Sakai Tools Description

WSCC Resources: this category has a set of centralized institutional links that are the same for all Sakai sites. The links include information about Sakai technical requirements and other class technology, help desk information, WSCC Library & OhioLINK sites, as well as resources for both students and faculty. The WSCC Resources group is managed by the E-Learning Center at WSCC and we always look for your feedback and suggestions to improve the content in these pages. Please e-mail your suggestions to: Ziad Akir (zakir@wscc.edu).

Communication: this category consists of tools used mainly for two-ways communication between you and the instructor as well as between you and the rest of your classmates. The tools are:

• Announcements: The Announcements tool is used to inform site participants about current items of interest. Announcements can have multiple attachments, such as documents or URLs.
• Schedule: Schedule allows course instructors to post items in a calendar format. The calendar has day, week, month, year, and flat list views.
• Messages: The Messages tool is an internal course mail system for messaging between individuals and groups.
• Forums: The Forums tool allows instructors to create an unlimited number of discussion forums, and is integrated closely with other tools such as Resources and Gradebook.
• Email: Aallows user to send an email message to site participants (instructor and fellow classmates). Also it provides rich-text editing, file attachment, group/section-aware recipient selection, and a field for specifying non-site participant email addresses.
• Chat Room: You can use the Chat Room tool for real-time, unstructured conversations among site participants who are logged into the site at the same time.
• Blogs: A blog is an online journal, in which students can write entries, ordered by date, which they can share with others. Members of the site can comment on each others’ entries.

Course Tools: this category consists of tools and links used to deliver content as well as used for assessment. It also includes the Gradebook that you use to check your grades online for individual course tasks. The tools are:

• Syllabus: The Syllabus tool has the official WSCC syllabus for your course and in many cases, it has the course outline and course information. In fully online classes (301, 302, etc.), the instructor will have more details about the course elsewhere in the site that give more details about the course, how it is organized, and the various online activities throughout the term.
• Modules: Instructors may use the Modules tool to create hierarchical lessons that incorporate a variety of media (text, video, audio). Modules can have two-tiered lessons with timed release of content sections, a table of contents and previous/next navigation links.
• Resources: The Resources area may contain many kinds of material (file format) that your instructor makes available to all students in the class. You also have your own private Resources area in your My Workspace.
• Assignments: The Assignments tool allows instructors to create, distribute, collect, and grade online assignments. Assignments are private; student submissions are not visible to other users of the site.
• Tests & Quizzes: This tool allows your instructor to create online assessments (i.e., tests, quizzes, and surveys) for delivery via a web interface. It was designed primarily to administer tests & quizzes, but it can also be used to create assessments to gather survey information or informal course feedback.
• Drop Box: The Drop Box tool allows instructors and students to share documents within a private folder for each student. The Drop Box works like Resources to allow you to upload many types of files and multiple files at a time. The Drop Box also allows nested folders (folders within folders).
• Gradebook: The Gradebook is a tool for instructors to calculate and store grade information and distribute it to students online. Students can only view their own grades for the various course assignments and tasks.
• Podcasts: The Podcasts tool allows course instructor to store and distribute multimedia content to students. Participants may download materials manually or via an RSS feed. Content can take many different forms, including audio lectures, video presentations, and slideshow presentations.
• Wiki: A Wiki is a tool that allows students to collaborate on documents, and share information.

Site Management: Under this category, there are three tools that are relevant to you as a student:

• Section Info:The Section Info tool provides a way for instructors to efficiently manage sections of a class. The tool is designed to help an instructor manage a course that may consist of lectures, labs, discussions, or any combination thereof. The Section Info tool is designed to work with other tools, such as Announcements, Gradebook, and Tests & Quizzes.
• Roster: The Roster tool displays the number of site participants and their names, photos, and profiles (if they create one).
• Search: The Search tool allows you to search content created by tools within a course. It achieves this by creating an index of all content that other tools make available to the search tool. This index is updated automatically, so as content is added to the course, it will be indexed.