Transition to Sakai: Spring 2012
Communications Plan, Version 9
Last revised 05/09/2012 – SJM
Project Sponsors:
Project Team:
Project Manager:
Samantha Earp, Chris Meyer, Lynne O’Brien
Shawn Miller, Neal Caidin, Dwayne Marlowe, Ed Gomes, David
Bracken, Mark McCahill, Christine Vucinich, Cara Bonnett
Laurie Harris
Introduction
Duke is transitioning from Blackboard to Sakai as a university learning management system. Following
the Fall 2011 ‘Phase 1’ rollout to a limited (<200) number of faculty and staff, Sakai is now available for all
faculty, staff and students for Spring 2012. Key factors to consider for communications during the Spring
2012 semester include: migration and rollout of Bb ORG sites to Sakai ‘Project’ sites (involving many nonfaculty staff and administrators), increased immediacy of the Bb shutdown, necessity of Summer 2012
courses to use Sakai.
Audiences and key messages
Faculty (including Fall 2011 Phase 1 participants and non-Sakai users)
• Blackboard is going away June 30, 2012
• Learn Sakai this spring – don’t wait till next Fall
• Content Migration: details – Check your migrated content and get your content that didn’t migrate
out of Blackboard
• Help is available: online documentation, workshops, drop-in office hours, and one-on-one
consultations
• We want to hear from you: feedback channels including Transition Advisory Group, surveys, etc.
• Keeping faculty informed on Sakai changes and updates as transition occurs
Department chairs and DUS/DGSs
• All faculty messages above
• We need your help encouraging faculty to transition
• We can visit your department meetings
• Working with ‘orphaned’ courses and/or Bb Orgs
Communications staff
• Getting the word out to faculty, staff, etc
IT staff and support staff
• How to help faculty and/or faculty with the transition (Learn Sakai yourself to better help faculty
and students)
• Where faculty can go for help; training
• Understand Sakai processes at Duke
• Training available for support staff
• Outreach to other IT units regarding integrations, etc
Graduate Student instructors
• Grad instructors cannot create course sites at this time – need to submit a help ticket
• Same as faculty and student otherwise
All students (undergraduate, graduate and professional)
• Sakai is replacing Bb – you might be taking classes in Sakai and Bb Fall 2011-Spring 2012
• Student feedback: surveys, Transition Advisory Group
Bb Org Site Owners
• Orgs migrated date; check your content; re-add users; help is available
2 Sakai Transition Communications Plan – Spring 2012
Spring 2012 Communications
January
Course Sites: Start using Sakai now!
Project Sites: Org migration coming soon!
Date
01/03/12
01/09/12
01/12
01/20/12
01/20/12
01/20/12
Item
Mass email to all CIT Newsletter subscribers – main points of
Sakai transition, new sessions and office hours
Mass email to all Blackboard instructors (note: remove Law
faculty in the future)
Communications w/in Blackboard: Blackboard countdown timer
(visible to faculty), add countdown timer to blackboard.duke.edu,
all Bb Sp12 courses pre-loaded with announcement re: Sakai
New ‘gateway’ site uploaded for sakai.duke.edu – pointing to
http://support.sakai.duke.edu w/transition checklist, etc
Email to [email protected] subscribers – gateway update,
Spring rollout.
Text for Paula Gilbert in her communications with Summer
instructors
Audience
Faculty, staff
Faculty
Faculty, staff,
students
All
All
Faculty, staff
February
Course Sites: Check your migrated Bb content – get other content now! Summer instructors –
start using Sakai now. CIT will have student assistance available for additional help.
Project Sites: Check your migrated content, get other content. Explore other technology
options if Sakai doesn’t meet your needs (SharePoint, DukeWiki, WP)
Date
02/01/12
02/01/12
02/01/12
02/07/12
02/13/12
02/01/12
02/20/12
Item
CIT blog post: http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/02/sakai-update-bborg-site-migrations-and-more/
CIT blog post: Sakai tip http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/01/sakaigradebook-and-help/
CIT Newsletter: above blog posts and info on Project site
migration
Plasma screens: Bb is going away June 30, 2012 & Faculty
checklist
Announcement for Summer 2012 SIS feeds
Email: Project site leaders (Bb Org Site owners) – Instructions,
Terms of Service link, and further info. Lee Willard also offers
outreach to BB ORG owners. UPDATE: sent out to 1236 ORG
site ‘leaders’
Posters: faculty mailrooms, etc – checklist and details based on
http://support.sakai.duke.edu/transition/what-instructors-shouldknow/
Audience
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff,
students
Faculty, staff –
summer
instructors
Bb Org owners,
faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
3 Sakai Transition Communications Plan – Spring 2012
March
Course Sites: Check your migrated content, get other content now, start using Sakai/learning
Sakai now. Announce Fall SIS feeds?
Project Sites: Check your migrated content, get other content. Explore other technology
options if Sakai doesn’t meet your needs (SharePoint, DukeWiki, WP)
Date
03/01/12
03/01/12
Week of
3/12
(sent
3/14/12)
Week of
3/19
(sent
March
26)
Week of
3/26
Item
CIT blog post: Sakai update
http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/02/sakai-update-march/
CIT blog post: Sakai tip http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/02/sakai-tipsworking-with-forums/
Joint message – From Provost to Deans – to go out to their
faculty: Duke will soon complete the transition from Blackboard to the
Audience
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
Sakai collaborative learning environment. The last day that Blackboard,
or any content in Blackboard, will be available is June 30, 2012. Please
encourage your faculty to check their content migrated from past
Blackboard courses in Sakai (http://sakai.duke.edu) and to retrieve any
other content they may need from Blackboard prior to June 30, 2012. For
more information, please see the Sakai Support Site:
http://support.sakai.duke.edu
Email to current Bb faculty/staff users (Law filtered out):
"This is the second message regarding the Blackboard shutdown
on June 30, 2012. This is your last chance to get any Blackboard
content you may need out of Blackboard before all Blackboard
sites and content are gone forever. If you have students with
incompletes or disputes of some sort - please save the relevant
information you'll need to settle such matters prior to June 30,
2012. Visit http://support.sakai.duke.edu to learn more about
downloading Blackboard content, saving student data or using
Sakai…” (full message went to 4,349 Bb users)
Letters to department chairs: Who has started using Sakai for Fall
– who hasn’t. Sources of help available now
Faculty, staff
DUS/DGS,
admins, faculty,
staff
April
Course Sites: Check your migrated Bb content – get other content now! Summer instructors –
start using Sakai now. CIT will have student assistance available for additional help. Fall feeds?
Project Sites: Check your migrated content, get other content. Explore other technology
options if Sakai doesn’t meet your needs (SharePoint, DukeWiki, WP)
Date
04/01/12
04/01/12
Item
CIT blog post: http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/03/sakai-updategetting-ready-for-fall-2012/
CIT blog post: Sakai tip http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/03/postem/
Audience
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
4 Sakai Transition Communications Plan – Spring 2012
04/03/12
04/12
4/11/12
4/18/12
4/17/12
4/27/12
500 Coffee sleeve stickers Bb expires 06/30/12 – sakai.duke.edu
distributed to Duke Perk (Library coffeeshop)
Working at Duke article by CB. “From Blackboard to Sakai: What
you need to know”
http://www.hr.duke.edu/workingatduke/archive/2012/04.php
Faculty, staff,
students
Staff, faculty
Letters to department chairs, DUS and DGSs from Lynne. A list of
faculty currently using Sakai, and Blackboard users that haven’t
started using Sakai attached.
Combined CIT Showcase + ‘Blackboard is shutting down – use
Sakai now’ postcard to all Duke faculty
Follow up email from Lynne to 84 dept chairs,DUSs and DGSs
regarding paper letters and faculty lists
CIT Showcase presentation(s)
http://cit.duke.edu/showcase2012/s2rm4/
Faculty, staff
Faculty, Staff
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
May
Course Sites: Check your migrated Bb content – get other content now! Summer instructors –
start using Sakai now. CIT will have student assistance available for additional help. Fall feeds?
Project Sites: Check your migrated content, get other content. Explore other technology
options if Sakai doesn’t meet your needs (SharePoint, DukeWiki, WP)
Date
05/01/12
05/01/12
05/07/12
05/0705/11
05/25
Item
CIT blog post: Sakai update
http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/04/sakai-update-may/
CIT blog post: Sakai tip http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/04/calculateand-report-final-course-grades/
All Bb Users Email: to 3550 Bb users.
May Workshops: multiple Sakai Trainings
Audience
Faculty, staff
Individual outreach to ORG site owners and course site
instructors based on usage data from Bb
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
June
Course Sites: BB is going away June 30! Check your migrated Bb content – get other content
now! Summer instructors – start using Sakai now. CIT will have student assistance available for
additional help. Fall feeds?
Project Sites: BB is going away June 30! Check your migrated content, get other content.
Explore other technology options if Sakai doesn’t meet your needs (SharePoint, DukeWiki, WP)
Date
Planned
Planned
Planned
Item
CIT blog post: Sakai update
CIT blog post: Sakai tip
Redirects for courses.duke.edu; message put up on
Audience
Faculty, staff
Faculty, staff
Sakai Transition Communications Plan – Spring 2012
Planned
blackboard.duke.edu pointing to Sakai
Last chance! Email to all Blackboard users!
Document history:
• Version 1, January 25, 2012
• Version 2, January 30, 2012
• Version 3, February 1, 2012
• Version 4, February 6, 2012
• Version 5, February 20, 2012
• Version 6, March 6, 2012
• Version 7, March 15, 2012
• Version 8, April 17, 2012
• Version 9, May 9, 2012
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