Links:
“In general the Open Source development community is very supportive of Moodle. The Moodle community is seen as open and inclusive with lively forums and much information available on implementing and using the platform. The opposite is seen of Sakai. No-one is quite sure what it is and where it is going, information on ten open areas of the Sakai site is sparse and the community would seem to be closed.
The end result is a great deal of skepticism - sometimes bordering ion (sic) hostility — towards the Sakai development — with a perception that it is a well funded corporate development by and for the larger universities.”
Q: Why might the Open Source community have this attitude to Sakai? What might make the OS community consider Sakai to be ‘well funded corporate development’? [analyse the Sakai site with these questions in mind] . From the replies ( Wilfred Rubens TE-learning centrum: Moodle en Sakai ):
Perhaps you could distinguise [distinguish] three models:
— Network model (or community): open, large group of similar organisations. E.g. Moodle
— Pioneer model: one organisation takes the lead, others have limited contributions. Eg. FLE3
— Consortium model (association): closed, limited group of organisations. Perhaps with a hidden agenda ;-) (e.g. Sakai)
” The long running critique of Moodle is their bloated code
Huh? Where is that a long running critique? Before NZVLE passed 45,000 users, the longest running critique I heard was it probably wouldn’t scale because it used PHP (I guess Facebook, Yahoo, etc. had something to do with putting the PHP scalability issue to rest)? “
Moodle : essentially LAMP - Linux/Apache /MySQL/PhP
Sakai : what exactly is the actual development environment. It’s an obscure dialect of Java; but what?
Q: Is Java intrinsically more ‘scaleable’ that php? Is it intrinsically better suited to large scale implementations? What are the advantages and drawback to the Java system relative to developing with php. Bring in object oriented concepts. Moodle vs Sakai discussion has some useful commentary & links. Sakai developer Ben Brophy has some interesting comments about developing with Java
Interesting video presentations on getting started with Sakai — we could do with this kind of approach for Moodle developers!
Portland State University - may replace WebCT with Sakai. The New version of WebCT (v 6.0) will be tested along with Samla (their ‘branded version of Sakai) , and the choice will be made July of 2007.
“Costs for each system vary, but ultimately would end up being roughly the same after five years. The new WebCT has annual licensing and data base fees, whereas SAMLA would hire a dedicated programmer to work between half and full-time on programming and development.” “If this was a slam dunk answer, we wouldn’t spend all this time on it,” said Mark Gregory, executive director of information technology. “Eventually the open source software will be as good or better than WebCT, and we know that we will have more control because we can do the development ourselves.”
Some professors are finding that the new Samla tool does not easily translate to meet the needs of their class. “Samla has potential, but lacks features I rely heavily upon in WebCT , such as notifications, exam functionality, grade book automation, etc. So my view is that we will need to either wait a while for Samla to mature, or be prepared to invest significantly in its development locally,” said Wayne Wakeland, associate professor of systems science who tried out Samla last term and is testing out WebCT 6.0 this term.
Others, such as Wende Morgaine, prefer its simple process. “For me, uploading an assignment for my students using WebCT was a multi-step process that wasn’t intuitive. When I use Samla, I just have to click one or two buttons. I could figure out SAMLA with no training at all, so I prefer it.” Morgaine is the faculty team leader for the PSU Eportfolio Expansion, and an instructor for the University Studies Program who has taught eight classes using Samla.
Posted by markp at April 23, 2006 10:05 PMStudent Katie Mahoney, who took a Samla course during winter term, had a frustrating experience. “It was very hard to navigate the system and was not user friendly … until the university figures out how to use the program and can provide information about how it is used to the students, it should not be used.”
“It added a lot of issues for many of my classmates … and there was often a negative buzz about Samla during the class time … maybe they should have a better understanding of the programs they are providing before letting us do the leg work and possibly have our sanity suffer because of the frustration,” Mahoney added.