Tek4L

Well we now have the our Open Source LMS shortlist down from two (Moodle and Sakai) to one (Moodle).

We had a very close look at Sakai, including attending the Ausaki07 conference in Canberra and talking to some existing users at Australian Universities. After this process we decided to remove Sakai from the shortlisting process for the following reasons:

• The front-end functionality is not yet mature enough to present a feasible alternative to Blackboard. Many of the tools are still in the development stage and provide limited feature sets, so would present a step backwards compared to what our academics are currently used to.
• There are some usability issues with the interface that would cause problems for new users, and frustration to more experienced users. The main problem is around the use of iFrames and the need to constantly use the in-built refresh button to bring up the page you want, rather than a cached page in the frame. While the developers are working on a version with no iframes, this would not be available in time for a 2008 trial.
• There are only a limited number of southern hemisphere installations, with only 1 Australian University using Sakai as a full LMS at this stage.
• There are no stand-out features that put Sakai ahead of other LMSs, that would warrant overlooking the above shortcomings.