20 Comments
The future was yesterday
Columbia is no stranger to website redesigns, but here comes an overhaul that will actually matter. As CUIT so eloquently phrases it on the CourseWorks home page, this fall “CourseWorks Begins Transition to New CourseWorks.”
The current CourseWorks is based on the Prometheus course management system and has been around since 2001—to put that in perspective, if CourseWorks were a child, it would be entering 5th grade. It’s seriously been a long time coming, and CUIT has been planning this since 2008, but Columbia is finally starting to begin its transition to a new course management system, based on the open source Sakai Project.
In a press release, CUIT hails this system for its “state-of-the-art online learning and information sharing tools,” includes discussion boards, grade books, and file drop boxes. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Sakai will have largely the same offerings as CourseWorks, only presumably now it won’t go completely offline whenever PrezBo plugs in too many things in his office or something. Moreover, some new features of Sakai include some sort of live chat/IM system, polling, wikis, and what CUIT’s press release ominously refers to as “social media.”
CUIT will begin transitioning classes to this new system in waves, starting in Fall 2011 and concluding in Spring 2013. First up are classes from the Med Center, School of Social Work, Anthropology and Statistics departments, and select “early adopters” from SEAS, the J-School, and Architecture department. With this transition, Columbia will finally be joining a long list of institutions that have already adopted Sakai, which has been around since 2004. Don’t get too excited though: to quote one student from a school already using Sakai, “It’s not pretty, but it gets the work done.” To quote another, “It sucks.”
Generic Sakai website via Sakai Project
Loading …
20 Comments
@Robert Yeah, my UWriting section used this in the fall of last year.
@I hate new things and changes
@Anonymous This is almost identical to Blackboard, which I dislike. The old Courseworks was much cleaner in appearance. Putting in more fancy options that we never use does not a better interface make.
@Asian guy dating white woman My 14 year old brother thinks the new website redesign “is f*cking gay.”
– 24yro asian guy (CLS ’14) dating white woman (CC ’11)
@senior wisdom... major lame douchebag alert!
@Anonymous They actually already had this up and running for some summer classes. I found it really awful, but it might be just because I’m used to it yet.
@Anonymous Idk if anyone else’s high school used Blackboard as their school courseworks site, but this is incredibly similar
@I was thinking the same thing! pretty much the only difference from Blackboard is the name…
@CC '12 Is there a way to find out who will be living on one’s dorm floor for this coming year? I know there was a site during selection, but I think it’s closed down.
@Anonymous want to get a heads-up on facebook stalking, eh?
@Anonymous you’re a senior. what does it matter?
@Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai
@Anonymous ? that message has been up there since like May.
@Sooo The Summer Transfer has still not arrived. Running low on food, water. Unsure how long can hold out. Too bad rescue craft navigated by IDIOTS
@Anonymous how will we find out about summer transfer? if we are denied, will we still get a conformation?
@Anonymous doesnt uwriting already use this. Seems to me if youre going to overhaul something you’d spend the time and effort to do something fancy.
@Anonymous I saw a friend using something that looked just like this for her UWriting class, but then when mine rolled around the next semester my class had the old Courseworks. Maybe they wanted to test run it with teachers and students to see how they’d react?
@Anonymous reminds me of that rick ross song
@Sakai? More like sexai
@Harmony Hunter Hey guys,
Harmony Hunter is on vacation. Leave the address to Harmony Hall below.