I don't like heirarchies
At Syracuse we are doing something a little crazy with Sakai. At least I think so.
A look at most of the courseware packages that I have had exposure to has made it plain that that tools deployed in courseware are typically configured with roles for the teacher and students. The scope of the activity is usually limited to those in the “course” or “worksite”. The dean or program chair usually isn’t included in these closed door communities and thus is not privy to what is going on in there. That has made a lot of sense in the past because teachers like to close their doors and do their own thing. Courseware imitates life.
Our School of Education has been bitten by the NCATE accreditation process, which requires that an entire college look hard and long at the school’s various sets of desired learning outcomes and how each program and class is helping to meet those goals. At its essence, it requires poking holes through the traditional courseware model. It requires faculty to link the activities they do in their formerly closed classes to a commonly derived set of outcomes…and collectively think about how to make the program better. It’s a lot like social networking and It’s not really hierarchical. Not many things on campus really are…
Chances are, hierarchies are an 80% solution at best for addressing our needs. Since some courses span multiple programs and often attempt to address learning outcomes for each, the act of identifying activities, evaluating student performance and reporting data makes the relationships between course, goal and program worksites look a little more like a spider web than an a tree. As these networks form to address other research agenda, I anticipate the network of associations growing more complicated.
If I understand the idea of the idea of hierarchies in Sakai, I think that the intent is to provide a waterfall of calendar and announcement information that starts are the top of the hierarchy and trickles down through programs and courses to the right users. I think it s a nice idea, but I wonder if a more organic network is actually a better solution.
A look at most of the courseware packages that I have had exposure to has made it plain that that tools deployed in courseware are typically configured with roles for the teacher and students. The scope of the activity is usually limited to those in the “course” or “worksite”. The dean or program chair usually isn’t included in these closed door communities and thus is not privy to what is going on in there. That has made a lot of sense in the past because teachers like to close their doors and do their own thing. Courseware imitates life.
Our School of Education has been bitten by the NCATE accreditation process, which requires that an entire college look hard and long at the school’s various sets of desired learning outcomes and how each program and class is helping to meet those goals. At its essence, it requires poking holes through the traditional courseware model. It requires faculty to link the activities they do in their formerly closed classes to a commonly derived set of outcomes…and collectively think about how to make the program better. It’s a lot like social networking and It’s not really hierarchical. Not many things on campus really are…
Chances are, hierarchies are an 80% solution at best for addressing our needs. Since some courses span multiple programs and often attempt to address learning outcomes for each, the act of identifying activities, evaluating student performance and reporting data makes the relationships between course, goal and program worksites look a little more like a spider web than an a tree. As these networks form to address other research agenda, I anticipate the network of associations growing more complicated.
If I understand the idea of the idea of hierarchies in Sakai, I think that the intent is to provide a waterfall of calendar and announcement information that starts are the top of the hierarchy and trickles down through programs and courses to the right users. I think it s a nice idea, but I wonder if a more organic network is actually a better solution.