Continued: Largest Community College in North Carolina Partners with Optimized Learning and Houghton Mifflin to Pilot Sakai Collaborative Learning Environment

The team included Catalina Ramirez of the Technology Institute; Melissa Vrana, Director of Distance Learning; Dean Townley, Director of the Futures Institute; and Rebecca Fagan, English Distance Learning Instructor. After evaluating many options, the team settled on piloting Sakai 2.2, an open source online learning program that allows tremendous flexibility for the academic setting. The team was also enthusiastic about Sakai’s price tag: the software is free. Once CPCC settled on Sakai, the school sought out the open source expertise and hosting capabilities of Optimized Learning (OLi) and Unicon. OLi hosts the pilot version, and Unicon is providing training for faculty and IT staff on how to use Sakai. Once the decision was made to pilot Sakai for fall classes, OLi and Unicon had the course up and running within 6 weeks. Speaking to the potential hesitancy faculty may have regarding switching from a known platform to Sakai, Rebecca Fagan noted enthusiastically, “Sakai is extremely easy to use. The transition from the commercial platform we’ve been using to Sakai’s interface involves less than a two-hour learning curve.”

To ease the transition even more, OLi and Unicon are providing a duplicate of the English course in Sakai and making it available to all faculty and staff at CPCC. Butch Porter, OLi’s CEO, notes that “…OLi’s mission is to help schools of all sizes learn about and make the transition to the freedom and lower cost of using open source e-learning solutions. We’re thrilled to be working with CPCC by hosting their Sakai test pilot.” Additionally, Houghton Mifflin is providing English course content for the Sakai course. Brian Murphy, Houghton Mifflin’s National Sales Manager, remarked, “the Sakai pilot with the CPCC team has been a great experience for all involved.” Those involved in the pilot at CPCC are enthusiastic about the new opportunities that an open source e-learning environment can provide. The pilot will continue for Spring 2007.

For More information please visit:
Optimized Learning, Inc.
Unicon
Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company