Sakai undergoes continuous improvement throughout each semester, and as such, has accumulated several new features recently. Here’s a brief summary of new(er) features and tools that you might have missed:
- Group Assignments: Using this option, an instructor can provide an assignment to one or more groups. A single student can then submit the assignment on behalf of the entire group. The instructor can provide a grade for all students in the group at once, or choose the override function to change grades of specific students within the group. Read more about the group assignments tool.
- Expand the WYSIWYG Editor box: A new button was added that allows expansion of the editor box (which can be frustratingly small in some tools). Read more about this function.
- WIRIS mathematical formulae editor: Using the WIRIS editor, Duke users can add mathematical formulae to any Sakai tool that offers the WYSIWYG editor (ex: HTML pages in Resources, Schedule tool, Assignments, questions in Tests&Quizzes, Announcements, etc). Read more about the WIRIS editor.
- Piazza discussion board/question & answer tool: Piazza is a “free online gathering place where students can ask, answer, and explore 24/7, under the guidance of their instructors.” In other words, Piazza might be thought of as a ‘next generation’ discussion board. Sakai offers a Piazza integration that makes it possible to set up a Piazza site within your Sakai course site. Read more about setting up Piazza in Sakai.
- Media Gallery: The Kaltura Media Gallery tool – used to upload and share video with your students – has been updated to allow video to run in higher quality and to run on iOS devices (iPads, iPhones, etc). Learn more about using the Media Gallery.
To keep up-to-date with changes to Sakai, subscribe to the Sakai News listserv or visit the updated list of changes maintained by the Duke Sakai Team.