Reflecting on Sakai’s History at The Claremont Colleges
For nearly two decades, Sakai played a central role in the digital learning experience at The Claremont Colleges. Introduced around 2005–2006, Sakai replaced a mix of platforms, Moodle at Pomona, WebCT at Claremont McKenna, and Sakai at Harvey Mudd to become the shared learning management system (LMS) across the consortium. This shift helped streamline course delivery and made it easier for students and faculty to collaborate across campuses.
Initially managed by Harvey Mudd College, Sakai’s administration transitioned to Pomona College in 2012. Its open-source design allowed for meaningful customization and local control, giving faculty, students, and staff the flexibility to shape the platform to meet evolving academic needs. With in-house hosting and dependable backup systems, including replication to the Azure cloud, Sakai provided a stable and consistent environment for teaching and learning.
Beyond courses, Sakai supported thousands of project sites used for everything from placement tests and tenure reviews to departmental workspaces and cross-campus initiatives. These flexible spaces remained active for years and became a familiar part of how we worked and learned together.
Milestones and Metrics: Sakai’s Impact in Numbers
Sakai’s legacy includes a number of important milestones:
- Consortium-wide adoption: Approximately 62,000 courses were created and taught at Pomona and across TCCS (not including deleted sites due to the retention policy)
- Project site activity: More than 10,000 project sites were created
- Most active semester: Fall 2020 saw the highest number of sessions across the consortium with over 1.8 million logins and Pomona alone accounting for nearly 500,000 sessions
- Peak engagement: The highest number of unique users across the consortium was recorded in Fall 2012 with nearly 9,800 users actively using Sakai
However, as the educational technology landscape evolved, so did the needs of our community. In a 2021 survey, only 51% of users reported satisfaction with Sakai. At the same time, several consortium institutions including Claremont Graduate University, Keck Graduate Institute, and Scripps College began transitioning to Canvas, signaling a broader shift toward a more modern and integrated LMS.
Why the Change: Moving Toward a Shared Future with Canvas
The decision to pilot and eventually transition from Sakai to Canvas was not made by ITS alone. It emerged from a collaborative process led by faculty and administrative governing bodies across The Claremont Colleges. These groups were guided by shared values: supporting cross-registration, fostering consortial collaboration, and creating a unified teaching and learning environment for students and faculty.
As more institutions adopted Canvas, the need for a common platform became increasingly clear. Maintaining two LMS platforms introduced challenges, especially for cross-registered students and faculty working across campuses. Meanwhile, the broader LMS market continued to shift toward Canvas, which now leads in market share and third-party tool integration.
To explore the transition thoughtfully, Pomona College launched a Canvas pilot in Fall 2022. A group of sixteen faculty worked with ITS to move their Sakai courses into Canvas and teach with the new platform. This pilot offered valuable insights into the Canvas experience from both faculty and student perspectives, while also helping ITS build internal capacity. A second cohort joined in Spring 2023, and both groups shared their reflections with the broader community to inform next steps. Throughout the pilot phase, our team actively gathered feedback to better understand faculty and student experiences, measure satisfaction, and evaluate Canvas’s impact on teaching and learning. These early insights were complemented by broader input collected from faculty and staff as the consortium of the 5C undergraduate colleges set a shared goal: to transition as many courses as possible from Sakai to Canvas by Fall 2025.
While the final decision to fully adopt Canvas did not rest with ITS, planning began for a two-year migration starting in Fall 2023 and continuing through Spring 2025, the final semester that active courses and project sites were available in Sakai. This phased approach was intentionally designed to support a smooth, inclusive transition with ample time for training, feedback, and support.
As of July 1, Canvas is now the sole LMS fully supported at Pomona and across The Claremont Colleges. With its mobile-friendly interface, strong integration capabilities, and growing ecosystem of tools, Canvas is well-positioned to support the future of digital learning.
Looking Ahead
Saying goodbye to Sakai marks the end of an important chapter, but also the beginning of a new one. The move to Canvas is more than a technical upgrade; it’s an opportunity to reflect on how we teach, learn, and collaborate, and to reimagine those experiences in a more connected and consistent environment.
We know that transitions can be challenging, and we’re here to support you. Whether you’re just getting started with Canvas or looking to deepen your skills, a range of resources and support options are available on our Canvas Transition Hub.
As we close this chapter, we want to say thank you! To Sakai, for serving our community so well for so long, and to all of you, for your adaptability, creativity, and commitment to moving forward together.