• Register for PLUTO Essentials

    PLUTO Essentials logo

    The PLUTO Essentials program helps faculty develop skills in using Sakai and online technologies for teaching face-to-face or flipped courses. There are three summer 2019 offerings of this program to choose from: 9:00am-4:00pm on August 19, 23, or 27. Registrations will be accepted until July 31 or the limit of 20 participants per session is reached. Participants are eligible for a $175 stipend. More details about this program and an online application form are available on the PLUTO Essentials Program page.

    Major Sakai Upgrade in August

    Sakai at PLU will be upgraded from version 2.9 to version 12 on Saturday, August 10, 2019. While almost all content and tools will transition seamlessly with the upgrade, instructors should expect differences in Sakai’s user interface and anticipate new features. Instructors are encouraged to proactively explore Sakai 12 by attending a Preparing for Sakai 12 workshop this summer and/or using the Preview Course in Sakai 12 form to preview how some of their current course sites would look in Sakai 12. You can register for a workshop offering on June 4, June 12, or July 11. See the article, How can I prepare for the Sakai upgrade?, for more details.

    Watch the video above for a brief overview of new features. More details are available in the article, What are significant new features in Sakai 12? Other information about the transition to Sakai 12 is also available in the PLU Knowledge Base: https://kb.plu.edu/sakai12-transition.

    Questions? Contact the Sakai Support Team at sakai@plu.edu.

    How to Submit an Assignment

    Watch the video below for a tutorial on how students can submit assignments that instructors have prepared in the Assignments tool. More details are available in the Assignments help documentation, including How do I submit an assignment? and How do I view my assignment feedback?

    How to Use the Forums Tool

    Watch the video below for a tutorial on how students can use the Forums tool. More information is available in the Forums help documentation, including How do I post to a forum?, How do I reply to a forum post?, and the Sakai Forums Survival Guide for Students.

    Sakai Support for Faculty

    Several new support features have been added this past summer to assist faculty for teaching and learning with Sakai.

    Most significantly, the Request Course form through which instructors request new Sakai course sites was revised so that instructors can select from three different options for course site templates: Standard, Minimal, and Legacy. Each template contains a general set of tools and pages to be updated by the instructor before publishing the site to students. More details about the revised course request process, including a walk-through of an instructor's main tasks for setting up a Sakai course site, are available in the new Site Setup Tutorial.

    Instructors can also browse a showcase of example Sakai course sites that PLU faculty have used in teaching their courses. These examples are listed on the Teaching & Learning with Sakai instructional resource page.

    Furthermore, Sakai help documentation is now hosted on the PLU Knowledge Base, whose search function should make searching for help with Sakai much easier.

     

    Multi-Factor Authentication

    In order to better protect your ePass account and its access to your personal and institutional data, Information & Technology Services is implementing an additional security feature for employees called multi-factor authentication. For more information on this service and why opting in is strongly recommended, please visit our Multi-Factor Authentication webpage.

    multi-factor authentication infographic

    Click on image above to enlarge.