Higher education is very different than other sectors. It has its own processes and a different set of demands. Most commercial proprietary software vendors who develop their applications on a wider spread on fields. These scientists complain that creates a significant disconnect between software vendors and end users in the sciences.
To overcome these shortcomings, began training the search for "open source" as an alternative model. About onePrevious decade began, the institutions are discussing the total cost of ownership by adopting an open source community-based approach to proprietary applications, the viability of open source based business models, sustainability and security.
Successful development of open-source community, software is fairly well defined. Linux and Apache are ample evidence of its success. A similar trend, although not widespread, which may, in its scope, the development of joint projects will be pursuededucation, such as Moodle and Sakai.
Through the course of their years of training, the open source approach to education has developed several alternative models. Some of these advanced models and schools of thought and has been successfully implemented within a clear range of capacity on the market. Progress and success in open-source projects like Sakai, Moodle, Kuali, uPortal, Shibboleth, and many others will be watching closely followed by industry.
CommunitySource Model
One school of thought believes that the open-source sharing more than a philosophical approach as a viable alternative. The use of open source in higher education seems to suggest otherwise. FLOSS (Free / Libre and Open Source Software) and communities to thrive in an environment of learning.
The RAFT model was to be widely used in initiatives such as MIT OpenCourseWare and Open Source Biology. Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia, Open the dictionaryProject are good examples of how open source has been adapted successfully to the educational initiatives.
In a community-source project, which brings together the various institutions of the project partners. All partners both financially and in terms of employment of human resources for the effort. In the early stages of the partnership can provide all the design and development activities, and only in later stages of the project will be open to the wider community. In this way, the first support isguaranteed, and institutions have a major influence in deciding how to model design and implementation.
The initial goal of the community source projects is the cooperation between the institutions. The focus in the crucial stages in the first place, therefore, shared a common form economic prospects and an appropriate administrative framework instead of forming a community around a code. Most community-based open-source projects slowly moving to open source in the later stages.
TheSakai Project, for example, in a joint effort of four institutions (Michigan, Indiana, Stanford and MIT) has begun. The original intention was to produce a framework of common objectives, the appropriate software from a list of agreed targets. The possibility of participation followed by formation of Sakai Educational Partners Program (SEPP), with other institutions to increase registration and participation of the community for a small fee.
CurrentLandscape
A training company, as every company has its own needs, ranging from budget planning resources. They also have the typical requirements, such as the need to integrate with government funding to handle multiple billing cycles and student information systems (SIS), participation, quality, transcripts, student records and billing. All these call for robust ERP systems. Until recently, colleges and universities usually only oneself-developed systems that are older than 15 years, or commercial products from vendors such as Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, or vendors such as SunGard, which pursues the goal of higher education changed market.
Kuali Financials was taken because of the lack of open source solutions for business applications in higher education are a mix of some proprietary software vendors, and some of the most important open source initiatives together. PeopleSoft, Oracle, and SunGardDatatel are some major suppliers that offer tightly integrated ERP package for the education sector.
Recent consolidation in the sector, such as the acquisition of PeopleSoft by Oracle, and WebCT, Angel, Blackboard, etc. has caused considerable unrest in the fraternity of education. The concern stems from the fear that the trend would lead to the consolidation of the monopoly of some important players. The plans of the manufacturer, a system tightly integrated supply reinforces the fear that thisprovide an unfair advantage to extend these providers, as well as the Community's dependence on them.
One aim of proprietary applications is to unplug a semblance between the industry and software developers. Institutions strong reservations about the software currently available to management and management systems of the course. The feeling is that applications are manufactured by companies such as SAP and PeopleSoft, and adapted by other sectorswork is not good for the educational enterprise. In addition, the proprietary nature of the requests is that the source code is available and the considerable efforts of the costs of adjustment.
Within a broad spectrum of needs, open source can be a viable alternative. In fact, if these restrictions provided the impetus for open source initiatives in higher education. Some success has helped to form a solid basis for the construction of aAlternative model of support for the training sector.
The Sakai project, participating organizations have agreed to integrate and synchronize their learning software in a pre-integrated collection of open-source tools called the Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE). Sakai has implemented activity on various institutions including the University of Michigan and Indiana University.
In parallel, Sakai offers a wide range of activities, communitiesthat active collaboration between industry and providers have produced applications. The Sakai Educational Partners Program allows educational institutions to participate in the program for a small fee. There is also a Sakai Commercial Affiliates offer or for a fee-based services for installation, integration and support ..
Kuali, on the other hand, refers primarily to aspects of educational administration. The Kuali Financial System (KFS) is the most importantApplication. Manages administrative and operational activities such as general accounting, procurement, salaries and benefits, budgeting, asset management and grants. The system is based on modules that tweaked to make other commercial applications work. For example, at Indiana University, working with the Kuali applications PeopleSoft HR and Student System. The Kuali Foundation is a non-profit consortium of several universities and some hardware and softwareCompany. Kuali Commercial Affiliate Program works similarly to how his counterpart Sakai. The community has grown and now includes the University of California, Cornell, Michigan State University, San Joaquin Delta College (California), and the University of Arizona.
Significantly, according to the Campus Computing Survey 2008, approximately 13.8 percent of respondents already have an Open Source LMS – Moodle or Sakai identified or – as the campus standardLMS.
Besides these many other projects, SIS will function. For example, you could openSIS student demographics, program planning, participation, quality, records, recordings, and health, and its parent company makes add-on modules for additional functionality, such as disciplinary proceedings, monitoring, accounting support Food Service, and bulk – Mail / SMS for emergency contact.
Other intiaitives are key
Community JaSig develop uPortal and CAS (Central Authentication Services) two componentsserve as input for Kuali Rice.
Internet2 – a consortium of universities that use, in collaboration with industry and government, and to develop advanced network applications and technologies, including products such as Shibboleth and Grouper LED
Open Source Curricula
As with any source "open" the activity, curriculum open source is by definition one that can be used freely be distributed and modified. A model like this are apparently contradictory, the concept ofHigher education as attacking the credibility of the educational context. Campus Education must work in a structured way of learning. The concept of community collaboration with scientists and students on the same platform brings a lot of unpredictability in the scenario
However, municipalities FLOSS (Free / Libre Open Source software and proven) in education to be a success. An important principle of this method of learning has its roots in Adaptation tothe context of those experiences'. With the emphasis on learners and their preferences, this method of learning focuses more on training through collaboration, communication and exchange.
Major initiatives include the Connexions project at Rice University, the MIT OpenCourseWare project and social support learning name.
The RAFT approach in higher education is, in combination with traditional teacher-centered approaches. The objectives of the raftApproach, not to replace the traditional methods, but to achieve synergies in the combination and to give students a better environment for learning.
The wire-like education transfer report, published in September 2008 as part of the project FLOSSCOM, notes that the FLOSS community can create effective learning environments. The study also three different approaches that can be successful with traditional teaching approaches are combined to find.
Economic models of OpenSource
One aspect that clearly show the adoption of open source software as a winner is that in this scenario, developers are usually also the user of the software. This is the perception among the community of developers and end users, unlike in case to separate proprietary applications. However, this is less evident in the case of administrative applications, such as payroll or HR. In such cases, the adoption of open source software in a directTrial.
Initiatives have such as Kuali project to build and open-source can also develop sustainable models that offer adequate support mechanisms established. In these models, there is active collaboration between the community, not just developers and end users, but also a group of extended support, made up from commercial suppliers. These support groups are available to provide timely support for mission critical applications. The Community approach also ensures that the code is not closedand that an active community of interest means that extensions as needed to keep going.
Projects such as uPortal have been developed with minimum resources, but there are hundreds of institutions. The EU approach has proven to be sustainable, as in the Sakai project. As regards funding, has received the Sakai project, an investment of 6.8 million U.S. dollars in two years.
The vitality of the open source community-based model does not result from the monetary cost orAspects, but especially the adaptability it offers. The debate over the costs of transferring ownership from commercially available proprietary software and open source applications has not yet been demonstrated empirically. However, the fact that the code is open means that it can be easily adapted to meet the new requirements and may not have substantial investments in the form of adjustments or improvements. This means substantial economic sense to make the longer term.
The case of open source in highEducation is well documented in a study of competitiveness of the Alliance for Higher Education. In a study called the 2005 report, "Will open source software as an important concept for the future of higher education? Rob Abel noted that open source is a measure of" great for higher education. "The study, based on an open-source projects in education, believes that the approach of the community is an interesting model, which also helps reduce the risks associated with the adoption of an openSource approach.
As a model for costs, the study finds that the source was opened contributed to cost savings in the range from 20 to 30 percent for the commercial sector, the same can not right in education. The Community approach, the writer is, with its registration fees, may be only marginally positive in terms of cost. Institutions that can have its own infrastructure and resources, however, a significant reduction in the cost of theirOpen-source initiatives.
Future
Open source must be as flexible and reliable platform for cooperation and learning. Looking for the perfect software to process applications, administrative, operational and training platforms, most CIOs view of interoperability, reliability and scalability of applications. Applications like Sakai and Kuali have shown without doubt that open source applications offer great configurability.
DevelopmentCommunity and support from commercial vendors, such as in the case of Kuali and Sakai, fuel a greater degree of innovation. Moreover, the benefit is offered through cooperation, also provides an impetus to the continuous improvement of the system. Support systems and accessories that are guaranteed for future needs.
When asked how close or adopt an open source model, the answer would depend on the needs, infrastructure and resources available to an institution. TheCommunity development model has shown that distributes the costs can be divided among the participants. Experience shows that universities and schools can work together to open source software that provides for their needs in a way that is more than a few commercial products to produce. The cooperative model allows educational institutions to their financial and technical resources pool. In addition, a larger community that the applications are examined in a series of tests to ensureEnvironments, helps in the development of robust solutions.
During the period of the academic basis for developing learning systems to accommodate the formative evaluation and assessment outside of class. Many universities have taken the initiative of MIT and online teaching, which are accessible by anyone, for free. It 'was at Yale University, Notre Dame, Tufts, and Stanford School of Engineering, has adopted, to name a few. The United Nations has launched an initiativeleverage social media technologies and ideas to offer higher education opportunities to people who would otherwise not be able to afford the costs.
Commercially, open source projects have taken their first steps in the marketplace. The model is evolving aided by some significant commercial vendor backing. For the community-based open source approach to prosper, substantial financial backing is an absolute necessity to prevent it from faltering and to avoid the pitfalls that arise form source code being easily modifiable and rebranded by a different vendor. From the commercial perspective, projects like Sakai and the Kuali Foundation are likely to thrive as they have substantial stakeholders from both the academic and the corporate world.
What could derail further adoption? There are several potential risk areas:
Lack of understanding of entry points for adoption
Lack of support to adopt the applications
Minimal staff to support the applications
Lack of training / documentation to train staff
A “runaway” project that consumes much press and develops a negative bias toward the project
Many of these risks may be mitigated though co-operative initiatives between the foundations developing the open source solutions and commercial affiliates looking to support the solutions – and develop complementation solutions. Some examples:
Further publicity through conventional, non-education related channels such as Google and industry-based sites such as edu1world
Furrther innovation and cooperation – whether through ’summer of code’ collaborations; or community collaborations that will transform the current listservs to more accessible forums
Commercial affiliates offering training and webinars
Commercial affiliates offering ease of use entry points, such as pre-installed servers or virtual images that can be downloaded and used out of the box
In conclusion, open source initiatives in higher education have a long way to go before they enter the commercial mainstream in a significant fashion. However, with industry and academic collaboration, it has a great potential to change the higher education landscape in the longer term.
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