SAKAI

What is Sakai ? 

Sakai  is  a free, community source, educational software platform distributed under the Educational Community License (a type of open source license).

Sakai is basically a community of academic institutions, commercial organizations and individuals who work together to develop a common Collaboration and Learning Environment.

It is used for teaching, research and collaboration. Systems of this type are also known as Course Management Systems (CMS), Learning Management Systems (LMS), or Virtual Learning Environments (VLE).

The Sakai Project's software version 1.0 was released on march 2005. Based on Java , sakai is a  service-oriented application suite that is designed to be scalable, reliable, interoperable and extensible.

Latest Version

Current version of sakai is 2.9 .It refines and stabilizes the 2.x feature set. Dozens of  new features have been implemented in the area of portal and navigation , social networking , gradebook , test , quizzes , forums , messages, accessibility , internationalization , performance and security .

Software Features

The Sakai software includes many of the features common to course management systems, including document distribution, a grade book, discussion, live chat, assignment uploads, and online testing.

In addition to the course management features, Sakai is intended as a collaborative tool for research and group projects. To support this function, Sakai includes the ability to change the settings of all the tools based on roles, changing what the system permits different users to do with each tool. It also includes a wiki, mailing list distribution and archiving, and an RSS reader.

Tools of Sakai 

Some of the tools of sakai are listed below.

1) My Workspace tools

·         Preferences - allows setting of preferences.

·         Profile 2 – Allows user to create profile and connect with others on social networking model.

 2) Generic collaboration tools

·         Announcements - used to inform site participants about current items of interest.

·         Drop Box - allows instructors and students to share documents within a private folder for each participant.

·         Email Archive - all messages sent to a site's email  address are stored in the Email Archive.

·         Resources - share many kinds of material securely with members of your site,or make them available to the public.

·         Chat Room - for real-time, unstructured conversations among site participants who are signed on to the site at the  same time.

·         Forums - communication tool that instructors or site leaders can use to create an unlimited number of discussion  forums.

·         Message Center - a communication tool that allows site participants to communicate using internal course mail.

·         News / RSS - uses RSS to bring dynamic news to your worksite.

·         Poll tool - allows users to set up an online vote for site participants.

·         Presentation - allows you to present a set of slides to many viewers.

·         Profile / Roster - view the names, photos, and profiles of site participants.

·         Repository Search - search content created by tools within a worksite or course.

·         Schedule - allows instructors or site organizers to post items in a calendar format.

3) Teaching tools

·      Assignments  -  Creates online and offline assignments.

·      Grade book - Calculates and stores the grades of students.

·      Permissions -  set public or private permission to see portfolio and contents of portfolio.

·      Section Management - Manages multiple sections of same course.

·      Lesson  - Organizes all the resources of a lesson like media ,text , images, graphics to fit on a single page.

4) Portfolio tools 

·         Forms - create forms that collect information  to be used in matrices, portfolio , wizards.

·         Evaluations -  assess the contents provided for review  and also provides ratings and/or comments.

·         Glossary - Provides contextual information for  terms used in course or site.

·         Matrices -  Defines the area and criteria for which an individual  provides evidence of learning , skills in portfolio.

·         Layouts - Add portfolio layout options that determines how portfolio content is arranged.

·         Templates - Creates portfolio that presents collections of contents created by profile owner and set permissions for sharing profile with others.

·         Reports - Generate aggregate reports about portfolio usage , statistics , grades etc.

·         Search - Search for artifacts based on owners or  type.

·         Feedback - Provide feedback on matrices and/or evidence in students e-portfolio.

·         Web DAV - Upload , download or remove multiple files from course or work site.

·         Web content - Display external web pages.

·         Wiki - Create , share , edit web content collaboratively.

·         Site Manage – Manage/update course , work site information such as updation of site participation and/or rosters , adding or removinf tools , adjusting how tool works  and changing basic site options.

For more info visit : http://sakaiproject.org