Sakai is Shepherd University’s learning management system. Sakai is an open source and license-free system, costs considerably less than other proprietary systems, and offers comparable functionality and use. It is available to all faculty, employees, and students that have a valid SU account. Sakai provides a flexible and feature-rich environment for teaching, learning, research, and other collaboration. Click on the Sakai logo to enter into the Sakai portal.
Check out some instructional videos on the Sakai Training website
Click Sakai Training Videos
Techshop Video Fall 2018 – Overview of Sakai – Click Here
Techshop Video Fall 2018 – Postem and Sign-up Tools – Click Here
Here is an online training guide for Sakai: Click Here
Sakai Instructions and Guides
- Importing Content From a Previous Class/Site
- Adding a Tool (Forums, Syllabus, etc.)
- Uploading a File into the Resources Tool
- Adding a Syllabus
- Add or Hide sites at the Top of your List
- Publish Your Sakai Class/Site
Sakai Site Entrance: In order to gain entrance into a site you must have a valid Shepherd network account. To obtain this information click here or you can contact itworkorder@shepherd.edu.
Some things to Consider when using Sakai
Navigation: The navigation menu located on the left side of the screen is ideally used to find your way through Sakai. The browser “back” button is not usually the best to navigate through the Sakai system. There is bread crumb system at the top so you can get back to the original window.
There are two main areas in Sakai: the Sites area and the Home area. Sites are often used for courses, for departments, or for collaboration. A site is where material such as syllabus, announcements, and discussions are placed. An example of a class/site name could be titled 201080 MUSC 311:01. Usually, sites are named with the following like titles.
- Summer I 2018: 201810-ENGL 100:01
- Summer II 2018: 201820-COMM 150:01
- Summer III 2018: 201815-BIOL 103:7
- Fall 2018: 201830-MUSC-311:01
- Spring 2019: 201840-ART 103:09
There are two places to access your Sakai sites once you have logged in. First, your sites/classes can be seen at the top. Second, you can also obtain your site/classes by using the Sites tab located to the far top-right of the Sakai screen. You can enter the class/site simply by clicking the left-click mouse over the name of the class/site. Once you have clicked on the name of the class/site you will arrive in the Home page of the designated class/site. Announcements, calendar dates, and instructor information can be seen here. The links/navigation located in the left area will allow entrance into any content that is within the Sakai class/site. To add classes to the top of your Sakai list, click Sites then check the star next to the name of the site. Close the Sites area and you will be asked to reload the page. Then you will see the sites at the top.
For more information about the tools, see the built-in help system. Many sites will have a “Help” link in the left margin. In addition, there is a help icon (a question mark) at the upper right of most windows in Sakai.
Your Personal Workspace
In addition to site, every user has a personal Home , selected by the “Home” tab. This contains
- Calendar: The Calendar tool allows instructors and site organizers to post information about a site’s activities in calendar format. Such information might pertain to class lecture and discussion sections, upcoming trips, deadlines, seminars, and other events of importance to site members. Many instructors also use the tool to post readings for each class on the day they are due. Research, group, and department projects often use Calendar to post group deadlines.
- Resources: allows you to store documents, web pages, and other information.
- Announcements: all announcements from the sites of which you are a member of will be shown here.
- Membership: The Membership tool allows you to see a list of all Sakai sites to which you belong.
- Profile: Sakai maintains a user profile for each participant. Your profile contains personal information such as your name, phone number, and location.
- Preferences: The Preferences tool allows you to manage your quick links, change email notification options, and specify your time zone and language preferences. Also your hidden sites are located here.