University of Delaware LMS Committee examines innovations in Sakai

A news item was published about the University of Delaware Learning Management System Committee spring meeting on Feb. 23. The LMS Committee is a 41-member University-wide committee whose members are ambassadors to their departments regarding the use of Sakai@UD

Deputy Provost Havidán Rodríguez ... spoke about how Sakai enhances teaching and learning and allows increased communication between students and faculty. The good news, according to Rodríguez, is that no courses remain on MyCourses (WebCT) for the spring semester. This puts the project four months ahead of its original deadline.

Mathieu Plourde, IT Client Support and Services, elaborated on the Sakai@UD project timeline. This spring, there are 1226 Sakai@UD courses, representing 40 percent of all University rosters. Following Plourde's talk, Kathy Pusecker, associate director of the Office of Educational Assessment, thanked IT Client Support and Services for their support of the recent e-portfolio grant process. Twelve projects were awarded grants to deploy e-portfolios that will enable students to reflect on their work, showcase their best artifacts, and allow the University to gather data on the achievement of our general education and programmatic goals. The ultimate goal is to make portfolios a tool that the entire University community can use.

The meeting also featured presentations by three faculty members who use Sakai@UD to enhance their students' learning in interesting ways.