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We're continuing to redevelop the Sakai Foundation web site. One of our objectives is to make the site much more reflective of the practice of the Sakai community: to showcase what we are, and what we do. I'd like to start the ball rolling by making an appeal for you to consider writing a case study of Sakai deployment in your school. When a university or college begins to consider a change of learning management system, or begins to work through issues surrounding broader collaboration, they want to hear stories. Stories of evaluation, success, setbacks and failures; warts-and-all genuine community experiences, not marketing puff-pieces. One of the reasons why I love my work with the Sakai community is its honesty and openness. Please help put that on show by sharing your experience.

Guidelines for writing a Sakai Implementation Case Study

This is a set of pointers to the creation of a Sakai implementation case study. Your story is important to the reader precisely because it is *yours*, specifically. Feel free to depart from this suggested outline, and to provide as much (or as little) detail as you are comfortable with. Remember, quotes from senior leaders, faculty and students are particularly powerful. There is also particular interest in cost of ownership details - both from other potential adopters, and from analysts who shape industry perspectives. 

An illustration or two will help the Foundation present your case study in as attractive way as possible. Photographs of individuals quoted, learners or faculty using Sakai, or framing shots of your campus are great. Don't worry about layout, the Foundation is happy handling that side of things. If you are comfortable with using video, short clips are often tremendously useful communicators. Again, don't feel pressure to include all these media types; whatever you feel able to provide will be of use.

Your case study will be made available on the Sakai Foundation website. Please include rights information (normally which type of Creative Commons license you prefer) with your copy.

Outline

1. Enough background on the institution/adopter for the reader to make sense of the story.
2. The institutional problem space; strategic motivators for change.
3. The selection process itself; criteria, how the process was organised, the choice. Comments from faculty and institutional leadership are useful throughout, but particularly in this section.
4. If a pilot took place, then details are useful; why the pilot group was selected, any detailed objectives? Faculty and student experience of pilot - again, any quotable comments useful. Interactions with Sakai Community which helped?
5. Implementation. Phased over what period, with which target groups? Comments from faculty and students regarding their experience. Interactions with Sakai Community? Statistics - how many users, how many sites, over what period? Usage stats where available. Strategies for content migration are of considerable interest to other institutions. Consider including major systems integration challenges.
6. How adoption contributed to/met institutional strategic objectives. Comparative total cost of ownership information is particularly useful here. Specific stories of teaching, learning and research collaboration "successes". Outstanding issues - what were the "warts", what problems did you overcome, or do you still have? Any general or specific lessons to be drawn for other adopters?

Please send any materials for the case study to iandolphin@sakaifoundation.org . If you would like to discuss any aspects of a potential case study, please drop me a line at the same address.