Sakai Help

[Paul Wolff]

Having trouble accomplishing what you’re trying to do in Sakai? Post questions here for general Sakai help. We can help you set up discussion forums, assignments, assessments, and post materials. Just let us know what you need help with and the community can give you advice and guidance. We’re all in this together and our faculty and staff bring a wealth of experiences and expertise to this problem. Let us know what you’re having trouble with!

[Michal Osterweil]

Hi ,

I attended the intermediate Sakai for help using forums, but now that I want to do it myself I can’t figure out how to create groups in the Forums tool. I have created groups in Site Info, but not sure how to activate in Forums.

Thanks!
Michal

[Paul Wolff]

Michal,

Great question. I’ll write up some instructions here, but feel free to schedule a consult if you need some help.

1. Make the groups in Site Info. (sounds like you’ve already done this step).
2. Make a Forum (e.g. Week 4 Discussion)
3. Make a topic within the forum for each group (e.g. Group 1, Group 2, etc.).
4. Go to “Topic Settings” – you should see this option next to each topic.
5. Within “Topic Settings” scroll to the bottom where you see “Permissions”
6. Set the appropriate permissions for the different group topics – assume these are the settings for the Group 1 topic (Student Permission set to “None,” Group 1 Permission set to “Contributor,” All other Group Permissions set to “None”

If you set up your Forums and Topics this way, each week, the groups you set up in Site Info will only be able to see their group’s topic for that discussion.

[Paul Wolff]

As a followup to this – you don’t need to change the permissions for any other roles – just “Student” and each individual Group you created in Site Info. One instructor we worked with assigned a cool name to each group instead of the generic “Group 1, Group 2” to make it more fun – the names were related to the discipline.

[Andrew Ochs]

Sorry for getting here a bit late, but just as a follow-up, there’s an automated way to create group topics as well, where you don’t have to create one per group at a time and manage group permissions manually. The key is using the “Automatically create multiple topics for groups” option after you create the forum, where you just select the groups you have and Sakai will create a topic for each.

Here’s the documentation: https://sakaitutorials.unc.edu/?Forums%7C%7CForums:_Group_Settings

Should be nice and quick, especially if you have a lot of groups to manage. Let us know if you have questions.

[Paul Wolff]

Thanks Andrew! I didn’t know that was an option!

[Mike Aguilar]

Hi,
I’m posting videos on Sakai through warp wire. My TA tested out the video, but it says he doesn’t have permission to view the video. I set the visibility to all users, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Can you point me towards documentation? Thanks,
Mike

[Paul Wolff]

Mike,

Warpwire settings and functionality can be a bit tricky at times. You may want to submit a help ticket at help.unc.edu so someone can take a look at your specific course.

That said, we’ve been pointing people to Zoom and Youtube since those video hosting services have built in auto captioning/transcription – this lets us address any accessibility concerns.

If you’re unable to get Warpwire to work after submitting a ticket, posting your videos on Youtube as “unlisted” may be a good option for you.

[Erik Hanson]

I have tried the instructions above for Forums, the Sakai help as well as the Intermediate Sakai instructional video. It would seem that the students cannot see the threads because 1) there has been zero activity since Friday and 2) in the student view, I don’t see the topics.

I am clearly missing something obvious, despite following along with the instructions. Any further thoughts would be extremely helpful at this stage.

[Thao Nghi Tu]

Hi Erik,

You want to make sure that students have permission to view the discussion boards. If you have modified permissions at the Forum level and already created Topics, I recommend modifying both the Forum Settings and the Topic Settings. In the Permissions section, change Student role to “Contributor.” You can verify what permissions each role and/or group has if you click on the Customize button. Typically if you want a discussion board to be available to all students, the Student role and the section rosters are listed as Customizable. Feel free to submit a help request at help.unc.edu if you need additional assistance. Thanks!

[Lindsay King]

Hi,
I have a student who reached out. She says when she clicks the Week 12 online folder it just refreshes. But, it appears to be working on my end and for other students. What should I tell her to do?

[Paul Wolff]

Lindsay – I’d tell her to restart her computer and if the problem persists, try a different browser. If she still has this issue, have her contact help.unc.edu and submit an IT help request.

[Megan Plenge]

Hi– 2 questions regarding an exam that is happening NOW.
1. Students get 2 attmepts on the exam. Students are getting questions based on question pools, and they are supposed to get questions randomly assigned. I chose the option that students should get different questions for each attempt (A student’s questions are randomized each time an assessment is submitted); however, students are reporting that on their 2nd attempt they’re getting the same questions. How do I make them get different questions on each attempt?
2. I need to add a diagram to one of the questions, but I have ~15 students currently taking the exam. Can I retract the exam, edit it to add a diagram, and then republish it without affecting these attempts?

[Thao Nghi Tu]

Hi Megan,

I’m glad we were able to resolve this over email! I just wanted to summarize on here in case anyone following the forum has similar questions.

1) As long as the assessment Part is set to randomize each time an assessment is submitted, it should randomize and we confirmed this is working. A good idea is to include several questions in a Question Pool to avoid students seeing a lot of the same questions, even individual students with multiple attempts.

2) When editing a published assessment, the assessment will be retracted from student view, including those currently taking the exam. Depending on how long the exam is open, whether it’s timed, and other various scenarios, it may be best to just email the diagram to students instead of retracting the assessment from student view.

Feel free to send us a request on help.unc.edu if you have questions about your specific assessment. Thanks!

[Jan Hannig]

I had to allow a TA to access submitted homework. It turned out that I had to set permission at 2-3 different places. Would it be possible to have defaults set differently so this is not necessary?

Jan

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