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SAKAI CLE, AN EFFECTIVE WAYS TO BRING TECHNOLOGY INTO THE "CLASSROOM"

Florin POSTOLACHE1, Andy PUSCA2, Severin Bumbaru3 1,2,3 Danubius University, Research Center (ROMANIA)

{florinpostolache, andypusca, severinbumbaru} @univ-danubius.ro

Abstract The responsibility of any of higher education system or institute, regardless of type, level and of work organization form is to provide quality in teaching, learning and research. Thus, the objective of this research is to describe the e-learning course implementation, after the multi-institutional survey MISI (Multi-Institutional Survey Initiative), involving universities in several countries. The goal of this survey was to compare and contrast similarities and differences between institutions as well as provide feedback so as to improve Sakai development in the future. The paper aims at recognizing and promoting best higher education practices and innovation in using Sakai for teaching and learning, which provides users with flexibility to select and combine tools required to support and achieve individual and collaborative project objectives and, also to establish a higher education presence in the Sakai community and bring the faculty in contact with Sakai developers and designers. Being part of Opened Practices and The Sakai Communities, the DANUBIUS Online platform provides an opportunity for users to improve the quality of the collaborative learning environment, and to share best practices in teaching, learning and research. Keywords: Sakai, e-learning, DANUBIUS Online.

Introduction to Danubius Online There are different forms of ICT implications in education: computer assisted learning, e-learning, on-line learning, web based learning, virtual learning etc. Without getting into details regarding the difference between these techniques, we mention that currently, the education systems based on web are continuously increasing. In these conditions in which web 2.0 provides the user with an interactive working environment, facilitates the collaboration and creates virtual communication, the education systems based on web can incorporate all the other techniques of computer assisted training existent. The great advantage of the web based techniques is that they ensure the access to resources for the students and teachers anywhere and at any time. The impact of ICT in higher education is not limited to its use for training students but also for teacher training in scientific research projects, different organization activities etc. The Sakai Project began through a collaboration involving the University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT and Stanford University. Now, the project includes more than 100 universities, colleges, and institutions of education around the world and is a landmark venture to create open-source course management, collaboration, and online research support tools for the higher education community. Sakai is licensed for use pursuant to the Educational Community License v. 2.0. The responsibility of any institution of higher education system, regardless of type, level and form of organization of work, is to provide quality in teaching, learning and research. Danubius Online is a set of software tools designed to help instructors, researchers, and students create websites for collaboration. Using a web browser, users choose from a set of features to create a site that meets their needs. Danubius Online, a Sakai based software, is part of the Sakai Project (www.sakaiproject.org ), an R&D project for creating open source collaborative tools for use in learning, research, and other types of distributed group work.

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The startup In the academic year 2007 – 2008, the leadership of Danubius University of Galati adopted the strategic decision to develop an integrated information system, which to incorporate the Student Information System (UMS), an e-learning platform, research management system, administrative management, information system of the library, anti-plagiarism system (Ephorus). After the study concerning the choice of the LMS platform which to suit best to the needs of the university, in February 2009 was made a comparative study between the existent LMS platforms and comparing the advantages offered by these, it was decided the implementation of the Sakai learning platform, developed since 2004 by renowned universities from America. It followed a probationary period of 6 months in which there were tested the Sakai CLE incompatibilities with the operating systems and implicitly with the hardware platforms. Also, there were created several test sites of course where the students could experiment and use the tools provided by the collaborative environment Sakai. After the probationary period, the conclusions where were reached were in the favor of starting the pilot phase, thus it was decided the formation of the T&L workgroup. A particularly important role in the positive scoring of the collaborative environment Sakai had and that we are active members of the Sakai community and Opened Practices community – A community to practice for teaching and learning with open/community – source tools (http://openedpractices.org/institution/danubius-university ). In the academic year 2009 – 2010, at the Danubius University of Galati, it was put in service in pilot phase the Danubius Online portal made with Sakai version 2.6.0. The portal worked with a relatively small number of course sites both of license and of master, the main objective being to gain usage experience in real conditions of exploitation. There were conducted with the students from all forms of learning (day, ID, LFE) all the activities relating to the courses sites: communication of discipline objectives, obligation if the students and calendar program of the activities, transmission of homework, receiving the homework executed by students, correction by the instructor (owner of discipline), reviewing of the works by the students and communication of the given grades; performance by students of some self-assessment tests given during the semester, with feedback from the instructor, providing by the instructor online consultation for students, conducting of discussions on chat or forum; online support of the exams from supervised rooms. After the experience gained in the pilot phase, conducted in the academic year 2009 – 2010 it was decided that from 1 October 2010 to be proceeded to the stage of production. To this end, it was installed the Sakai version 2.7.1 and was significantly increased the number of course sites that operate on the Online Danubius portal, the trend being of generalizing at all the courses within the university. There were introduced more ample using indications, both for students and for professors. Most of these indicators are now accessible directly from the portal entry page. It also extends continuously the number of project sites. At the same time, is starting the assimilation period of the Sakai version 3.0 with the intention to move to this new version as soon as possible.

Teaching & Learning Working Group Danubius University’s strategic priorities in Teaching and Learning (T&L) have been endorsed by Academic Senate, and emphasize the importance of improving the quality of teaching and learning. The T&L priorities are particularly salient, given the acknowledged challenges and the critical importance of an excellent reputation for education quality in the marketplace. Being part of Sakai community, Danubius T&L Working Group area is oriented towards the needs of teachers, instructors, researchers, collaborators, instructional technologists and user support. It encompasses a broad range of topics, including sharing best practices for teaching and collaborating; asking, answering and demoing how various tools and capabilities work; discussing end-user support materials (e.g., documentation, training, tutorials); connecting with users with similar interests and needs, supporting long-term collaborative efforts, individual projects, and just-in-time teaching, learning, and assessment issues. The Teaching & Learning Working Group has had a dual purpose. First, to provide assistance to Danubius Faculties and staff in the continuous improvement of teaching, learning, and assessment and also to create a dynamic learning environment that has enriched our students' experience. There are many ways in which

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technology, and in particular Sakai, can increase the efficiency of teaching and learning process making it more efficient. Also, innovative technology applications truly transform the educational experience into real revelation. The second aim of the project has come subsequent to our investigation of all extant ways in which institutional organizational structures are being shaped to support the enhancement of staff creative capacity aiming at teaching and learning quality ensuring and improvement. We have also tried to create a encouraging and constructive environment that guides students in taking the initiative to assimilate the knowledge through the process of commitment and participation in online sessions. We try to investigate the way in which we can encourage teaching excellence, augment the professionalism of teaching and learning, support the distinctive features of student experience, and contribute to all initiatives to enrich this experience. The 2009-2012 Teaching and Learning Project is a substantially revised plan intended to anchor Danubius’s position as a genuinely world-class higher education institution being the destination for the very best students. The scope of this project is broad and the goals are significant in an effort to increase performance in teaching and learning to the highest level of excellence. The 2009-2012 T&L Project has at its centrepiece, the need to identify, promote, and support the unique advantages of the Danubius student competence and experience. Danubius’s capacity is considerable, consisting in an advanced research infrastructure and research outcomes, high quality staff and students, a comprehensive range of programs offered at the level of our university, strong communities linkages and opportunities, a commitment to providing high quality on-university grounds facilities and experiences, the exceptionally well-resourced and highly regarded Danubius Library, and an affiliated network of strong and well-established international Universities. The guaranteeing of these very capacities underpin a superior student experience that is considerably improved by the University’s research capacity, and is highly ranked in its aims as well as being strongly connected with institutional and professional requests, and all this stands for a real challenge. The support of a distinctive student experience needs to be sustained by the highest standards of excellence in teaching and an engagement to ensuring a high quality teaching and learning environment that is student-centred and supported by technological infrastructure. This environment must encompass a considerable amount of professional knowledge that will provide a foundation for later endeavour and support of independent learning and will allow a graduate to adapt to new challenges. To achieve these results we should take into consideration certain priorities. These priorities are included in Danubius University's Teaching and Learning Project which identifies three goals for the 2009-2012 academic years:

• Increase all aspects of the teaching and learning environment. • Support the distinctive features of the Danubius University student experience, and contribute to all

initiatives to enrich this experience. • Encourage teaching excellence, and raise the professionalism of teaching and learning at Danubius

University.

Danubius Online Tools Educational tools

Syllabus is the tool used by the instructor (discipline titular) to introduce the students with the objectives and content of the discipline and the obligations they have in order to promote. In Sakai, the syllabus is made by a sequence of items. If the instructor wishes, some of these items (for example the objective of the discipline, the resume of the content) can be made public being visible to anyone on the Internet, while others are destined only for the students registered at the specific discipline. Resources allow the creation of a folder and files tree that contain different didactic materials the instructor offers the students. If the instructor wishes, any of these resources (for example, the course notes) can be made public.

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Grade-book is the tool that centralizes the grades received by the students at a certain discipline. The content can be exported by the instructor as an Excel file that can be processed and used for passing grades in the official catalogue of the discipline. Assignments are the tools used for the assignments given to students. The instructor publishes here the contents of the assignment, specifying the deadline. The student fulfills the assignment and sends the teacher the paper. It can be edited by the student (the tool includes an incorporated text editor) or it can be executed in the personal computer of the student and sent as attached file. The instructor can make observations and annotations and resend them to the student. This process can repeat itself as many times as the instructor finds necessary. Finally, the instructor gives the grade that is automatically transferred in the Grade book. Tests and Quizzes is the tool that allows the online examination of the students. The instructor edits the questions which can be placed in question pools. When creating a test, the instructor can introduce the questions directly or can extract them from the question pools. The extraction can be made manually or automatically. In the latter, the instructor indicates only the number of questions being extracted from each pool and the extraction is made randomly when the testing occurs. Accordingly, each student receives other questions and in other order than his colleagues. There are different types of questions. At some of them, the testing and grading is made automatically: questions with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, with multiple answer or one or more correct answers, questions with a blank space the student has to fill in, questions with approximate numeric answer (any number in a given series is considered to be true), questions for which the students has to compose pairs of terms from two given groups. There are also questions for which the verification and grading are made by the instructor: questions for which the student answers with a short text edited by him online or questions for which it can send a file attached (for example a computer program designed during testing). The instructor has the possibility to limit the response time for the test. There is also the possibility that the submission of the test is possible from certain classes. In this case, the instructor indicated the IP addresses of the computers in that class, or the access can be established using a password the students receive in the exam room. Besides the tests for exams, there are other different self evaluation tests. In this case, the student can take tests anytime and from any computer with Internet connection and the grades are communicated to the student but they do not appear in the grade book. Each question has a feedback included, with observations from the instructor that are sent to the student after the completion of the test and depend on the answer provided by the student. Forums tool is used for organizing discussion forums on different topics. For example, a student presents a professional work and the colleagues analyze it. There are answers for interventions and answers for answers for each subject of the participants. The instructor can give grades to students (synopsis) for the interventions they have on the forum and on the specific subject and the grades automatically into the grade book. Chat Room is the tool through which chat rooms can be organized. We mention it here because it can be used by the instructor also for online indications and assistance given t the students. Glossary is the tool that allows the students to access a dictionary of terms used in the course. Web- Content is the tool that can include the content of another web site in the course site. For example, if the teacher’s course is already published on the web, it can be added as a component for the course site on Danubius Online (Sakai).

Collaboration tools

Drop Box, Resources, Forums and Chat Room tools mentioned above are actually collaboration tools that can be used not only for education of the course sites but also on the project and portofolio sites. Sakai offers the site designers other tools for collaboration. Announcement allows editing and publishing announcements on the site. For each announcement, the period of time the announcement will be on the site is mentioned. These announcements can be seen by all the members of the site but is possible that some announcements can be public so they can be seen by anyone with Internet access. Messages is a tool that allows editing and transmitting messages. Each member of the site can transmit messages to another member, a group of members or all of them. It is possible that the messages are transmitted not only using the site but also the email.

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Podcasts allow transmitting the members of the site a multimedia content (audio and video recordings of slide shows) and site members’ subscription to these transmissions through RSS connections. Pools allow the obtaining of votes of the site members regarding certain questions. Schedule allows the creation of a calendar of the events on the site. Wiki is a tool used by the members of the site to collaborate in order to create a documents presented as a list of inter connected web pages (a hypertext).

Portfolio tools

On the portals created using Sakai, the users can create portfolio sites on which they can present their works. For this end, they can use both tools mentioned above, such as Web Content, Glossary or Podcast as well as specific ones. Starting with Sakai version 2.7.0., these tools are part of Open Source Portfolio (OSP). Among these, we will present the following: Portfolios (osp.presentation) used to create online presentation. They can be created freely as well as Template based portfolio. Portfolio Template offers the possibility to create presentation templates that the users (usually students) fill with content. Wizards are the tools used by the Administrator Program to create Sequential, Hierarchy or matrix wizards that the owner of the portfolio site can then fill with forms. Forms are collections of fields that need to be filled in by the portfolio owners. Evaluation is the tool used by the assessors of portfolio sites.

My Workspace tools

On the portals designed using Sakai, each user has a persona site (not shared with other people) named My Workspace. The user can create a persona file system and create a personal calendar using the Resources and Schedule tools mentioned above and can also use the following tools: Account is the tool with which some of the information in his user account can be modified: name, surname, email address and password. Membership presents the user the sites he is member to and gives him the possibility to join other joinable sites. Worksite Setup presents the list of sites to which he is a member and in which he has administrator rights (instructor or maintain). If he has this right, he can use this tool also to create new sites. Preferences is the tool used to customize tabs, establish the way he will be notified by email when receiving announcement or modifications are made in the Resources or Syllabus on the sites he is member. Still here, the user can indicate the language in which the menus will be presented (by choosing from a list of available ones). Profile is a tool with which the user can resent the other members his personal information, photo and preferences and can establish contact with them.

Administration tools

There are also administration tools at the disposal of the site owner as well as at the disposal of the portal administrator. The site owner has the Site Info tool and in case of course sites, he can have the Section Info tool. Site Info has multiple uses: editing information regarding the site (that appears on the first page), choosing tools that will be used on the site and modifying their name and order in the main menu of the site, adding and eliminating participants on the site and establishing the role of each participant, establishing the access mode (joinable or not0, duplicating the site, importing materials from other sites and from files. In case of the course sites, groups of students can be created and administered. Section Info is used on course sites that have several sections. The administrator of the portal disposes of the following tools:

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Users contains the list of users of the portal and allows adding new users, eliminate the existent ones and modify their account information, including the password. User Membership allows the search of users by name, user ID or email and lists the sites in which the user is a member. Sites contains the list of the existing sites and allows their elimination or creation of new sites. Memory offers information regarding the occupied memory. Realms offers the possibility to establish permission that different categories of users have regarding the use of available tools on sites. For the events taking place on the Danubius Online portal such as: receiving messages, adding new files to the Resources and Drop Box tools and others, the user receives notifications on email. Sakai 2.7.0. version brings improvements in the Profile tool that allows now establishing contacts between students based on common concerns, after the social networks model. It also contains a new tool named Statistics that provides the administrator of the site with the number of daily accesses, members accessing the site (globally and for each tool) and events on the site. Improvements have been made regarding the access mode and system security and some improvements for all the tools included.

Danubius Online Courses Course  Development:  

Course content was delivered internally as a standard lecture, and externally through traditional package but with a study guide. However, students from all forms of education were treated as one in the Sakai environment and have access to virtual courses (identical course content, the PowerPoint presentation and the laboratory practice). This combined approach helped students by making a bridge between different forms of education. In addition, teams are constituted of students from various forms of education, which is a real advantage in this pilot work environment. That each group has a local member who can always come to classes and also to illuminate any problems or technical training represent an advantage. This mix of students with different life experiences take part in different courses and have the opportunity to work in a collaborative environment by encouraging mutual learning. Manner of interaction between students is through their group pages. Danubius Online enables a constructionist approach, on the fact that students have complete control of their group sites. Students decide how they are going to interact, when and with what instrument, the instructor overseeing the discussion only when necessary and also provide technical assistance. Taking control by students increased their participation according with the constructionist principle, where students control the learning modality.

Course  Delivery:  The course is taught entirely on Sakai. Some students attend lectures and participate in laboratory works, others only participate in those activities online. Both groups of students use the same tools and can work together. The course delivery allows students to experience the support and shared responsibility of a community of learners. Throughout this course, students engage in the skills required for team work, apply their knowledge, utilise issues raised in their readings, enhance note taking, critically consider information and form arguments as well as resolve problem based learning activities. Resources in this course draw on a range of print and digital media. In this course students participate in a combination of face-to-face and online activities. The face-to-face component of the course focuses on a range of collaborative learning activities. We present below how they are used in our course the various tools of Sakai. The first contact of students with the course site is done by Syllabus. Here they find the necessary information on the course objectives, obligations they have and how the course grade is calculated. An important tool in guiding students is "Tests & Quizzes". Each week students are provided with a formative assessment, with questions from chapters being taught. In these tests, very important is the given instructor feedback to each question, especially if the answer is not correct. Students who were not responded correctly can deepen the study and repeat the test, whenever they want. Test is anonymous and is not considered in the

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course grade. Instead, the instructor receives statistical information on student results, which is very useful in improving the course and tests. In addition to formative assessments, students receive during the semester three timed tests with questions randomly selected from a questions pool. Their role is to check continuity of study and the results are included in the course grade. At the end of the semester, students are given the final timed test, with questions from all chapters. Each student has to prepare a project focused on an interactive website according to requirements. For this purpose it is used mainly the tool "Assignments" by which the instructor communicates with students. To improve communication, the tools "Messages" and "Drop Box" are used also. Another widely used tool is "Chat". Office hours are scheduled weekly on chat by the instructors are provided to students. On Chat students defend their projects answering to the instructor's questions. Other students may see the discussion and they can interfere with their own remarks or comments.

Communication  &  Collaboration  Evidence:  The unique strength of the communication and collaboration evidence for this course came in the form of community communication. We use all available resources to facilitate collaboration and learning concepts presented in classes and laboratories. The blended learning approach to this subject stimulated high levels of student engagement and collaboration. The course required students to communication through asynchronous and synchronous tools. Wiki, chat room, forums, and messages are used but with limited success. Weekly the students have an online consultation meeting with the aim of clarifying aspects of the course or laboratory perspectives. Also, the “Recent Announcements” area is used to warn students whenever is necessary. Each amendment to the course or the laboratory is done with an announcement, and automatically using message systems on iDanubius - a collaborative platform. Because of the integration of Sakai platform into Danubius portal, we can communicate with students using various tools, both during and outside of course. Most importantly, the students demonstrated good teamwork and communication skills. Both student-to-lecturer and student-to-student communications developed quickly as the session progressed. We believe this to be a result of the blended learning approach where the students are also encouraged to use the tools at their disposal. The debate postings are used extensively by students as they worked in small teams to form a winning argument. Students work collectively to succeed, while at the same time each have responsibilities and are accountable for his/her contributions. Moreover, this fluid and flexible use of multiple technologies is not only generally valuable, but particularly relevant in a course about the role of technology in education. The ongoing class dependence on both Sakai and other technologies for out-of-class communication often leads to relevant conversations in class about how we are using technology in productive ways and how this relates to the theories and readings that we are covering.

Learning  Material  Evidence:    All of the course requirements, goals, and roles were presented in-person in the first course, in the online syllabus hosted within Sakai, and in the course "units" page that visually presents all of the information in one location to help students easily navigate within the course as needed. Furthermore, when I presented the information in the face-to-face course, I did this using the Sakai site so that the students could see all of the information in the same form that they would then be asked to navigate on their own. Written materials and concepts discussed in the lab are always available and are comprehensible both in terms of structure and content. Each material clearly identifies and approaches concepts pertaining to the course components, the overall course structure and sequence, each lesson’s structure and sequence, and course and lesson expectations. Engagement in this course was high because the material used and the general approach taken to learning experiences was conceptualized around problem based activities. Students are required to integrate their overall experiences, the knowledge gained from their reading and the digital media to the learning objectives and subject matter under investigation. Students are provided with clear instructions regarding their responsibilities. This is done through face-to-face discussions and written communication.

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The syllabus was made available online and in written form with written expectations for the course and for writing style and content. Resources are provided to students in a variety of ways. Students also generate their own learning materials throughout the course. In such a constructivist approach to learning materials, feedback from both the lecturer and peers is very important. Development must be guided. This is once again achieved online by comments entered either in the wiki or blog. The course coordinator facilitates this process. By providing students with a mixed mode of learning materials different learning styles were catered for. Students had the opportunity to learn through reading, writing, listening, discussing and reflecting upon content. Students provided positive feedback regarding learning materials when surveyed at the end of the course.

Learning  Outcomes  &  Assessment  Evidence:    At Danubius University of Galati, Sakai was installed in September 2009, so this was among the first attempts to achieve a complete course on Sakai. The course site was made while learning to use various tools in Sakai and it has defined goals and has provided ample activities for good practice. It was a new experience for all - teachers and students. The course syllabus and assignments all clearly state the goals and outcomes for the course and for each of the different elements or assignments within the course. I also make it a regular practice to articulate the goals of each assignment within the face-to-face course. Often, this includes a short brainstorming session with the students to develop the assignment rubric in a manner that satisfies my goals as well as theirs. This exercise is quite helpful in giving students a sense of ownership, a clear vision of what the assessment criteria are and how I am conceptualizing them. Furthermore, the students often suggest new and unique ways for us all to engage with the assignment! All seven principles for good practice (Chickering & Gamson, 1987) were taken into consideration prior to the creation of the course and were successfully established.

Course  Look  &  Feel,  Web  Usability  Evidence:    Lecture and laboratory materials are well structured and easy to peruse. Courses are completed and discussed in classes, students talking freely about the concepts presented and misunderstandings are removed. In addition to the presentation used during the lecture, students can watch the online course. Laboratory hours are required and can also be tracked in an off-hour scheme because of their being recorded and posted.

Learner  Support  Evidence:    All necessary information on how to access the course and resources is very clearly presented, students are notified when added to the course with tools provided.

Teaching  innovation  Sakai’s using demonstrates the ability to facilitate constructive collaboration across many barriers, including physical (distant and internal), age (from 19-52) course path (scientists and police) and level of life experience (from novice to expert). The distance students felt they were actually being taught as opposed to buying a reading package. Those with life experience felt they were contributing something to society whilst still getting even more back. The biggest innovation in teaching is that use Sakai platform, the platform behind a study that we adopted. The main educational strategy, which was on the basis for achieving the site, was collaboration and socialization among students. Class is made by 24 students. Being grouped by 3 for some assessments, students learn to work in team and each contributes to the assessment work. Teamwork is possible on iDanubius, a portal that allows design documents in collaboration. Because laboratory classes are filmed, they ensure the possibility of accessing and viewing topics presented, providing an opportunity for recovery concepts and knowledge discussed.

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Danubius OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources technologies Integration of technology (ICT) into university classrooms has become a major part of student- centred education. There are diverse forms of ICT implications in education: computer assisted learning, e-learning, online learning, web based learning, virtual learning etc. Without getting into details, as far as the difference between these techniques is concerned, we mention that currently, the education systems based on the web are continuously increasing. An important aspect of students’ commitment in educational research is the capability to efficiently communicate their ideas to different groups or else to communities who may have outstanding background knowledge in the field at issue. To grow valuable work experience in this kind of teaching, the students within this interaction will also participate in an interconnect-group nucleus hosted in Danubius Online and iDanubius collaboration platforms. Students are given the opportunity to cooperate between them, with teachers and also with the members of a different education course. Therefore, when more and more educational institutions share their strategies regarding the new concepts of Open CourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER), these become topical discussions concerning the quality of acquired knowledge after the educational act and also the barriers encountered. Open CourseWare (OCW) is a learning technology that allows teaching staff to post their course materials (e.g. syllabus, reading lists and lecture notes) on a publicly available website. The example of Open Content in higher education provides us with a rich field of research to approach some of these questions. In the case, specifically, of Open Courseware, we have an emerging response in higher education to some of the novel possibilities of the web: the ability to publish to the world with marginal costs approaching zero, the ability to have immediate updating of materials on the web, the ability for distributed development of materials, the ability to develop global online communities of creation and use, and the emergence of online referent authority in areas of academic expertise. These have had impacts on the way teaching and learning is carried on in higher education. The Danubius Open CourseWare and Open Educational Resources technologies involves a significant digital publishing process which consists in planning tools, a content management system (CMS), and a powerful content distribution infrastructure. The planning tools used by the T&L Working Group to assist teaching staff in publishing their course materials include some specific application, several checklists and documents. For creating and managing content, we use several desktop tools for file and host servers for editing and storage. The content delivery infrastructure includes a sophisticated publishing engine, content staging server, and a content delivery network, utilizing application performance, digital asset, dynamic site, security and protection solutions integrated in Danubius Online platform. Application performance solutions help university staff to understand how to deliver the level of performance, scalability and availability needed to ensure success. T&L Working Group will help teachers to learn how to deploy and optimize application acceleration via Danubius Online platform, and discover time-saving troubleshooting techniques. Digital asset solutions help university staff to learn how to optimize and control the delivery of online assets via Danubius Online platform in order to deploy and optimize media services, and discover time-saving troubleshooting techniques. Dynamic site solutions help our university staff to get the most from their ability to accelerate dynamic, highly interactive Web sites securely in order to increase site performance and availability via the Sakai platform, resulting in higher conversion rates. Electronic Software Delivery helps all university staff to understand how to optimize and control the delivery of software online via Danubius Online platform. This offers basic and intermediate level training on deploying and optimizing download services via Danubius Online platform in order to improve download completion rates and end user experience. Security and protection solutions provided by a Web Application Firewall (WAF) represent a highly scalable edge defense service with the ability to detect and mitigate potential attacks in http and SSL traffic as it passes through Danubius Online platform, before they reach the data centers. Also, a centrally managed security is a critical part of an overall "defense-in-depth" security strategy.

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In fact, the entire educational system explores a whole new potential offered by the web: the minimal cost publication of scientific papers, immediately update and delivery of educational materials, the possibility of developing a global online community.

The MISI aims MISI, or the Multi-Institutional Survey Initiative, is an endeavor among Sakai institutions to ask similar questions of instructors and students across Sakai implementations. 2010 Sakai Multi-Institutional Survey Initiative involving more than 30 universities in several countries and every institution running Sakai 2.4 or higher in pilot or production stages at all levels, languages, and locations were invited to participate. In order to accurately compare institutions, this study emphasizes the importance of using the same survey question as much as possible. To that end, the participating institutions have been working hard to arrive at a set of shared "core" survey items that will be used across institutions. Each institution was responsible to obtain human subjects approval (IRB) to conduct research, if required. University of Michigan has offered to analyze the combined 2010 quantitative dataset. To limit variability, participating institutions was encouraged to administer their surveys online between April-June 2010. This survey was designed to help the Sakai Team understand the use of information technologies in the classroom, and get feedback on our experiences with Sakai. Our responses will help in shaping the design of improvements to Sakai future development.

Sakai Community Sakai community assimilates the contributions of many organizations worldwide. It is responsible for all aspects of development in the Sakai CLE. No one may be closer to the needs of users than the teams that developed this platform. Sakai CLE is designed to be used in higher education, community members considering developing this project as key in use at the campus level. Whether big or small, institutions may choose to use the Sakai collaboration with official partners.

The results As a result of the uninterrupted endeavor of improving the capability of teaching and learning, Danubius University Senate established in 2008 a twofold strategy: firstly, developing a comprehensive database of online courses and accomplishing T&L Working Group and, secondly, migrating to OCW as quickly as academic community will adapt. After the achievement of first goal, in the academic year 2010-2011 it was put into operation, in the development phase the same open source platform for learning and collaboration based on Sakai Project called Danubius Online. Using Danubius Online portal (based on Sakai) requires training trainers and informing students. For the training of trainers (teaching staff and assistants), T&L Working Group there was held a series of practical courses between September 2009 and September 2011. It also been created a website project called Danubius Online Guide, which contains a several user guides, a forum and a chat room for all kinds of participants, instructions on how to conduct their online activities on various sites. Teaching staff and students were trained how to share audio, video and text files, to use synchronous and asynchronous communication tools, to take continuous evaluation or to keep track of grades, all of this in an integrated platform. After trainings, meetings, workshops and a lot of team work, a relevant number of faculties and students are now connected to a continuously growing database of online courses. The course sites that functioned in the university academic year 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 were well appreciated by the students. They noticed advantages resulted from making didactic materials necessary and necessary information for study available on the site, the significant improvement in the communication between teacher and student in different ways (discussion forum, chat, messaging). It was noticed that the students accommodate very easily to the online working environment and there weren’t any cases in which they claim to have had difficulties in this matter. As noticed from the results of the survey, the students

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consider that the use of the portal has increased their efficiency in activity and allowed a better use of working time. The teachers working on the Danubius Online portal as course site creators or assistants have also noticed that the contact with the students and the possibility to guide their activity has increased. We point out however that for the didactic personnel the use of the sites did not result in a better time management but it was more like an intensification of their activity. Efforts are necessary both for learning to use the ICT as well as for the theory of pedagogic methods specific to online education. Also, each teacher has to make systematic and daily efforts to maintain contact with the students on course sites and offer them the necessary information and guiding. The objectives and outcomes are clearly stated in the assessment requirements, courses fulfilling all the 7 principles of good practice in education. During April-May 2010 and April-May 2011, at Danubius University there was conducted MISI 2010 and MISI 2011 Surveys (Sakai's Multi-Institutional Survey Initiative). The purpose of the poll was to find out the views of the faculties and students of Danubius University on the use of the information technology in their activities, in general, and to obtain an objective assessment about the introduction of Danubius Online portal was received by teachers and students and to enable us to compare with other universities using Sakai. MISI involving more than 30 universities in several countries and all these universities use an educational and collaboration software based on Sakai. In order to accurately compare institutions, the participating universities were advised to use the same survey questions as much as possible. MISI, or the Multi-Institutional Survey Initiative, is an endeavor among Sakai institutions to ask similar questions to instructors and students across the Sakai implementations. The survey contained questions about both the respondents' attitude towards the use of ICT in higher education generally, and their feedback on the experience gained using Danubius Online portal.

Conclusions The experience accumulated by the participants at the pilot stage of implementing the Danubius Online portal and the results of the surveys (MISI 2010 and MISI 2011) allow us to draw the conclusion that we are on a right path that has to be continued. The strategic opportunity in the actual development of the T&L process has always been highly informative and supportive of the staff willingness to engage in productive debates. The latter proved to be utterly significant, as appropriate and proficient teaching matters and methods have always resulted in effective student learning, which require adequate preparation and effective delivery in a motivated academic environment. Adequate preparation requires thoughtful organizing and planning, not just the continuing evaluating and updating of the material content but also the focus of learning activities that are liable to guide students to participate in dynamic and interactive exchanges in a course session. The goal is to assume full responsibility by actively doing everything in a teaching session and help students to adapt to new challenges by refreshing and updating their current level of knowledge and skills to accomplish new roles in learning process. We intent to move forwards to Sakai 3.0, meaning to move towards a new generation of Sakai that takes in consideration the new requirements of online education. The possibilities of content authoring and content management are taken into consideration, the application of Social Networking facilities are developed, the architecture is improved and the activity of the developers is facilitated thus better possibilities to adapt it to the necessities of the university. At the same time, Danubius University created a transition strategy towards the new concept initiated by MIT of open courses (OpenCourseWare). Actually all the higher education system explores new possibilities made available by the web: publishing scientific works with minimum expenses, the possibility to immediately update and distribute materials and the possibility of developing an online global community

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The knowledge transfer can be fully accomplished only when the information encountered at the student's level is an optimal set of tools designed to facilitate learning, especially an individual style of thinking, enabling data compliance with the fundamental questions and to some states and situations that help verify, validate or invalidate the information. The MISI results shows that for both students and teachers, the most important benefits point at being able to access materials anytime, anywhere and improve the sharing methods. The Opened Practices Group's goals, also, include an open sharing of resources, ideas and practices surrounding the myriad of diverse topics of e-learning. From a technical point of view, the Danubius Online system, based on Sakai, allows the development of a flexible Virtual Learning Environment that fulfils the requirements of all kinds of learning, especially blended learning on campus and the distance learning ones as well as. The main barriers encountering in e-learning are the following:

• Acceptance and culture. They depend on the learners whether they are independent in finding their ways in adapting to self-learning.

• Intrinsic factor (for both faculty and learners). They have to do with motivation, perception and self-discipline. It is simply more difficult to accomplish a complex task like teaching/learning in isolation, and our "virtual" social connections do not seem to have quite the same impact as synchronous (and face-to-face) social contact. A motivated learner will overcome any barrier, technical or of any other nature. It is totally "do-able" but it takes a little more energy. There could also be observed a lack of skills from both types of learners.

• Unfulfilling content (online quizzes, forum/chat/messages, syllabus, assignments). • Social and economic issues (global disproportion issues must be resolved or reduced). • Teacher's mindset (eager to stand up on the podium to guide the students by their side, the teacher’s

resistance to change). • Institutional barriers (a gap between the academic growth and its technological needs).

In order to recognize and promote the best faculty practices and innovation for teaching and learning, Danubius Online aims is provides to users flexibility to select and combine tools required to support and achieve individual and collaborative project objectives and, also to establish a faculty presence in the Sakai community and bring faculty in contact with Sakai developers and designers. Being part of Opened Practices and The Sakai Communities, the Danubius Online platform provides an opportunity for users to improve the quality of the collaborative learning environment, and to share best practices in teaching, learning and research.

Related links: http://www.sakaiproject.org/about-sakai http://online.univ-danubius.ro:8080/portal/ https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/UDAT/2010+MISI https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/UDAT/2011+MISI http://openedpractices.org/institution/danubius-university http://openedpractices.org/practice/teaching-learning-working-group-danubius-online http://openedpractices.org/course/introduction-computers http://openedpractices.org/course/computer-programming

Bibliography:

1. Florin POSTOLACHE, Mirela ARSITH, Oana DRAGANESCU, Mihaela POSTOLACHE, COMMUNICATION RE-BRANDING IN E-LEARNING –The 7th International Scientific Conference “eLearning and Software for Education” - eLSE 2011, April 28-29, 2011,

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The “Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest. pp. 246-252, ISSN: 2066-026X. http://adlunap.ro/else2011/

2. Florin POSTOLACHE, Andy PUSCA, Severin BUMBARU, SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES REGARDING E-LEARNING CONCEPT BETWEEN INSTITUTIONS. DANUBIUS ONLINE- SURVEY CASE STUDY –The 7th International Scientific Conference “eLearning and Software for Education” - eLSE 2011, April 28-29, 2011, The “Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest. pp. 426-431, ISSN: 2066-026X. http://adlunap.ro/else2011/

3. Florin POSTOLACHE, Mihaela POSTOLACHE, Alin Constantin FILIP, Alina Beatrice RAILEANU, NEW TECHNOLOGICAL TREND IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT, „The 6th International Conference European Integration- Realities and Perspectives” - EIRP 2011, Vol 6 (2011), Danubius University of Galați, ISSN: 2067 – 9211, pp. 527-533, http://proceedings.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/eirp/article/view/794

4. Viorel ARITON, Severin BUMBARU, Florin POSTOLACHE, CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES ON THE ADULT LEARNING AND SOME RELATED ASPECTS OF EXISTING LEARNING TOOLS, The 13th International Conference on "Interactive Computer Aided Learning" - ICL2010, International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE), September 15-17, 2010, Hasselt, Belgium; http://www.icl-conference.org/icl2010/

5. Severin BUMBARU, Andy PUSCA, Florin POSTOLACHE, TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY: DANUBIUS UNIVERSITY CASE STUDY, The 2nd International Conference on „Institutional Strategic Quality Management in Higher Education”- ISQM 2010, 14-16 October 2010, Sinaia – Romania, ISBN: 978-606-8154-11-4, pp. 55-64 http://proiecte.aracis.ro/academis/promovare-diseminare-transfer/conferinte-internationale/

6. Florin POSTOLACHE, Mihaela POSTOLACHE, Alina Beatrice RAILEANU, T&L WORKING GROUP ON DANUBIUS ONLINE COLLABORATION AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT – The 6th International Scientific Conference “eLearning and Software for Education” – eLSE 2010, Bucharest, April 15-16, 2010, The “Carol I” National Defence University. ISSN: 2066-026X. http://adlunap.ro/else2010/ Published in ADVANCED DISTRIBUTED LEARNING IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING TRANSFORMATION Journal, nr 191809972, Pages: 393-398, Publisher: EDITURA UNIVERSITARA, BD NICOLAE BALCESCU NO 27-33, 2010,BUCHAREST, 00000, ROMANIA

7. Filip Alin CONSTANTIN, Florin POSTOLACHE, Valentin CURTEANU, Cornelia Elena TUREAC, Liviu Mihail MARINESCU, Emanuel Stefan MARINESCU, FRAMEWORK OF DANUBIUS ONLINE COLLABORATION AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, The 6th International Seminar on „Quality Management in Higher Education”- QMHE 2010, July 8-9, 2010, Tulcea, The Center for Continuing Education and Training (CETEX) at "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania, Vol II Quality Management in Higher Education: pp. 447-450, ISBN 978-973-662-566-4 (VOL I: IDS Number-BTW64, ISBN: 978-973-662-567-1, VOL II: IDS Number-BTW63, ISBN 978-973-662-568-8), http://www.cetex.tuiasi.ro/qmhe2010/index.php

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Screenshots

Figure 1. Danubius University, Main web page

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Figure 2. Danubius Online, Login page

Figure 3. Course site

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Figure 4. Syllabus on course site

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Figure 5. Course notes (Lecture notes)

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Figure 6. Course Announcements

Figure 7. Course notes presentation

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Figure 8. Course Resources

Figure 9. Course Assignements

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Figure 10. Tests and Quizzes (Assessments)

Figure 11. Course Gradebook

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Figure 12. Course Chat Rooms

Figure 13. Course Messages

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Figure 14. Site Stats

Screenshots notes: The Danubius T&L working group mission is to drive innovation on teaching and learning within the Danubius Online community. Syllabus contain all the information necessary to start, including general Information, preliminary knowledge, objectives and bibliography, procedure and requirements to study this course, the weekly study program and how to establish the final grade. In Announcements are placed all the important news or to do tasks for students. Tests & Quizzes includes formative assessments, problem set, quiz, survey, test and timed test where students check and test their gained knowledge. Participants use Chat Room and Messages to share best practices and to communicate their goals and issues. Visit us as Guest (username: guest, password: guest)