The higher education sector is quite unlike other industries. It
has its own processes and a different set of demands. Most commercial
proprietary application vendors develop their applications focused on a
wider domain spread across industries. This, academics complain, creates
a distinct disconnect between software vendors and the end-users in
academia.
To
overcome these shortcomings, the education industry started looking to
"open source" as an alternate model. Around a decade back, institutions
started debating total cost of ownership in adopting an open source
based community approach vis-à-vis proprietary applications, viability
of open source based business models, sustainability and security
issues.
The success of community developed open source software is
quite well established. Linux and Apache are ample proof of its
success. A similar trend, though not that widespread in its reach, can
be traced to the development of community projects in education like the
Moodle and Sakai.
Through the course of its formative years, the
open source community based approach in education has developed several
alternative models. Some of these models and schools of thought have
thrived and been implemented successfully across a significant spectrum
of the industry. Progress and success in open source projects like the
Sakai, Moodle, Kuali, uPortal, Shibboleth, and many more are being
closely watched by the industry.
Community Source Model
One
school of thought believes that open source sharing is more a
philosophical approach than a viable alternative. The adoption of open
source in higher education seems to suggest otherwise. FLOSS (Free/Libre
and Open Source Software) communities are thriving well in learning
environments too.
The FLOSS model has been extensively used in
initiatives like the MIT OpenCourseWare and Open Source Biology. Project
Gutenberg, the Wikipedia, The Open Dictionary project are prime
examples of how open source has been successfully adapted to education
initiatives.
In a community source project, multiple institutions
come together to partner in the project. All partners contribute
financially as well as in employing human resources for the effort. In
the early stages, the partnering institutions provide all design and
development efforts and only in subsequent stages is the project opened
to the broader community. This way, the initial support is secured and
the institutions have a substantial influence in deciding how the
application is modeled and designed.
The initial focus of
community source projects is on collaboration between institutions. The
focus in the crucial first stages is therefore to form a common economic
outlook and an appropriate administrative framework rather than forming
a community around a shared code. Most community based open source
projects slowly migrate to open source in the later stages.
The
Sakai project, for example, started as a joint effort between four
institutions (Michigan, Indiana, MIT and Stanford). The initial agenda
was to set up a framework of common goals that would produce appropriate
software based on an agreed list of objectives. The scope for
participation was later increased by forming the Sakai Educational
Partners Program (SEPP), whereby other institutions can join and
participate in the community for a small fee.
The Current Landscape
An
education enterprise like any organization has its own needs ranging
from resource planning to budgeting. Additionally, they have typical
requirements like the need to integrate with financial aid programs of
the government, multiple payroll cycles, and student information systems
(SIS) that handle admissions, grades, transcripts, student records as
well as billing. All these call for robust ERP systems. Until recently,
colleges and universities mostly rely on either custom-developed systems
that are more than 15 years old, or have transitioned to commercial
products from vendors like Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft or vendors like
SunGard that are geared towards the higher education market.
Kuali
Financials was borne due to the lack of open source solutions
Enterprise applications in the higher education sector are comprised of a
mix of some proprietary application vendors and some key open source
community initiatives. PeopleSoft, Oracle, SunGard and Datatel are some
key vendors that offer tightly integrated ERP packages for the education
sector.
Recent consolidation in the industry, like the
acquisition of PeopleSoft by Oracle and of WebCT, Angel, etc by
Blackboard, has caused considerable unease in the education fraternity.
The concern stems from the fear that the trend of consolidation would
lead to the monopoly of a few key vendors. The plans of these vendors to
offer tightly integrated systems heightens the fear that this will
provide an unfair leverage to these vendors as it would extend the
community's dependence on them.
One area of concern about
proprietary applications is a seeming disconnect between the industry
and software application developers. Institutions also have strong
reservations about the currently available administrative software and
course management systems. The feeling is that applications provided by
vendors such as SAP and PeopleSoft are adapted from other industries and
does not work well for educational enterprises. Moreover, the
proprietary nature of the applications implies that the source code is
not available and customization efforts involve substantial costs.
In
the context of such a wide breadth of requirements, open source can
prove to be a viable alternative. In fact, these constraints provided
the impetus for open source initiatives in higher education. Some of the
success has helped provide a strong foundation to building an
alternative support model for the education industry.
In the Sakai
project, the participating institutions decided to integrate and
synchronize their educational software into a pre-integrated collection
of open source tools termed Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE).
Sakai has active implementations running at multiple institutes
including the University of Michigan and Indiana University.
In
parallel, Sakai also established a set of activity based communities
that have spawned an active cooperation between the industry and
application vendors. The Sakai Educational Partners Program allows
educational institutions to participate in the program for a small fee.
Besides, there are the Sakai Commercial Affiliates, who offer fee-based
services for installation, integration and support..
Kuali, on the
other hand, mainly addresses aspects of educational administration. The
Kuali Financial System (KFS) is the most prominent application. It
handles administrative and operational tasks like general accounting,
purchasing, salary and benefits, budgeting, asset management and grants.
The system is designed around modules that enable it to be tweaked to
work with existing commercial applications. For example, at Indiana
University, Kuali applications work together with PeopleSoft's HR and
student system. The Kuali Foundation is a non-profit consortium of
multiple universities and some hardware and software companies. The
Kuali Commercial Affiliate program operates on similar lines like its
Sakai counterpart. The community has been growing and now includes the
University of California, Cornell, Michigan State University, San
Joaquin Delta College (Calif.), and The University of Arizona.
Significantly,
according to the 2008 Campus Computing Survey, around 13.8 percent of
the survey participants have already identified an Open Source LMS -
either Moodle or Sakai - as the campus standard LMS.
Besides
these, several other projects offer SIS functionality. For example,
openSIS manages student demographics, scheduling, attendance, grades,
transcripts, and health records, and its parent company makes add-on
modules to support additional features like disciplinary tracking,
billing, food service, and bulk email/SMS messaging for emergency
contact.
Other Key intiaitives are
JaSig community developing uPortal, and CAS (Central Authentication Services) two components serving as input to Kuali Rice.
Internet2
- A consortium led by universities working in partnership with industry
and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and
technologies including products such as Shibboleth and Grouper
Open Source Curricula
As
with any "open source" activity, open source curricula by its very
definition is one that can be freely used, distributed and modified. A
model like this would seemingly be antithetic to the concept of higher
education as it strikes at the credibility of the education environment.
Campus education is designed to operate as a structured learning
methodology. The concept of community collaboration involving academics
and students on the same platform brings a lot of unpredictability into
the scenario
However, FLOSS communities (Free/Libre and Open
Source Software) in education have proved to be quite successful. A key
principle of this learning approach is its root in adapting it to the
context of ones' experience. With its stress on learners and their
preferences, this learning approach focuses more on learning by
collaboration, communication and sharing.
Significant initiatives
include the Connexions Project at Rice University, the OpenCourseWare
project at MIT and the social learning medium of Wikipedia.
The
FLOSS approach in higher education has been operating in combination
with traditional teacher centered approaches. The objectives of the
FLOSS approach are not to replace traditional methods but to achieve
synergies in combination and offer the learner an enhanced learning
environment.
The 'FLOSS-like education transfer report' published
in September 2008, as part of the FLOSSCOM project, notes that FLOSS
communities can create effective learning environments. The study has
also come up with three different approaches that could be combined
effectively with traditional teaching approaches.
Economic Models of Open Source
One
aspect that clearly marks the adoption of open source as a winner is
the fact that in this scenario, the developers are most often also the
users of the software. This removes the perceived disconnect between the
developer community and the end-users unlike in the case of proprietary
applications. However, this is less evident in the case of
administrative applications like payroll or HR. In such cases, adoption
of open source has to be a directed process.
Initiatives like the
Kuali project have proved that open source can also build up sustainable
models that provide adequate support mechanisms. In such models, there
is active collaboration between the community that comprises not only
developers and end-users, but also an extended support group comprising
commercial vendors. These support groups are available to offer timely
support to mission critical applications. The community approach also
ensures that the code is not closed and that an active community of
interest ensures that enhancements keep happening as necessitated.
Projects
like uPortal have been developed with minimal resources but are
deployed across hundreds of institutions. The community approach has
proved sustainable as in the case of the Sakai project. In terms of
funding, the Sakai project garnered an investment of $6.8 million over
two years.
The viability of the open source, community based model
stems not from the monetary or cost aspects but principally the
adaptability that it offers. The debate over cost of ownership between
commercially available proprietary software and open source applications
is yet to be proved empirically. However, the fact that the code is
open means it can be easily adapted to suit new requirements and does
not involve significant investments in terms of customization or
enhancements. This does make significant economic sense in the longer
term.
The case for open source in higher education is nicely
documented in a study by the Alliance for Higher Education
Competitiveness. In a 2005 study report titled, 'Will Open Source
Software Become an Important Institutional Strategy in Higher
Education?' Rob Abel notes how open source is a "great fit for higher
education". The study, based on an analysis of open source projects in
education, opines that the community-based approach is an interesting
model that also helps reduce the inherent risks in adopting an open
source approach.
As for the cost model, the study notes that while
open source has helped generate cost savings in the range of 20 to 30
percent for the commercial sector, the same may not be entirely true in
education. The community-based approach, the writer notes, with its
associated participation fees, may prove only marginally beneficial in
terms of costs. Institutions that have their own infrastructure and
resources may however, benefit from substantially reduced costs from
their open source initiatives.
The Future
Open source
has proved to be adaptable and a reliable platform for collaboration
and learning. In their quest for ideal application software to handle
administrative, operational and education platforms, most CIOs are
looking at interoperability, reliability and scalability of
applications. Applications like the Sakai and Kuali have proved beyond
doubt that open source applications offer great configurability.
Development
communities and the support of commercial vendors, as in the case of
Kuali and Sakai, fuel a greater rate of innovation. Moreover, the
advantage that is offered by collaboration also provides an impetus to
continued improvement of the system. Support systems and enhancements
for future requirements are ensured.
On the question of how to
approach or adopt open source as a model, the answer would depend on the
needs, the infrastructure and the means available to an institution.
The community development model has shown that costs can be broadly
distributed amongst participants. Experience shows that universities and
colleges can collaborate to produce open source software that caters to
their needs in a way that is superior to some commercial products. The
collaborative model enables educational institutions to pool their
financial and technical resources. Moreover, a larger community ensures
that the applications are tested in a variety of testing environments,
thus aiding in building robust solutions.
In term of core
academics, learning systems will evolve to accommodate formative
assessments and evaluation outside the classroom. Many higher education
institutions have taken the lead of MIT and are offering online course
materials that are accessible by anyone, free of cost. It has been
adopted at Yale, Notre Dame, Tufts and Stanford School of Engineering,
to name a few. The United Nations has launched an initiative that would
leverage 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.
