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The Foothill-De Anza Community College District has been awarded $600,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to build upon the Sakai open source course management system (CMS) to meet the unique needs of community colleges. The Sakai Project is an open educational software development project founded by the University of Michigan, Indiana University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University with support from the Andrew W. Mellon and William and Flora Hewlett foundations.
"We are honored to receive this significant grant," said Martha J. Kanter, chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. "This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to further development of open source course management software that will advance faculty and student access to Web-based learning regionally, nationally and globally."
Course management systems are tools that allow faculty to post course materials online, communicate with students and deliver or supplement instruction using the Web. Unlike traditional CMS tools, Sakai promises to provide a flexible framework where students and faculty can convene to engage in active learning. "Educators who deeply understand teaching and learning principles are uniquely suited and best equipped to design effective virtual learning spaces," noted Foothill Dean of Distance and Mediated Learning and ETUDES Alliance founder Vivian Sinou.
In January 2004, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded Foothill-De Anza a $124,000 pilot grant for the Sharing of Free Intellectual Assets (Sofia) project, an open courseware initiative that will encourage the publication and free exchange of community college course materials on the Web. Foothill-De Anza will utilize the Sakai CMS tools in the Sofia project.
"The Foothill-De Anza grants align with the Hewlett Foundation's technology goal of equalizing access to high quality content for people throughout the world," said Marshall Smith, program director for education at the Hewlett Foundation. "The end product will result in California community colleges and others worldwide having access to both exemplary academic content and a free technology platform to support the use of the content."
In 1994, President Bernadine Chuck Fong led Foothill College to offer one of the first online community college course available to students in California. Since then, thousands of students have benefited from these courses. In 1995, computer science faculty member Michael Loceff, who offered the first online class at Foothill College, developed a course management system known as Easy to Use Distance Education Software (ETUDES). ETUDES enabled Foothill College to revolutionize instructional delivery via the Internet.
Foothill's role in developing and supporting ETUDES paved the way for many institutions in California and elsewhere in the country to offer Web-based learning through the ETUDES Alliance. ETUDES is currently the engine for Web-based courses used by 50 colleges, 670 faculty and 18,000 students across the state in California's community colleges. However, the product is not scalable and does not meet growing demand.
This grant will enable the Foothill-De Anza Community College District to provide Alliance members access to standard, scalable and affordable course management tools and support, further advancing Web-based learning opportunities, even as California community colleges face vast increases in enrollments and sharply declining budgets.
"Due to limited resources, rising costs of CMS software and inadequate technology infrastructures, access to Web-based learning opportunities are threatened in California's community colleges," said Sinou. "Creative uses of course management software for teaching and learning can help equalize educational opportunities for disadvantaged students. For example, a second-language learner can review missed concepts online or download and print the lecture from the comfort of home."
The momentum and endorsement for this effort is a significant development for the higher education community. "We fully support the efforts of Foothill-De Anza and its partners and stand ready to help Foothill-De Anza distribute the Sakai tools within the ETUDES Alliance and the California Community Colleges," said Mark David Milliron, president and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College. "Open source software is an innovation whose time has come."
"The Sakai Project is very pleased that the Hewlett Foundation has awarded Foothill-De Anza this extensive support to build on the community source software emerging from the Sakai Project's efforts," said Joseph Hardin, chair of the Sakai Project Board of Directors and director of the collaborative technologies lab and clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
For more than 40 years, the Foothill-De Anza Community College District has demonstrated excellence and innovation in academic programs and student services. As one of the largest community college districts in the United States, Foothill-De Anza provides educational opportunity for about 45,000 students per quarter. For more information about the district, visit http://www.fhda.edu/. See http://www.foothill.edu for information about Foothill College. To learn about the Sofia project, visit http://sofia.fhda.edu/.
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