Sakai 2.9 Release Notes - What's New

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Last updated: Dec 07, 2021 by Wilma HodgesVersion comment
4 min read

OVERVIEW

Sakai 2.9 contains significant performance improvements, updated technical infrastructure, hundreds of bug fixes (over 600 bug fixes and over 20 security improvements), and it sports a new, updated look and feel, including smoother navigation, with a new neo-portal skin. Significant features have been added to the Resources, Gradebook, and Section Info tools in core Sakai. Major additions and improvements have been made to the “Indies,” including Lessons, which is now turned on by default, Samigo Test & Quizzes, Profile 2, Forums and Messages. 


RELEASE HIGHLIGHTS

Accessibility

• CK editor inclusion improves accessibility
• Accessibility improvements to the brand new NeoPortal
• Significantly improved the accessibility of dynamic menus in the resources tool
• For a complete and in-depth analysis of all accessibility improvements to Sakai 2.9.0 visit the Accessibility Working Group’s webpage http://bit.ly/sak-awg


Assignments
•  Instructor can submit assignment on behalf of a student -  SAK-7475 - Getting issue details... STATUS


Basic LTI (IMS Learning Tools Interoperability)
•  Support for Basic LTI was upgraded from version 1.3 to 2.0 in Sakai 2.9.0 and 2.9.1 
•  Support for Basic LTI was upgraded from version 2.0 to 2.1 in Sakai 2.9.2 . Please see LTI - Release 2.1.0 Notes


Delegated Access

• Delegated Access Tool - not OOTB - new Contrib Tool


Forums  
• Statistics and Grading (check all cases where you can grade (bulk grading, etc))
• Require users to post before they can read posts - setting per forum -  MSGCNTR-411 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Word count for messages
• Improved permissions settings layout -  MSGCNTR-542 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Checks for, and prevents, duplicate Forum and Topic names
• Profile picture displays next to each post -  MSGCNTR-584 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Option to set open (show) and close (hide) dates -  MSGCNTR-309 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Options to duplicate forum and duplicate topic
• The term "threads" changed to "conversations" throughout UI
• In Topic menu, "Display Entire Message" option changed to "Display Message Content"
• Topic menu always displays at top of Topic screen (previously, it displayed beneath breadcrumbs when in "Display Subject Only" mode and at the top when in "Display Entire Message" mode.

 

Gradebook  
• Drop highest, drop lowest and keep highest grade options -  SAK-19964 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Hide/show columns in All Grades page -  SAK-19731 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• PDF export option added -  SAK-20118 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Institutionally defined final course grade export, in addition to existing grade export options -  SAK-22204 - Getting issue details... STATUS   (New in Sakai 2.9.2)

 

Groups 
•  Ability to define and import a group with a CSV file. -  SAK-21407 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Randomly assign users to a set of groups (maintainer specifies the desired group size or the desired number of groups) -  SAK-22253 - Getting issue details... STATUS


Help Documentation (new for Sakai 2.9.1 and updated in Sakai 2.9.3)

• Sakai online Help has been updated to reflect tool changes between 2.8.x and 2.9.x


Languages 

• Ability to set a language different than the system default on a site level.


Lessons - Lessons (formerly Lesson Builder)
•  New part of core Sakai !!!
•  Student-centric features added including allowing students to create pages and comment on pages.
•  An anonymous option is available.
•  Support for IMS Common Cartridge import. Version 1.1 for 2.9.0 and version 1.2 for 2.9.1. Support for IMS Basic LTI tools have been added.


Messages  

• New permissions settings to allow finer-grained control over who may send to generic recipient groups -  MSGCNTR-401 - Getting issue details... STATUS

• Ability to hide groups from specified roles. An example use case is to have a group with learning disabilities which may need private communications. -  MSGCNTR-438 - Getting issue details... STATUS


• BCC (blind cc option)

 

NeoChat - experimental tool - being piloted at smaller installations. For information contact sakai-dev@collab.sakaiproject.org

• NeoChat is a new social network chat tool which has not been thoroughly vetted for performance at large scale.  


Neo-portal and updated skin - (for more information see Sakai 2.9 portal changes and see Sakai 2.9 and Sakai 10 skin guide for updates in Sakai 2.9.2)
• Provides an improved user interface design, including collapsible toolbar navigation enhanced with descriptive icons, and direct navigation to a tool from the site navigation bar. 

 

Profile 2 
• Once logged in, a user can go to profile settings from My Workspace or by clicking the icon in the top right corner. 
• Ability to create a new site with selected connections. -  PRFL-388 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• More flexiblity with preferences, searching and privacy. 


Resources 
• Provides zip expansion of uploaded files. -  KNL-273 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Allows export of files to zip format. (System property setting required.
• Optional URL shortening for resource access


Section Info 
• Ability to select a date when the sections tool is open for student viewing. -  SAK-20612 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Now allows students to view their section information.  

 

Sites
• Unpublished sites can be published with a single click. -  SAK-22732 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Language preferences are now supported at the local worksite level, overriding system-wide language default.
• Import from Site updates links to content correctly - SAK-16568 - Getting issue details... STATUS


Tests & Quizzes (Samigo) 
• Easier distinction between published and working copies of quizzes. - SAM-894 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Ability to set score for students who have not submitted their work. -  SAM-904 - Getting issue details... STATUS

• After a Test has been published, random question ordering option within Part. -  SAM-1328 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Can now place due date on Schedule tool -  SAM-1121 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• A new matrix survey question type has been added.
• Scientific and complex number notation support. -  SAM-1221 - Getting issue details... STATUS

• Grader's comments included in Export -  SAM-1323 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Additional enhancements

Turnitin Integration 

• Add the new options from TII 2.9.2 in the Assignments Tool. 
• Target a repository, target databases
• An institution can choose which settings are available via sakai.properties


Updated Editor
• CKEditor 3.6.2 has replaced the FCKEditor as the default.
• CKEditor provides major accessibility improvements, speed increases, Word-format-stripping by default, and works better with most mobile devices.
• Addition of Math Editing in CK Editor - Added in 2.9.2 -  SAK-23266 - Getting issue details... STATUS  

 

Web Content Tool (updated in 2.9.2)  
• Technical upgrade to Web Content Tool, using JSR-168 Portlet -  SAK-12563 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Improved management of embedded web sites -  SAK-21624 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Administration and System Management

• Improved stability, security, and sustainability.
• Tomcat 7/Java 6 recommended configuration and support for Java 7.
• Well over 700 bug fixes and several dozen security fixes. 
• New security infrastructure introduced in Sakai 2.9.2 (off by default, to allow piloting) - KNL-1015 - Getting issue details... STATUS   

• Support for delegated administration has been added. (Not OOTB, but support to plug in feature is included.) 
• Ability to host uploaded content on a separate domain. - Implementation Documentation
• Improved caching for performance -  KNL-532 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• Has been enhanced to support Polls, Basic LTI, Questions Pools and Assignment supplements.
• Bulk CSV user management support has been added.
• Improvements to configuration management and system documentation.