Two years ago, eyes grew wide across campus as word spread that FirstClass—the College community's e-mail and conferencing platform—was to be replaced. In the time since, part of the transition to a new, unified communications system has progressed with the launch of MyWellesley, a centralized portal, and Sakai, the selected learning management system which will become the primary tool for conferencing. The selected e-mail and calendaring system Zimbra, was planned for implementation over the spring but will now be delayed.
With Ravi Ravishankar stepping into the newly appointed position of Chief Information Officer this Monday, changes in the College's transitioning process are imminent.
Currently holding back the implementation of the full unified platform is the decision on the e-mail and calendaring program.
"We want to make sure that we make a good decision…because we are going to have to stay with it for quite some time to come," Ravishankar said about the delay. "We are aiming to make a decision within the next four months."
Programs currently in consideration are Google Apps for Education, Microsoft Exchange/Live@edu and Zimbra. IS conducted a survey in a prior year found Zimbra to be the top choice in terms of overall performance.
Brandstrader explained that instead of causing stress for the entire community by fully shifting to a new system, implementing individual programs gradually would result in a much smoother transition.
The first trial run of the selected e-mail and calendaring system will now be conducted on the entering Class of 2015 in May 2011.
Throughout the summer, IS can reevaluate their choice of tools and make necessary changes in preparation of a full launch of MyWellesley and its all-inclusive online communications services next fall.
The decision to switch toa new College communication systems was based on the fact that FirstClass is highly incompatible with the communication systems of other colleges, it cannot be accessed through many smartphones, and it is primarily used amongst the K-12 grade.
"None of the institutions in the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges use FirstClass," Ravishankar said. Wellesley is unique as a college that extensively uses FirstClass, but that rarity means the College has zero decision-making power to influence their software development. Ravishankar explained that selecting a new program now is advantageous to the College because there are many other institutions that Wellesley can consult regarding this decision.
The transition away from FirstClass has proved to be difficult because of its restrictive and incompatible features.
Director of Planning and Communication Veronica Brandstader said, "[FirstClass] is such a closed system, that getting data out of it is very difficult."
"Our greatest concern is our ability to quickly, and in a timely fashion, be able to pull all of the data out of FirstClass," Ravishankar said.
FirstClass also does not fulfill the standards the College's Information Systems is looking for in a communications program, according to Brandstrader.
The current vision of the United Communications Committee, a team of faculty members from the Information Systems (IS) department who develop a list of potential products for selection, is to have MyWellesley be a customized portal, through which individuals can access all services—including Sakai and the yet to be selected e-mail and calendaring program—through a single login. The portal will be accessible directly through the web from any computer, as well as through smartphones through ActiveSync.
The gradual changes in the communications system began this past summer with the educational course management system Sakai. A main reason Sakai is moving on so quickly is that the program is hosted and maintained off-campus by the company that created it, Longsight. It has also gotten some positive responses from users within the College community—over half of the student body is on the Sakai pilot, through a variety of courses. All remaining courses are expected to transition to Sakai for the spring semester.
Sakai is an open-source, Java-based, service-oriented application fit to host all of the current forum-based communication performed on FirstClass.
"[Eventually], Sakai will not only be used academically…it also has very good features for student organizations and other social aspects," Brandstrader said.
Over the past two weeks, leaders of student organizations have attended training sessions to build worksites on Sakai, which will replace their FirstClass conferences this spring.
Ravishankar brings an attitude of transparency and open-communication to the College. He encouraged community involvement in the selection process.
"I want to assure that this decision is not taken lightly, and really would like the community to feel that we are very transparent about the decision making process," Ravishankar said.
The transition to new unified communications has been aided by an IS Student Advisory Group, which has played a key role in making decisions and bringing them before College Government.
Carole Kim '12 and Lizzie Blair '12, members of the advisory group, expressed some doubt as to how representative the group's opinions have been of the general student population, but found merit in participating in the process.
"Overall, I think we have done a good job of expressing the students' concerns regarding the transition into the Unified Communications tools," Kim said.
Blair commented on the reactions she saw at training sessions for student organization worksite builders.
"Some student organizations are pretty excited by [the] tools and capabilities in Sakai, while some are more reluctant because this move requires some extra work," Blair said.
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