Rutgers.eduTo assist users in transition Project Sites from Sakai, here are alternative tools that are available to users to store content, as well as, use as a replacement of Sakai Project Sites.
Note: These are are recommended based on university licenses. If you wish to use other applications or tools, please contact your departmental instructional designer, desktop support, or contact the Office of Instructional Designers (OID) at Teaching & Learning with Technology (TLT).
| Sakai Tool | Description | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| Resources | File repository for internal Rutgers participants, to be shared with external colleagues, or publicly available. | Box, Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft Teams all can store files and share them with specific individuals or with external participants. |
| Lessons | Used to provide textual information, organize information in various pages, and to link to content. | Microsoft OneNote pages can organize content in the same manner as a Lesson page and can be incorporated within a Microsoft Team. Additionally, Rutgers faculty/staff may request a free “Rutgers Site”; a website for them to display content or articles. |
| Email Archive | Used to create a custom email address that sends mail to all site participants. Also keeps an archive of all email sent. | Internal Rutgers users may create an Office 365 group or distribution group email with the assistance of their delegated admins. If there is a need to include participants from outside the university, a mailman list can be requested. A mailman list will send email to all listed members. Lastly, email can be sent to all participants of a Microsoft Team. |
| Mailtool | Like Email Archive but does not have a unique email address. Mail could be sent to pre-determined sub-groups. | See “Email Archive”. To send mail to pre-determined sub-group, you must use Microsoft Teams. |
| Announcements | Used to post announcements on the site for participants to see and could potentially be emailed as well. Announcements can be visible and emailed to pre-determined sub-groups. | See “Email Archive”. To send mail to pre-determined sub-group, or make announcements visible to a sub-group, you must use Microsoft Teams. To make announcements visible to anyone, a Rutgers Site can be created and postings can be shared. |
| Assignments | Used to collect submissions from participants; usually documents. | Microsoft Forms, Qualtrics, and Box can all be used to collect documents from participants both internally and external to Rutgers. |
| DropBox | Private sharing files between the instructor and student. | Qualtrics and Box can be used to share files and content between users. |
| Tests & Quizzes | Like Assignments, T&Q is used to collect document submissions or to survey participants. | Microsoft Forms and Qualtrics can be used to survey and collect document submissions. |
| Forums | Used to have a threaded asynchronous discussion. Some discussions can be limited to specific groups. | Microsoft Teams and Slack can be used to have threaded discussions and can limit participation to select members. While Slack is not an official Rutgers platform, it is widely used and available for free. |
| Meetings | Also known as “BigBlueButton” video conferencing. The meetings tool allows user to schedule the meetings in advance and have live video conferencing meetings. | Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Webex all replicate this functionality. |
| Signup Tool | Users can create events and associate blocks of time/spaces for people to sign up. | Microsoft Booking can be configured for an individual or a group. Within Outlook the Schedule Assistant can be used to book appointments. Additionally, there are numerous free 3rd party tools available such as Doodle or YouCanBook.Me. |
| Media Gallery | This is a part of the Kaltura tool set and allows the site participants to share videos for streaming. | Microsoft Stream and the Kaltura MediaSpace can be used to curate and share videos for streaming. In addition, both platforms allow restricting viewers to specific individuals. If the desire is to have a public facing video library, Kaltura MediaSpace Channels or a Rutgers Site are appropriate alternatives. |