Automatic Notification in Sakai
I like this high-priority override capability: "Some tools (e.g., Announcements, Resources, and Syllabus) allow you to send email notifications to site participants (at their email addresses) when you add new items. You can specify a low priority email notification, which will be subject to each participant's notification preferences, or high priority, which will override individually set preferences so that all site participants receive the notification."
Reducing Transactional Distance
As identified by Michael Moore (1993), transactional distance is the psychological gap created by communication latency in distance learning environments. When you provide students with feedback in an e-learning environment, they do not know about it until the next time they log on. This creates transactional distance.
I like how Sakai helps reduce transactional distance through the Announcements, Resources, and Syllabus tools, which can send email notifications to site participants when you add new items to the course. I would like to see this automatic notification feature added to the Sakai gradebook and assignment tools.
Reference
Moore, M.G. (1993). Theory of Transactional Distance. In D. Keegan (Ed.), Theoretical Principles of Distance Education (pp. 22-38). London: Routledge.
