Sakai Course Delivery
Key to the flexibility in Sakai is the manner in which it enables the author to decide which tools will be made available to students. I decided to use a rich array of Sakai tools for two reasons. First, because I developed this course as part of the University of Delaware's evaluation of Sakai to determine whether UD would adopt Sakai as our campus course management system, I wanted to pilot a broad range of Sakai tools in order to experience how they work. Second, and more importantly, I wanted to use a wide range of instructional strategies in order to meet the diverse needs of my students. The following list itemizes the Sakai tools I selected and identifies the learning principles that informed their selection.
- Home: Collapsible menus differentiate instruction by providing students with access to beginning, intermediate, and advanced materials presented either through text, audio, or video.
- Assignments: My course uses the assignments tool to engage students early in the course and then scaffold them in their zone of proximal development using Sakai's outstanding feedback protocol that enables the instructor to create a just-in-time dialog to help the student master the assignment.
- Schedule: Enables the students to visualize how the course unfolds over time.
- Forums: Students interact with classmates and instructor in a socially constructed discussion forum.
- Wiki: A perfect opportunity to use the Wiki is in my "Cool Tool" assignment in which students share their favorite tools with one another and experience communal knowledge building.
- Blogger: My students submit progress reports at three checkpoints spaced equally throughout the course. Students like being able to see each other's reports, and some of the students turn on the feature that lets other students comment on each other's blogs.
- Podcasts: Key to my instructional strategy is just-in-time video that students can view to have my lectures onscreen just when you need them. Throughout the course, I make new videos and add them to the online collection. Via Sakai Podcasting, I announce the new titles to my students.
- Chat Room: Students go into the chat room to add a synchronous dimension to their online course.
- Search: The search tool includes chat room transcripts with tags that let you explore other info related to what was found in the search. Students like how the size of the tag represents how frequently it appears in the search results.
- Roster: Students use the roster to identify their classmates.
- Resources: Students use the Resources tool to peruse file folders and follow Web links. I really like how the Resources tool notifies the students via e-mail when I add a new resource to the course.
- Site Info. I used the Site Info tool to groups and give tools intuitive names.
- Tests: I used the Sakai testing tool to administer a survey asking my students what they thought about Sakai.
- Gradebook: Sakai lets you give students as many extra chances as you want. I used Sakai's coaching protocol to help all of my students ace the course.
Arranging Your Tools
I like how the Page Order feature of the Site Info tool enables you to turn tools on or off and change the order in which the tools appear in your Sakai sidebar.
