Assessment related use cases from Fluid user research

Fri May 9 20:53:46 UTC 2008

Sorry, that probably came across more as a critique than what I
intended it to be: an enticement for all of us to figure out a shared
direction and some next steps that people can really commit to.  I'm
actually trying to use NYU's interest to help reinvigorate a
discussion.  I know we at Georgia Tech have retreated from it in the
past partly because:

a) it's bigger and harder to think about than the nuts and bolts
course management features like gradebooks and homework submission
b) we wanted the JCR work to settle in architecturally first
c) while it seemed to be the #2 or #3 priority at several institutions
it hasn't quite broken through as a community priority that was
attracting the requisite resource

There are signs of that changing, though I'm concerned that efforts in
this area are still too fragmented - Diva, Image Gallery, file
uploaders, file manager widgets, to name a few - and while we're
picking around the edges we're not yet really taking it on
corporately.  Maybe we're just preparing ourselves to.

I think taking it on is going to involve a very broad effort, ranging
from user research from Fluid through designs from Nathan and then
accessible components, down to a richer set of content services -
perhaps even an OpenSocial container for doing (at least) certain
kinds of content sharing. It's daunting to think of trying to pull all
this together, but I don't know how much longer we can afford to avoid
it.

~Clay

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 4:00 PM, Barbra Mack <barbra at nyu.edu> wrote:
> The only "taggable" work I have seen is with the images tool they were
> creating. I'd be very interested in seeing what else is going on.
>
>>
>> Similar comments to what I've said above:  all good thoughts, of a
>> piece with thoughts coming from other Sakai visionaries, but I'd
>> encourage thinking less about the "Resources" tool as such, and more
>> about the content services running against JCR, and the flexibility
>> they might afford.  John's already expressed his interest, I know
>> Fluid and its partner institutions do as well, as does Georgia Tech
>> and others.  The topic seems ripe for some careful thinking about
>> shared services, as the JCR work is coming into its own.
>>
>
> Under this kind of vision, would there be a central resource "manager" for
> people that would achieve some sort of user connection/unity across systems?
> Or do people see these systems working independently, with just hooks at
> appropriate places?
>
> Also, I'm sorry but I'm not sure I was very clear. NYU is still in a
> brainstorming, visionary stage. We are still scoping, and also pondering how
> Sakai might work in balance with some of our other large central systems
> here. NYU would like to very much tie our efforts into initiatives going on
> with the Sakai community wherever this is possible. I think the whole
> community seems to be flowing the same directions, and I think I can safely
> speak for NYU by saying we would like to participate in a coordinated effort
> towards a larger vision for Sakai.
>
> Thanks for the feedback Clay.
>
> -Barbra
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On May 9, 2008, at 9:48 AM, Clay Fenlason wrote:
>>>
>>>> ... cc-ing Barbra, in case she isn't on this list.
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Clay Fenlason
>>>> <clay.fenlason at et.gatech.edu> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm trying to be better about taking my conversations to the lists,
>>>>> and realize that I stumbled here earlier - there is more interesting
>>>>> work happening around content management in Sakai than I think most
>>>>> people realize, and it just needs to be ushered out into the open.
>>>>>
>>>>> In any event, let me pose a follow-up question to Barbra on the list:
>>>>>
>>>>> When you say "use Sakai within a Research Portal," do you mean that
>>>>> you are imagining Sakai as a "server that houses resources"?  Or do
>>>>> you mean that Sakai itself would be accessing a wide array of
>>>>> repositories and sharing across them?  I think my interest is to get
>>>>> away from the idea that Sakai is itself a repository, but is rather a
>>>>> container that can knit repositories together (eventually with the
>>>>> sort of cross-cutting collectioning and sharing UX that you describe).
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm going to keep watching the Fluid research model as well, in the
>>>>> hope that it helps ground requirements that seem to keep flitting
>>>>> about but never quite land.
>>>>>
>>>>> ~Clay
>>>>>
>>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>>> From: Barbra Mack <barbra at nyu.edu>
>>>>> Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 at 4:40 PM
>>>>> Subject: Re: Assessment related use cases from Fluid user research
>>>>> To: Clay Fenlason <clay.fenlason at et.gatech.edu>
>>>>> Cc: Daphne Ogle <daphne at media.berkeley.edu>, Nicola Monat-Jacobs
>>>>> <nicola at nyu.edu>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes. That would be great to have a conversation. Daphne it looks like
>>>>> we are moving in similar areas.
>>>>>
>>>>> Effort on this Sakai thing was put on hold here at NYU for a few
>>>>> weeks. But there is very serious consideration to use Sakai within a
>>>>> Research Portal. Which would be a "cloud system" that allows people to
>>>>> go in and select resources from institutional respositories, and then
>>>>> share their selections using a variety of collaboration tools,
>>>>> including a tagging system, blogs, wikis, etc.
>>>>>
>>>>> NYU's proposed portal, and also considerations about how we could use
>>>>> Sakai as an LMS would significantly break down the barriers that exist
>>>>> now between course sites that are housing in an LMS, and scholarly
>>>>> activities that might go on in relation to classes, graduate work,
>>>>> post-doctoral research, research groups, faculty peer collaboration,
>>>>> etc.
>>>>>
>>>>> However, most of this hinges on looking at how can resources be more
>>>>> fluid, and making the meta-data and the reuse of these resources not
>>>>> dependent on the server that houses them. Of course, this also means
>>>>> that we need to look at how permissions are assigned, and allowing
>>>>> user groups to be larger than a course site, and even shared between
>>>>> systems.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm happy to share some of the research, and the user needs analysis
>>>>> that we did to come up with these 1st mock-ups.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Barbra
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On May 7, 2008, at 4:17 PM, Clay Fenlason wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks, Daphne.  I'm also copying a couple of our colleagues at NYU,
>>>>>> since they've been giving a lot of thought to content management in
>>>>>> Sakai in recent months.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Barbra and Nicola, I'd highlight Fluid's work in this area as a good
>>>>>> place to engage with content management in Sakai:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://wiki.fluidproject.org/x/pAIa
>>>>>> http://wiki.fluidproject.org/x/44ok
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Daphne, Barbra posted what NYU has been thinking through here:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/J4ArAQ
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There might be opportunities for collaboration here.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ~Clay
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Daphne Ogle
>>>>>> <daphne at media.berkeley.edu>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi Clay,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  If I've already sent this sorry for the duplication.  I've been on
>>>>>>> holiday
>>>>>>> and know I wanted to send this before I left but not sure I did.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  There may not be much new to you here but wanted to let you know we
>>>>>>> are
>>>>>>> starting to get the research model up on the wiki,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Content+Management+Research+Models.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  The Use Case Frequency Matrix is probably most useful.  We are still
>>>>>>> working on the completing the who  and the frequency but you can at
>>>>>>> least
>>>>>>> get an idea of the kinds of activities users told us and showed us
>>>>>>> they
>>>>>>> were
>>>>>>> doing.  The Xs identify who we heard the use cases from although
>>>>>>> there
>>>>>>> may
>>>>>>> be others also doing them, we just didn't hear it directly from them.
>>>>>>>  That
>>>>>>> analysis is one of our next steps.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  Let me know if you have any questions.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  Daphne Ogle
>>>>>>>  Senior Interaction Designer
>>>>>>>  University of California, Berkeley
>>>>>>>  Educational Technology Services
>>>>>>>  daphne at media.berkeley.edu
>>>>>>>  cell (510)847-0308
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Clay Fenlason
>>>>>> Director, Educational Technology
>>>>>> Georgia Institute of Technology
>>>>>> (404) 385-6644
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Clay Fenlason
>>>>> Director, Educational Technology
>>>>> Georgia Institute of Technology
>>>>> (404) 385-6644
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Clay Fenlason
>>>> Director, Educational Technology
>>>> Georgia Institute of Technology
>>>> (404) 385-6644
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Clay Fenlason
>> Director, Educational Technology
>> Georgia Institute of Technology
>> (404) 385-6644
>
>
>

-- 
Clay Fenlason
Director, Educational Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
(404) 385-6644