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| Product Name | The rSmart Sakai CLE |
|---|---|
| Developer Name | Sakai |
| URL | http://www.sakaisandbox.com |
| Review Date | May 21, 2008 |
| Forums | The rSmart Sakai CLE Discussions |
| Reviewer | Email Review Staff |
| Communication Tools | |
| Discussion Forum |
There are three discussion forum tools that CLE users may choose to deploy: 1) Basic Threaded discussion tool developed by University of Michigan 2) JForum Discussion and Private Messaging Tool developed by Foothill College) 3) Forums a new threaded discussion tool developed by Indiana University Discuss |
| Discussion Management |
JForum Features: * Forums can become visible on a certain date. * Forums can become locked on a certain date (can read but not post). * Forums and categories can be sorted. * Unlimited forums and categories. * Supports sticky and announcement topics. * User control of email notification and profile options. * Bookmark functionality for favorite topics. * Search functionality across a site's forums. * "Watch" functionality for hot topics. * Mark discussion as read functionality. * Forums or categories can be accessible to certain groups as defined in JForum. * Ability to move, delete, lock, and unlock topics. * Ability to lock a topic, allowing users to read topic postings, but not respond. * Ability to restrict a forum and/or topic to a specific group or section. * Ability to grant fine grained permissions on a role or group basis. * Support for 12 foreign languages. Permissions include: o Category access o Forum access o Ability to post Sticky, Announcements, or Task topics o Read only Forums o Enable Karma o Enable Bookmarks o Enable Attachments o Allow Download of existing attachments o Ability to set number of allowed attachments, file upload size, and types of allowable attachment extensions. o Set users as moderators o Disallow moderation in specific forums o Ability for roles edit, delete, move, lock and unlock topics Message Center Features include: MC Development Led by Indiana University The following discussion management features are currently available in Message Center: \ * Ability to create a template for permissions at the forum level and use that template for related topics. * Ability to lock a topic, allowing users to read topic postings, but not respond. * Ability to restrict a forum and/or topic to a specific group or section. * Ability to grant fine grained permissions on a role, group or section basis. Permissions include: o New forum o New topic o New response o Response to response o Change settings o Read o Post to gradebook o Mark as read o Revise none, own or all postings o Ability to set a default gradebook assignment for a topic o Ability to save a draft of a forum and its topics Discuss |
| File Exchange |
File Exchange can be accomplished in a number of different ways within the rSmart Sakai CLE. First by using the resources tool, students may share material with others in a group setting. Second, students may place material in a drop box and share with their peers. Third, students may create a portfolio of their work and share within anyone inside or outside the system. In addition: * Sakai optionally allows students to create their own project sites and add fellow students to their sites. This effectively puts all of the Sakai tools (chat, threaded discussion, calendar, file sharing, etc) in the hands of student defined groups to use as they see fit in sharing files or pursuing collaborative activities. * Alternatively, students can submit assignments (inline or attachments) using the Assignments tool. Two versions of this tool are available - with grading or no grading capabilities, based on the needs of the adopting institution. * Students can submit assignments in the JForum Discussion & Private Messages tool, including attachments and media. This allows for peer reviews of the submitted work. * Students can submit materials in the Resources tool, if permissions for adding new resources is enabled by the instructor, allowing students to gather and share resources on a topic in a common location of the course site. Discuss |
| Internal Email |
There are a number of tools in the rSmart Sakai CLE that support internal email: * Private Messaging in JForum * Messages Tool * MailTool The functionality of each varies slightly, but all offer internal email capability. Additionally, the Announcements tool allows instructors to broadcast messages to the whole class. Announcements are posted in the Announcements tool and are displayed in the home page of a site, and they can (selectively) be sent to the students' personal email that is provided in the system. Students can specify (user preference)whether or not they want to be notified via email about low-priority announcements. They can also choose to receive a daily digest of class announcements. These settings can be overwritten by instructors for high-priority, critical announcements. Discuss |
| Online Journal/Notes |
Reviewer Comments Students can create an online journal using the Blogger tool which is available in each users private Workspace. Blogger allows for the creation of an online webblog composed of text, links, uploaded files or documents contained within the sytem. Online journals or weblogs may be kept within a user's private space or shared with others in the system. In addition, students can create a private "Notes" folder (and sub-folders) for their classes in the Resources tool of their MyWorkspace and attach documents or create and publish notes there. Discuss |
| Real-time Chat |
* Instructors can create new chat rooms or give students permission to do so. Multiple chat rooms may be used within a single site. * The system clearly displays who is in the chat (a dot by the user's name in Users Present*), alerting site participants that others are in the chat with whom they can talk in real-time. Discuss |
| Whiteboard |
The rSmart Sakai CLE can be integrated to work with Elluminate Live and offers these features when integrated. Discuss |
| Productivity Tools | |
| Bookmarks |
Bookmarking functionality is available in several tools. These include: *JForum Discussion & Private Messaging tool *The WebContent tool which can be used to add bookmarks as tool buttons to any course site. *The Resource tool allows bookmarks to be placed as resources. *The Lessons tool also supports bookmarks as part of any module. Discuss |
| Calendar/Progress Review |
Calendaring/Progress Review functionality * Users each have a personal home page that provides a calendar summary of upcoming activities, deadlines, events, etc in any of their group sites *Users can create new items on their personal home page * Instructors and students can post events in the online course calendar. * Instructors can post announcements to a course announcement page. * Students can view their grades on completed assignments, total points possible, course grade, and compare their grades against the class performance in the appropriate assessment tool. * Students can subscribe to RSS feeds to be notified of changes to materials in the wiki tool. Discuss |
| Searching Within Course |
The rSmart Sakai CLE includes the Sakai Search Tool, a powerful tool that allows a Google like search of all content in a Sakai instance. Anything that is a Sakai entity can be indexed and searched. This includes all Content placed in ContentHostingService which includes content in Resources, Attachments, OSP, Wiki, and all messages in Chat, Email, Announcements, and Messages. The search tool reads all MS Office type documents, PDF's, and extracts the first 2M of text from types that appear to be text based. *Wiki tool allows search across Wiki pages * JForum Discussion & Private Messages includes search capability of topics and messages. * The Help Tool includes search functionality of Help documentation included with the application. Discuss |
| Work Offline/Synchronize |
Reviewer Comments Some offline functionality is provided in the Lessons, Assignments and Wiki tools. * Instructors can download the content of lessons (Melete Lesson Builder) into a format that can be printed, stored, or edited locally using a web publishing tool. * Instructors can download assignments with attachments in one simple click for off-line grading. A folder is created on the instructor's desktop with sub-folders for each student and their attachment submissions. Discuss |
| Orientation/Help |
The rSmart Sakai CLE comes with context sensitive help enabled and includes access to online tutorials focusing on different aspects of using the system. Discuss |
| Student Involvement Tools | |
| Groupwork |
There are a variety of ways of structuring group activities in the rSmart Sakai CLE. Through use of group providers instructors can have students automatically assigned to sections. Alternatively, instructors or teaching assistants may create groups manually, and give students the ability to sign up for groups or change groups to which they have been assigned. *Groups can be facilitated by a designated individual in an instructor or TA role. * Access to assignments can be group specific. *Access to resources can be group *Access to Discussion Forums can be to group specific. In discussion forums groups may be private or instructors can monitor groups. *Access to Calendar items can be group specific Sakai also supports the ability to allow students and instructors to create project sites, enabling users to have a private site with a full set of site tools (email archive, forums, chat, resources, etc.) for group work and collaboration. Discuss |
| Community Networking |
Sakai supports the ability to allow students, instructors, researchers, administrators, etc to create project sites. Project sites can be limited in membership or can be made publicly joinable. Collaboration Sites: Course and project sites can be "joinable," allowing users to join interest groups and projects without the permission of a lead facilitator. Any user in the system with the right role (as chosen by the site owner) may become a member of a "joinable" site. Project sites provide a space for users to engage in various types of collaboration with a full set of tools (calendar, announcements, resources, discussion, email archive, group wiki pages, blogger, forums, chat, etc.) at their disposal for group work. Discuss |
| Student Portfolios |
Reviewer Comments The rSmart Sakai CLE includes the full set of Open Source Portfolio tools. The OSP tools enable creation of personal portfolios for self assessment, teacher assessment, institutional accreditation, etc. A rich set of data artifacts or templates for collecting student artifacts and facilitating reflection upon them is included. Also included is integration of portfolio goal management and data points tools with CMS functionality, most notably, the Sakai assignments tool. Goal management allows anyone at an institution to define a set of goals, map them to established criteria or ratings and track student performance based on submission of data artifacts associated with these goals. Discuss |
| Administration Tools | |
| Authentication |
Discuss |
| Course Authorization |
A rich authorization schema provides for unparelled levels of flexibility surrounding course authorization. The system can be configured to fully open sites or limit access to them based upon institutionally defined roles and configuration parameters. rSmart works individually with each institution to define a unique set of roles and permission structures that support the necessary configuration of that institution. Discuss |
| Registration Integration |
Registration Information is available in the system via two tools: Roster and Profile: Roster Tool: Provides a list of all users in the site, a link to an individual user's profile, a picture the user has made available to all users and an official photo ID for use by the administrative users of the site. The Roster tool now uses a new API to manage privacy. Profile Tool: The profile tool allows a user to enter or choose to display public and personal information, including a university ID picture if available. The profile tool can have university provided or individually provided information about any user in the system. It can be edited, restricted/opened/hidden and can include personal images or institutionally provided images. The user may choose whether this information is public or private. Users who have logged into the application may search for another user's profile using this tool to obtain any information that a user has chosen to make public. Discuss |
| Hosted Services |
rSmart offers a range of hosting and support options. The rSmart open source support subscription includes: * An rSmart-certified open source software distribution, including the packaging and testing required for a professional software release * Regular maintenance releases and updates * Regulatory updates as required (Kuali) * Multi-tier software support and trouble-shooting assistance * Ongoing development in cooperation with the community to improve the software * Intellectual property assurances * 24/7 Access to the rSmart Network (RSN), our web-based personalized support portal that includes a self-help knowledgebase, documentation, templates, tools, and other useful resources A portion of your annual subscription underwrites rSmart's contribution to the open source community in the form of software development and community leadership that are critical to the sustainability of the projects we support. Be confident knowing that your subscription indirectly strengthens the open source community. Discuss |
| Course Delivery Tools | |
| Test Types |
Discuss |
| Automated Testing Management |
Discuss |
| Automated Testing Support |
Instructors can import an assessment as a test or as a question pool. Additionally, instructors can create new tests and quizzes in MS Word and import using the import feature in the 2.4 version of the CLE. Discuss |
| Online Marking Tools |
Discuss |
| Online Gradebook |
Discuss |
| Course Management |
Instructors can release learning sequences or materials based on start dates (Lesson Builder tool AND Resources tool). Conditional release of material based on pre-defined criteria such as student performance in another tools is coming with the CLE 2.6 release. Discuss |
| Student Tracking |
The CLE includes the Sakai Site Statistics tool. The Site Statistics tool collects and displays statistical data about the class as a whole or about student activity within the class. Instructors can review this from a tool on the course home page. As yet, there are no tools for generating reports from this data but we anticipate this capability in a future release. Discuss |
| Content Development Tools | |
| Accessibility Compliance |
All core components of the Sakai application are reviewed for accessibility standing. The latest results can be found here: http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/2ACC/Sakai%27s+Current+Accessibility Discuss |
| Content Sharing/Reuse |
Material can be imported or copied from one course site to another upon site creation. Material in the content repository of a site can be accessed across the system by any user who is a member of the site and has permission to "read" the content. Addionally, each user has a personal workspace, which can be used to store and/or distribute materials across the entire system. Materials from this workspace can be imported into any course or project site. This allows each instructor or student to maintain their own local space which is accessible only to themselves but can be used to copy material into various project and course sites or move material around as needed. Discuss |
| Course Templates |
The CLE allows instructors or their designees to re-user material from existing sites. Material can be selected on a per tool basis, enabling an instructor to migrate assignments in one site, dicussion topics in another and a syllabus from a third if so desired. Discuss |
| Customized Look and Feel |
Instructors can change the skin and color schemes for a course, provided that more skins have been installed in the system. Many custom course skins have been developed by the Sakai community and are available as a free download. Edia has recently contributed a skin manager tool which allows for greater customization and management of skins in an instance of Sakai. Discuss |
| Instructional Design Tools |
At present, instructional design functionality is handled in the Lesson Builder tool, a tool that allows users to create learning sequences. Lessons can be released automatically based on start and stop dates. Lessons can be archived and moved from one site to another or exported using IMS Content Packaging. Discuss |
| Instructional Standards Compliance |
* IMS Common Cartridge - Sakai supports import of Common Cartridge materials. * IMS Tool Interoperability - Sakai has a contributed tool (University of Michigan) supporting the IMS Tool Interoperability Specification. * Sakai supports SCORM 1.3 using a SCORM loader and SCORM player from the contributed library. * The Melete Lesson Builder supports IMS CP. * The Tests & Quizzes tool supports IMS QTI. Discuss |
| Hardware/Software | |
| Client Browser Required |
Reviewer Comments The software supports: Internet Explorer 5.5+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla Firefox for Windows, and Netscape 7.1+ or Mozilla Firefox on the Apple OS. Some functions in Sakai will not work well or will not work at all in Safari or Internet Explorer for the Mac. Javascript must be enabled. Discuss |
| Database Requirements |
Discuss |
| UNIX Server |
Discuss |
| Windows Server |
Discuss |
| Company Details/Licensing | |
| Company Profile |
Reviewer Comments The rSmart Group supports open source software in education. Our passion is education. We believe in the promise of technology to help educators and learners. The rising cost of software and growing distance between vendors and schools stifles innovation and puts the promise of education technology at risk. A new model based on open source is emerging where the old "vendor" model is failing. The open source model stimulates innovation and reduces costs. We embrace the spirit of freedom and innovation driving open source and work collaboratively on projects leading the way in education. We're leading the shift toward open source in education. Commercial support is essential for widespread adoption of open-source applications. Our business enables adoption at institutions of all shapes and sizes through a comprehensive offering of services and support. Discuss |
| Costs / Licensing |
Reviewer Comments There is no cost for the CLE and no licensing fees associated with its use. A free-trial version of the software is available for download from the rSmart website: http://www.rsmart.com. Interested individuals may create a personal account in our Sakai CLE Sandbox to test out the application before downloading. http://www.sakaisandbox.com Discuss |
| Open Source |
Discuss |
| Optional Extras |
Reviewer Comments Customizability, flexibility and control. Discuss |