Diving into Sakai: One Librarian, Twenty Students, and a Brand New, Open Source CMS

Slides from the 2009 New England Library Instruction Group Annual Program, June 6, 2009, Portland, ME.Technological change is inevitable, and when the opportunity arose at the University of Rhode Island to have input into the choice of a new Course Management System, two librarians sat in on the committee’s meetings, testing tools and offering opinions. When the committee unanimously recommended going with Sakai, an open source CMS, the door was opened to run a class in the new system, which would eventually replace WebCT across campus.This 30-minute presentation will briefly describe the route taken to choosing Sakai, and focus on how a three-credit information literacy class was transformed from an in-person course to an online experience in a locally-untested environment.