UFPUV presented in GUIDE workshop
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The University Fernando Pessoa deployed the Sakai platform as their virtual learning environment to support both traditional and blended learning initiatives. Since 2004, usage of the platform has increased steadily, with over 60% of instructors and 67% of students using it across over 400 courses by 2007. Features like assignments, resources, and project areas saw the most use. The university aims to continue improving the platform while shifting focus more toward learner-centered strategies and integrating it further into their systems and processes.
UFPUV presented in GUIDE workshop
- 1. The use of Sakai to deploy the UFP Virtual University initiative Luis Borges Gouveia, lmbg@ufp.pt Associate Professor – Member of the UFPUV board University Fernando Pessoa Virtual University, UFPUV GUIDE thematic workshop European area, 21 March 2007, Krakow
- 2. The University Fernando Pessoa Small university located in Porto, Portugal Another campus in Ponte de Lima (north of Portugal) Has around 22 000 m2 of building area (another 11 0000m2 in construction) Some UFP dates (the first twenty years) Higher education project initiated in the 1980’s with the creation of two higher education institutes; First students (merge of the institutes): 1989/90; Official university start date: 1995; recognised as a public interest organization by the Portuguese State in July 1996; First PhD programs start at end 2005;
- 3. The University Fernando Pessoa the University is organised in three faculties (Health Sciences, Human and Social Sciences, Science and Technology), one School of Health Sciences and one autonomous unit (Ponte de Lima College); 3853 undergraduate students, 262 postgraduate students, 37 PhD students, 124 administrative and technical staff members and 228 academic staff members (62.7% holding a doctoral degree); Bologna process started this academic year (first and second cycles); Following the motto, nova et nove , e. g., “ teaching new things in a new way ”.
- 4. A bit of history UFP e-learning initiative UV-UFP pilot project UFPUV project UFPUV December 2004 June 2003 October 2005 Setember 2006 Choice of platform and technology Virtual University Use and platform integration Sakai 1.0 Sakai 2.x UFPUV January 2007 Begin the distance support
- 5. How it happened UFP started and funded the project Use Sakai for everyone, for evaluation purposes Initial configuration was Tomcat, MySQL, 1 PC as server, no support staff In the pilot our colleagues were invited to create their courses and register their students (no providers used) A couple of 5-6 page “how-to” documents were produced A couple of presentations, and meetings with “selected” colleagues
- 7. Evolution of the pilot 1043 770 585 418 85 26 total 938 700 550 400 80 25 Students 105 70 35 18 5 1 Instructors 143 115 101 62 15 4 total 58 43 34 12 5 2 Projects 85 72 67 50 10 2 Courses Sept-05 July-05 May-05 Feb-05 Dec-04 start
- 8. For the history... “ Since 2004, 44% of teachers, 62% of students and 28% of staff use the Virtual University (UFPUV) platform. With the motto “knowledge and proximity”, the UFPUV initiative provides an extension of current traditional university facilities. They take advantage of information and communication technology, in order to support human centered learning. Besides e- and b-learning courses, the UFPUV is also used for complement in-class teaching and it is fully integrated with the university information systems. The platform is also used by some university services as a mean to communicate and give access to specific documents to internal public.” UFP Quality report, EUA Assessment Exercise- July 2006
- 9. What results? Version 1.0 was easy to run and use Limited set of tools, but communication with students and resource sharing were priority Assignments was the winner Reliable, stable for simple use (still running) Major problems: I18N, character support, WebDAV Project areas were used for projects and for special groups (all instructors in a Faculty,...) Overall evaluation positive from students and instructors
- 10. What was asked? Continuation of the project Integration with SIS, ldap More tools Test & Quizzes Discussion tools Groups Grading tools Training and e and b -learning strategies
- 11. The production phase Moving to Sakai 2.0 Integration with ldap Integration with course and student providers Hiring staff (Nuno Fernandes, N. Gomes) Getting physical space Upgrading to server hardware Defining course tools added/available
- 12. Hardware...
- 13. New look
- 14. Some marketing A Blog & a Wiki page Stickies for students to place everywhere! A number of open events, workshops and tutorials Posters to place around the university Use of banners and buttons on university sites ufpuv.blogspot.com & elearning.ufp.pt/wiki
- 15. Usage patterns Announcements, Assignements and Resources heavily used Calendar used Chat not used, Discussion little used Maybe to change with Bologna? T&Q not used after initial problems Drop Box used in different ways
- 16. USage patterns (daily use) (sample from 01/05 to 07/05)
- 17. Access patterns (sample from 01/06 to 08/06) 5604 users, 61740 sessions 200 18 100 82 50 311 20 867 10 1354 # Sessions # Users
- 18. Access patterns report from use saturday Day with less accesses Less than 1h Non available hours per week 28 Tools available (for choice) 22-12 Tools available (default) 255 Maximum simultaneous users (online evaluation) value --
- 19. Current usage numbers (cumulative numbers since october 2004) Around 60% of instructors Around 67% of the students Over 4000 students use UFPUV in one or more courses From the 2100 courses a total of +400 has usage, 25% of them with regular usage Around 20% of the UFP (non teaching) staff also use Sakai Overall, 65% of the university population has been covered until now (running two and half academic years)
- 20. Evaluation so far (2.3.x) What was learned from support and meetings: Need for content presentation (SCORM ?) Site statistics, summary calendar, what’s new, and to do list tools Development started on some of these Need for Test & Quizzes tool Better group support and resource management Translating to portuguese May will be the month for Sakai 2.4
- 21. What’s next? Technology stable but need to continue improvements Translating to portuguese Business intelligence concerning elearning usage More functionalities and better user experience But, need to start developing more than technology, and turn people/learner the main focus Documentation and support Bologna support and e-portfolios Advanced procedures for E-learning strategies for all
- 22. Aknowledgements University Rectorate and Fernando Pessoa Foundation for their direct support and sponsorship Sakai Foundation to deliver such a rich community and an evolving quality product as the Collaborative Learning Environment The UFPUV team, as they – with so little resources – provide strategy, development, and support for our educational community. Some words goes to my collegues Feliz Ribeiro Gouveia and Nuno Fernandes, two “wizards of those domains”
- 23. The use of Sakai to deploy the UFP Virtual University initiative Considering the actual context of globalisation at a world level, the Bologna process at a European level, and a demographic negative curve at national level, news ways to reinvent higher education practices are urgent. One simple move can be taking advantage of existing technology to provide the same electronic environment to support traditional presential, that normally is used to elearning initiatives. This move will provide better support to time management for university students and professors and support for their increasing electronic interactions. It also prepares the move to blended learning and distance education initiatives as it prepares educational staff for the use of electronic mediation strategies. As a result University Fernando Pessoa adhere to an opon software colaborative learning environment named Sakai where plays an active role in its development. Since November, UFP deploys Sakai 2.3 as the elearning platform in traditional and blended learning, after a year-long pilot with Sakai 1.0 in end 2004. The platform, named UV, after Virtual University, is a central part of the University's concern with distance education. The platform is integrated with the Student Information System and the Course Roster, granting access to 5457 users (instructors, students and staff), and to 2088 sites. Although is too early to gather statistics, use of the platform has been increasing, and 40% of the population is currently active, with regular visits and covered 65% of the university students. University Fernando Pessoa is located in Porto, Portugal, and offers twenty undergraduate study programs, thirty master degrees and two doctorate programs in three faculties: Social Studies, Science and Technology, and Health Studies. UFP has been establish since 1989, and has a long-standing effort to use Information and Communication Technologies in its activities, an example being the introduction of laptop computers for freshman students since 1994. PRESENTATION ABSTRACT
- 24. Luis Borges Gouveia Short Biographical Description He is an Associate Professor at Science and Technology Faculty, University Fernando Pessoa, where teaches Information Systems. He belongs to the Virtual University board where he is one of the two responsible members for its implementation since end 2004. He earned a PhD in Computer Science from Lancaster University (UK) and a MSc in Electronic and Computing Engineering from University of Porto (PT). His main interests are related with the use of computers and networks both in e-learning and e-government uses. He authored eight books and more than hundred papers within its research areas. Can be reached by lmbg@ufp.pt , and have both a Web page (www.ufp.pt/~lmbg) and a Blog (lmbg.blogspot.pt) SPEAKER SHORT CV