drupal higher-ed-nyc
DESCRIPTION
In this session we’ll take a look at 7 unique higher education case studies showcasing the diversity of Drupal solutions in the .edu space. The case studies show Drupal as a solution for everything from departmental web presences to university wide web publishing solutions and learning management systems. Culled from interviews with university IT teams across the country from private to public both large and small, we’ll examine implementation choices, lessons learned and the business reasons that made Drupal the right choice.Keypoints:We'll identify the top issues facing Higher Education and how Drupal can help address them.We'll take a look at seven case studies of Drupal in use in higher ed: Drupal as Unit CMS - College of Fine Arts, UT Austin Drupal as Flagship - Duke University Drupal as Intranet - California State University, Monterey Bay Drupal as LMS - ELMS, Penn State University Drupal as Lingua Franca - Stanford University Drupal as University Wide Solution - Yale University Drupal as OOTB software - Open Academy, University of California, BerkeleyWe’ll look at lessons learned and resources available to higher education Drupal implementers.This Session has been presented at Drupal Camp UT Austin.TRANSCRIPT
Drupal and Higher EducationDavid Diers | DeveloperFour Kitchens, LLC@beautyhammer
Today on Drupal and Higher Ed
Challenges: Higher EducationDrupal Can Help: Applied solutions, 7 case studiesDrupal Can Help: Resources and Lessons learned
Winter is coming (for higher ed)
Highlights from ‘Making the Grade’ Deloitte 2011 & ‘Key Issues Facing HE’ Huron Consulting 2012http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Canada/Local%20Assets/Documents/ca_en_ps_making-the-grade-2011_041811.pdfhttp://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/library/KeyIssuesFacingHE2012.pd
Finances
Increased Competition
Education for All
Globalization
Regulations and Reporting
Evaluating Governance
Technology
Over budget, under funded
Students, faculty, resources
Diversity and accessibility
Global education competition
New responsibilities, increased disclosure
Identifying efficiencies
Upgrades needed across the board, greater student and faculty expectations.
DRUPAL A powerful and flexible open source Content Management Framework, a community, a movement.
Drupal can help higher edFinances
Increased Competition
Education for All
Globalization
Regulations and Reporting
Reviewing Governance
TechnologyResources
Evolving TechnologiesLeadership
engagementStandardization
Better Web Products
Financial Advantages
Best of Competition and Cooperation
Globally Focused
Standardization and Shared Competency
“But you don’t have to take my word for it”: Case Studies
Drupal as Unit CMS (cofa.utexas.edu)Drupal as Flagship (duke.edu)Drupal as Intranet (csumb.edu)Drupal as LMS (psu.edu)Drupal as University Wide Solution (yale.edu)Drupal as OOTB software (berkeley.edu)Drupal as Lingua Franca (stanford.edu)
Case Studies Methodology
Reached out to University or Implementing TeamsPhone Interviews with a standard series of questions as a starting point.
Specifically business drivers, technical drivers, and lessons learned while implementing.
Case Study Presentation
For each study, we’ll establish the University context in terms of overall size, team-size, and infrastructure style.Look at the business and technical problems that each team was facing.We’ll look at the solution and talk about the ways each solution meets those needs.At the end of all of the case studies we’ll take a look at lessons learned
Case Study: Drupal as Unit CMSCollege of Fine Arts, The University of Texas at Austin
Campus Size:Public or Private:
Central or Distributed IT:
Campus Drupal Adoption:
Hosting:Case Study Team
Size:Internal or Vendor
Team:
~51,000 students
Public
Admin Central + Distributed
Low to Moderate
Central and Department
3 FTEs
Internal
Case Study: Drupal as Unit CMS
The problem:Aging College site needed redesignDeveloper maintenance was highSwitch from moderation modelHighly idiosyncratic custom code base
The Solution:
The Solution:
The Solution:
Case Study: Drupal as Unit CMS
The Solution: http://www.utexas.edu/finearts/ Drupal based siteImproved contributor workflows (SSO based)Contributors were now stewardsQuality of site improvedIncreased in house Drupal expertise (up to 10 department and subject sites) Moved hosting to Central
Case Study: Drupal as Flagshipwww.duke.edu sites, Duke University
Campus Size:Public or Private:
Central or Distributed IT:
Campus Drupal Adoption:
Hosting:Case Study Team
Size:Internal or Vendor
Team:
~14,700
Private
Central + Distributed
Moderately High
Central
6 FTEs
Internal
Case Study: Drupal as FlagshipThe problem:Aging sites in custom Java CMSLacked simplicity and flexibilityDid not meet clients’ content needsLacked campus integration points
The Solution:
The Solution:
The Solution:
Case Study: Drupal as FlagshipThe Solution: http://duke.edu
Drupal based main siteLaunched audience, and subject sites (multi and single sites)Drew in disparate campus contentWas flexible and extendibleCustom static caching publishing solution Increased Drupal use on campus
Case Study: Drupal as Flagship
http://doteduguru.com/id4828-how-duke-university-is-using-drupal.html
Case Study: Drupal as IntranetmyCSUMB, California State University Monterey
BayCampus Size:
Public or Private:Central or
Distributed IT: Campus Drupal
Adoption:Hosting:
Case Study Team Size:
Internal or Vendor Team:
~5,100
Public
Central IT
Very High
Central
3 FTEs
Internal
Case Study: Drupal as IntranetThe problem:
Existing vendor intranet had usability issuesThe recently adopted Google Apps needed sso and collaboration integrationPeoplesoft SIS integration neededReplacement needs depth to handle many advanced and university specific use cases.Limited developer resources
The Solution:
The Solution:
The Solution:
Case Study: Drupal as IntranetThe Solution: MyCSUMB – an Intranet in Drupal built with the Open Atrium distribution Highly customizable student focused intranet.
#1 visited on campus, #2 is myscumb/studentsOrganic Groups for Apps collaboration with hand-rolled SSO Utilized Drupal expertise and comfort of IT TeamRestful API to Peoplesoft for better user facing SISIntegrated OLARK Support
http://denver2012.drupal.org/program/sessions/open-atrium-dot-edu-open-atrium-campus-intranet
Case Study: Drupal as LMSELMS, Penn State University
Campus Size:Public or Private:
Central or Distributed IT:
Campus Drupal Adoption:
Hosting:Case Study Team
Size:Internal or Vendor
Team:
~45,200
Public
Central & Distributed IT
Moderate, growing
Central Hosting
2 FTEs
Internal
Case Study: Drupal as LMS
The problem:Space limitations of LMS hamstrung portfolio based coursesIt’s not that LMS is broken industry wide, but content IS broken in LMS.Cost, usability and LMS competitive flattening are driving interest in open source LMS products.Solution needed to integrate with existing LMS
The Solution:
The Solution:
The Solution:
Case Study: Drupal as LMS
The Solution: ELMSDrupal based Learning Management System distribution
Sidecars the LMSFollows a fragmentation approach – Drupal does best.Includes Open StudioUsed by many colleges on PSU and system campuses
Case Study: Drupal as LMS
http://btopro.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/structured-anarchy/http://btopro.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/decoupling-for-maximal-impact/http://drupal.org/project/elms | http://www.youtube.com/user/psuelms
Case Study: Drupal as web publishingYale.edu sites, Yale University
Campus Size:Public or Private:
Central or Distributed IT:
Campus Drupal Adoption:
Hosting:Case Study Team
Size:Internal or Vendor
Team:
~11,600
Private
Central IT
High
Central
7-8 FTEs
Vendor - Four Kitchens
Case Study: Drupal as web publishingThe problem:
Yale sought to standardize on a CMS for about 7-8 yrs, finally selected Drupal, now what?Yale needed trainingNeeded hosting and deployment to conform to existing skillsetsNeeded to hide back-end complexity from front end usersNeeded SSO Wanted to standardize and reclaim efficiencyNeeded to scale (1000s of sites) and be flexible
The Solution:
The Solution:
Central Request Moderation
Case Study: Drupal as web publishingThe Solution: http://yale.edu http://drupal.yale.edu University wide Drupal solution with a sustainable and secure provisioning, deployment and site maintenance infrastructure system
IntegratedSSO Integration Features based functionality packages – deployed via Drush Brand standardization and customization Leveraged existing skills for deployment and hostingFlexible code based workflow to deploy, rollback, and reuseHave weekly Drupal Drop In training session to assist campus knowledge.
Case Study: Drupal as web publishinghttp://groups.drupal.org/node/68603http://fourkitchens.com/projects/yale-university
Case Study: Drupal as OOTBOpen Academy, The University of California Berkeley
Campus Size:Public or Private:
Central or Distributed IT:
Campus Drupal Adoption:
Hosting:Internal or
Vendor Team:
~35,800
Public
Central & Distributed IT:
Dominant Product of Choice
Central & Vendor
Vendor – Chapter III & Pantheon
Case Study: Drupal as OOTBThe problem:Provost level initiative to reduce cost.Internalized at central IT as:
Reducing spending on hostingReduce spending on apps.Offer cost savings in level of effortCustom Drupal often incurred high costs
The Solution:
The Solution:
The Solution:
Case Study: Drupal as OOTBThe Solution: Open Academy + Pantheon hosting http://oa.dev:8888/ Drupal based academic specific distribution paired with off-site best of breed Drupal hosting.
Open Academy is built strong out of the box –Launched 100 sites in just 5 monthsMeets many academic specfic use cases by designReduces barriers in creation, content contribution, extension, and maintenance.Strong contributor experience built on Integration, extendibility and easy prototypingIn addition to cost savings it provides standardization in presentation and brandingResponsive
Case Study: Drupal as OOTB
http://drupal.org/project/openacademyhttp://denver2012.drupal.org/program/sessions/open-academy-higher-education-drupal-product-departmental-websites
Case Study: Drupal as Lingua FrancaDrupal adoption at Stanford University
Campus Size:Public or Private:
Central or Distributed IT:
Campus Drupal Adoption:
Hosting:Case Study Team
Size:Internal or Vendor
Team:
~15,300
Private
Central & Some Distribution
Platform of Choice
Central, & Vendor
n/a
n/a
Case Study: Drupal as Lingua FrancaWhat Happened: Seven Steps to Drupal1. Campus mySQL2. Establish user helping user precedent3. Central IT will follow its customers4. Centralized Training (starting w/ advanced)5. Centralized theme helped lower design costs and
increased standardization6. Drupal Events7. Web Auth Integrationhttps://techcommons.stanford.edu/node/131
Drupal Adoption Gone Wild!!!
Drupal Community
Case Study: Drupal as Lingua FrancaWorking with Vendors:
5 years ago – vendor relationships was wild west!Zach Chandler used his 10% time to set up a Drupal consultancy inside. Selection became rigorousFound he could create understanding about Stanford systemsAdvocates for Stanford 100% but also consultants Eventually– a new unit was formed, Stanford web services-Zach views his job as understanding the industry and projects and pairing those projects.
Just a drop in the bucket.
What can we learn from all of this?Saw something you liked? Need Drupal Resources?
Lessons Learned
Building Drupal CommunitiesGo the extra mile – give a penny, take a pennyPrepare to be an advocate/trainer
Building Drupal SitesLaunching your institutions’ site? Make sure it is not your first rodeo.Plan for long term support, don’t give someone else your nightmares
Lessons Learned
Building Drupal Sites (cont.)Use the right tool (mycsumb)Drupal is like a painting, distros are like sculptures.Choose simple firstDon’t be psychic about usability
CodingHighly abstract for re-useShow people what the site does immediatelyBring out site building beauty (by coding)Follow community trends, you’ll thank me.
Lessons Learned
Web ProjectsIs your client really your client?Identify how to decouple
Selling Drupal to CampusConsider the TCO of Open SourceThis is an open source platform with enterprise supportTake a look at what your peers are doing
Lessons Learned
Selling Drupal to CampusIn Drupal – apps beget sites beget apps beget...Open source may not be free, but yeah, neither are vendor products
The more you know…*
We are more alike than different“All you have to do is call” -Call your peers. No, really.Drupal is a community of zero to hero – give it away, it all comes backWin by ROI Cost, Win by usability, Win by making senseSuccess breeds Success (and comfort)
Drupal .edu Resources
Campus: Drupal User Group, Drupal mailing list, and your fellow Drupal implementersLocal: Look for or start a Drupal User Group, Drupal DojoNational: Drupalcamps, & DrupalconSites: Drupal.org and Groups.Drupal.org (.edu unconsortium)IRC #drupal-edu channelYour peer institutions – give them a call, they probably won’t bite (*not true during football season)
You’ve been a lovely audienceThank you to:Kevin Miller, Jeremy Cumbo, Sarah Heath, Zach Chandler, Matt Cheney, Ryn Nasser, Bryan Ollendyke, Vincent Massaro
Questions, comments, follow ups:[email protected]: @beautyhammer
