience--Group-mental-models-brainstorm-td3386943.html#a3386943

[DG: User Experience] [Building Sakai] [WG: Sakai QA] QA and user testing
http://n2.nabble.com/-WG%3A-Sakai-QA--QA-and-user-testing-td3335304.html#a3336477

[DG: User Experience] convert 2.4.x db to 2.5
http://n2.nabble.com/-DG%3A-User-Experience--convert-2.4.x-db-to-2.5-td3333192.html#a3333192


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7. Events

AuSakai '09
September 17-18, 2009
Charles Sturt University Bathurst Campus
Bathurst NSW, Australia
http://www.csu.edu.au/division/landt/ausakai09/ausakai09.htm

1st Workshop: Learning Management Systems meet Adaptive Learning Environments  (LMS-ALE'09)
September 29 - October 2, 2009
EC-TEL
Nice, France
http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/lms-ale-09

The Jasig Fall 2009 Unconference September 28 - 30  Unconference sessions;
October 1-2  Developer meetings  Urbana Champaign I Hotel and Conference Center University of Illinois
Urbana - Champaign, Illinois

Assessment Institute in Indianapolis
October 25-27, 2009
The Westin Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
http://www.planning.iupui.edu/institute

Online Educa Berlin 2009
December 2-4, 2009
Hotel InterContinental Berlin
Berlin, Germany
http://www.online-educa.com/the-conference

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