Tag: Upgrade
A Sneak Peek at Sakai 23: New Features for Innovative Teaching and Learning

A Sneak Peek at Sakai 23: New Features for Innovative Teaching and Learning

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Change is on the horizon for Loyolans’ Sakai experience. Read on for a preview of the new and improved features making their way to your web browser in December 2024. 

Most notably, Sakai 23—the version Loyola will implement on December 19th, 2024—changes the way faculty, staff, and students will access their courses. “Pinned” and “recent” sites will appear on the left-hand navigation menu; the Site Navigation previously at the top of the screen will give way to more digital real estate for your course content. You may continue to access and organize Sakai sites through the Sites Drawer, which appears to the left of your profile image. This relatively substantial change to Sakai’s user experience may take some time to adjust to. Don’t hesitate to launch the Sakai user tutorial, available in the Account Menu by clicking on your profile image, as you acclimate to your new Sakai navigational experience. 

Moving on to new features, Sakai 23 boasts an exciting new tool for tracking tasks, communication, and grades within a single course. The Dashboard tool allows faculty to choose from several widgets to customize student reminders. Faculty can choose from three different Dashboard layouts and select widgets that highlight student grades, updates in Discussions, recent course announcements, and Calendar events. The Dashboard is a promising replacement for the Overview page as a course homepage, as it presents a snapshot of course activity for both students and faculty. 

In the same vein of improved communication with students, the Assignments tool’s Grader interface has gotten a makeover. The Grader is now more mobile-friendly and features a horizontal layout for assessing submissions with a rubric. Most notably, however, the Assignments Grader now includes limited inline marking capabilities, allowing instructors to leave targeted comments on submitted documents without downloading and re-uploading the submission file.  

These new features and more await you in Sakai 23! If this sneak peek was compelling, explore our website for more information regarding Sakai 23. Consider joining Instructional Technology & Research Support (ITRS) for an upcoming information session; registration opens soon!

Are You Ready for Sakai 21?

Are You Ready for Sakai 21?

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Sakai 21 is coming to Loyola, fittingly, on December 21st, 2021. This change is an upgrade-in-place, meaning that Loyola faculty, staff, and students do not need to make any changes to their Sakai sites or accounts. All good things take time, so Sakai will be unavailable from approximately 7am to 12pm on 12/21/21. 

When Sakai returns, better than ever, here are a few things to look forward to: 

  • Dark Theme (also known as Dark Mode) to give tired eyes a break 
  • Enhancements to Lessons (e.g., a reorganized Add Item dialog), Gradebook (e.g., message students directly from the Gradebook), and Rubrics (e.g., search for rubrics by title) 
  • Certifications, a new tool for awarding micro-credentials 

Intrigued? Check out the Sakai 21 Upgrade page to learn more and to register for an upcoming infosession. This page also includes a promotional video showcasing the most exciting improvements, complete Sakai 21 release notes, and other resources. 

As always, ITRS is here to help Loyolans make the most of Sakai 21. Schedule a virtual consultation to work one-on-one with ITRS staff. 

Panopto 10: Coming Soon

Panopto 10: Coming Soon

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Panopto

Panopto 10

Greetings from ITRS! We are pleased to announce the arrival of Panopto 10, Loyola’s official lecture capturing platform. The new version will be available on December 20th, 2020 and will include several new and improved features:

  • Tags — Panopto’s video library has a new way to support content organization and discovery: #tags.  Users can now add tags to their recordings from the video settings, the editor, or in Panopto Capture. 
  • Smart Chapters — The new Smart Chapters tool automatically creates a table of contents for any recording with a screen capture, including recordings from Zoom.
  • Delete Streams in the Editor — Users can now delete or replace video streams in the editor, allowing for greater flexibility in making changes to recordings.
  • Share interesting points in a video — This feature enables viewers to easily share a link to a specific point in the video with others.
  • Audio Normalization — Users can now make audio levels consistent throughout their recordings with the audio normalization feature in the editor.
  • Updated Mobile apps — New updates to the Panopto app (coming soon) will provide users with enhancements for recording and uploading content from their phones.
What’s New in Sakai 20?

What’s New in Sakai 20?

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Sakai 20 is coming to Loyola on Monday, December 21st, 2020! On 12/21 from 7am to 12pm, Sakai will be unavailable. 

Once the upgrade is complete, the following new and improved features will be available: 

  • Sakai Grader with a document preview for the Assignments tool 
  • A date manager that allows instructors to quickly modify all due dates in the Site Info tool 
  • An auto-groups wizard that takes the guesswork out of creating groups 
  • A brand-new Rubrics tool that integrates with Assignments, Forums, and Tests & Quizzes 
  • Gradebook enhancements, including the ability to equally weight items within a Gradebook category 
  • Rich text editor templates to easily create stylized Lessons pages 
  • And more! For a full list of new features, see the Sakai LMS blog. 

Faculty, staff, and students who would like to learn more about the changes coming to Sakai are invited to attend a “What’s New in Sakai 20?” info-session or a Q&A open forum with ITRS staff. For dates and registration information, see Sakai 20 Upgrade. 

Preparing for Sakai 12

Preparing for Sakai 12

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What’s New in Sakai 12?

On May 12th, Loyola’s learning management system will be upgrading to Sakai 12. In this upgrade, students, faculty, and staff will see a few updates. Some of these changes include:

  • Improved features in the Assignments, Gradebook, and Lessons tools
  • Accessibility improvements
  • Auto favorite new sites
  • An updated text editor

How to Learn More

Register for Training

If you would like to learn more about the Sakai 12 changes, please register for one of the “What’s New in Sakai 12?” training sessions. We will hold training sessions throughout the next few months. For dates and links to registration, please visit our Sakai 12 Upgrade page.

Attend an Open Forum Discussion

Join one of the Open Forum Discussions on the following dates:

  • March 29th, 2019 – 11:00am – 12:00pm
  • April 26th, 2019 – 11:00am – 12:00pm

To access the open forums join us online at https://luc.zoom.us/my/dropin. Registration is not required– just stop by!

If you are unable to make a training session or an open forum discussion, feel free to contact us at ITRS@luc.edu, so we can schedule another time to present the updates in Sakai 12.