Preface

This book is the officially endorsed Sakai CLE guide. From setting up and running Sakai for the first time to using its tools creatively, this book delivers everything you need to know.

Sakai represents a Collaboration and Learning Environment that provides the means of managing users, courses, instructors, and facilities, as well as a spectrum of tools including assessment, grading, and messaging.

The book opens with an overview that explains Sakai, its history, and how to set up a demonstration version. The underlying structures within Sakai are described, and you can then start working on Sakai and create your first course or project site using the concepts explained in this book. You will then structure online courses for teaching and collaboration between groups of students. Soon after mastering the Administration Workspace section, you will realize that there is a vast difference between the knowledge required for running a demonstration version of Sakai and that needed for maintaining production systems. You will then strengthen your concepts by going through real-world situations given in this book.

The book also discusses what motivates management at the University of Amsterdam to buy into Sakai. Finally, Ian Dolphin, the executive director of the Sakai Foundation, looks towards the future.