Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Open Source Technology Update
Breaking Away
4/1/2007
Indeed, the university has 90,000 users on Sakai, and 74 percent of all course materials have moved over to the new system. “We now have absolute control of our destiny,” says the CIO. “Under the old system, we could only innovate as fast as we could afford to.”
Indiana University’s open source environment continues to borrow heavily from peer universities. For instance, IU has deployed a wiki component from the University of Cambridge (UK) and podcasting code co-developed with the University of Michigan.
How Much Do You Know About...
Sakai Project :: Sakai is an online collaboration and learning environment. Many users of Sakai deploy it to support teaching and learning, ad hoc group collaboration, portfolios, and research collaboration. Sakai is a free-to-acquire open source product that is built and maintained by the Sakai community (although there are in-house support costs involved). Sakai’s development model is called “community source” because many of the developers creating Sakai are drawn from the “community” of organizations that have adopted and are using Sakai.
Kuali Project :: The Kuali Financial System is based on the proven financial system design that has been used at Indiana University for over 10 years. Its modular format includes a base system of chart of accounts, general ledger, transactions, reporting, and workflow. Additional modules will include:
- Accounts receivable
- Budgeting
- Capital assets management
- Endowment
- Enhanced decision support/reporting
- Labor distribution
- Purchasing/accounts payable
- Pre- and post-award research administration
Whitman College (WA) has also hopped aboard the Sakai bandwagon, according to Mike Osterman, a middleware analyst at the college. Whitman’s Sakai deployment, known as CLEo (Collaboration and Learning Environment online), has been a steppingstone to gradually migrating away from a Blackboard implementation, according to Osterman. “We started looking at alternatives in 2004, and Sakai was pretty raw at the time,” he says. “But we knew it would give us the flexibility to develop our own enhancements without spending a chunk of change to license more software.”
Risk vs. Cost
Many advocates believe open source projects can save universities money that’s typically allocated for ERP licenses and deployments. But universities have to look beyond the dollars and cents for even more benefits, say the pundits.
Recommended Reading
- CT Industry
- eProcurement Success!
Today, it's clear to almost every campus executive that moving an institution from the traditional purchasing model to a strategic eProcurement program can greatly increase staff efficiency and save the institution money. Because eProcurement automates so many purchasing processes, it eliminates reams of paperwork and allows procurement staff to refocus their efforts on cutting costs and improving strategic partnerships.
- How to Be a Super Tech Leader
Mary Jo Gorney-Moreno didn't start out in IT. She joined San Jose State University (CA) in 1981 as an assistant professor in the school of nursing. But somewhere along the way, she realized her energy was focused on academic technology, and how it could help a variety of learners gain knowledge.
- James Morris
- Products :: Data Security
- Products :: Physical Security
