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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Sakai

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/ASakai is an open source learning management system provided by the Apero Foundation. The LMS provides what it calls Core and Expanded Features. The Core Features encompass an integrated tool set that is tested by the Sakai community members and is then included with each new release. The tool set can be configured by: instructors, students, research investigators and project leaders. The other set of tools, known as “Contrib Tools” are specific to Sakai tools and innovations that are developed…N/A

    Small Improvements

    Score7.2 out of 10
    N/APerformance Reviews & 360s Provide employees with structured opportunities for reflection and assessment through performance reviews and peer feedback. Customize the questions, define who participates, establish a cadence that suits an organization’s schedule, and run reviews for different departments at the same time. Ongoing Feedback Praise coworkers for a job well done and request feedback at any time from anyone. Prepare for…

    $2

    per user, per month

    Pricing
    SakaiSmall Improvements
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Engagement and Retention Add-on
    $2
    per user, per month
    Performance Starter Pack
    $5
    per user, per month
    Feedback and Performance Suite
    $7
    per user, per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SakaiSmall Improvements
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsMust contact vendor for pricing information.We also offer volume discounts if you have over 200 employees! Please see the calculator on our pricing page to calculate your exact price.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SakaiSmall Improvements
    Considered Both Products
    Apereo
    No answer on this topic
    Small Improvements
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    75%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    75%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    SakaiSmall Improvements
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Sakai and Small Improvements
    Feature
    Sakai
    7.9
    5 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Small Improvements
    -
    Ratings
    Course authoring8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Course catalog or library7.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Player/Portal8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning content8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile friendly7.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Assignments10.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance management7.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning administration9.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics6.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social learning9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance and Goals
    Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Sakai and Small Improvements
    Feature
    Sakai
    -
    Ratings
    Small Improvements
    8.3
    9 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Corporate goal setting00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    Subordinate goal setting00 Ratings7.53 Ratings
    Individual goal setting00 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings7.83 Ratings
    Performance tracking00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Performance Management
    Comparison of Performance Management features of Sakai and Small Improvements
    Feature
    Sakai
    -
    Ratings
    Small Improvements
    9.3
    9 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Performance plans00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
    Plan weighting00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Manager note taking00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
    Performance improvement plans00 Ratings8.33 Ratings
    Review status tracking00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Rater nomination workflow00 Ratings10.07 Ratings
    Review reminders00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
    Workflow restrictions00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Multiple review frequency00 Ratings10.06 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SakaiSmall Improvements
    Small Businesses
    Google Classroom
    Score8 out of 10
    15Five
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Schoology Learning
    Score8 out of 10
    Reflektive
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    D2L Brightspace
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Reflektive
    Score9.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SakaiSmall Improvements
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (14 ratings)
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.4
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    7.1
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SakaiSmall Improvements
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Apereo
    I've used Sakai to supplement my Public Speaking class. Public Speaking is very much a F2F type course, so I didn't use Sakai much for course content delivery. However, I did use it to post my syllabus, post my lecture slides, communicate any class announcements, and to conduct a final exam for the class. Building the final exam was very simple and I was easily able to swap out questions to vary it from term to term. Before I was a staff member and lecturer, I used Sakai as a student. My instructor used Sakai to varying degrees. I really appreciated it being the one-stop-receptacle for all-things class related. If I somehow lost an assignment instruction sheet, I could rely on it being posted there. For multimedia work it was lacking, at that time, but I know Sakai has been updated over time and I hope that part of it has improved. If I was ever frustrated by Sakai, it was because faculty used it in a piecemeal way. It's fine not to want to use the gradebook, but don't enter some grades and not others. It's wonderful to upload class documents to it; but don't do some and not others. Whatever way you're going to use Sakai, commit to it and use it well. Your students will thank you.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    I'm honestly not sure why my company chose to use Small Improvements. We used Lattice before for the all the same use cases I mentioned here. The employee performance review feature might be a bit better in Small Improvements, but the goal-setting tool and the 1:1 tool are very weak. I may not have benefitted yet from all the features that Small Improvements have to offer, but so far it looks like a pretty basic HR tool with much better alternatives out there. If it's cheaper than the competition, that might be the only argument to go with it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Apereo
    • Sakai is flexible, providing a way for our customers (instructors) to customize their courses while staying in line with consistency and continuity of course design. This has allowed our courses to be far less cookie-cutter and stale. This is mostly accomplished through Sakai's LTI functionality and it's Lessons tool. This is particularly notable because not every course is the same, nor should it be. Our faculty and course developers can draw from OER resources, course text publisher assessment quiz banks and pull in content from sources from our library databases and services like YouTube.
    • Sakai is customizable, allowing us to pair it with our student information system to automatically create and track with student registration data - including adding new students and removing students who have elected to drop a course. The customization features also include being able to create course templates for individual schools or courses using specific tools or sequences of tools as well as a way to personalize content for students when they engage with each lesson.
    • Sakai is stable in the market. We have been using Sakai for almost 10 years and continue to see it improve; responding to changing trends in browser technologies, mobile platforms and accessibility requirements. Multiple programs offered over the years have been recognized by outside organizations like BestColleges.com for our programs and given high marks by students taking the courses offered in Sakai.
    • Sakai allows our faculty to inform it's continued evolution. We work closely with the developers, having a front seat to how things can work and function for our faculty. There have been multiple occasions where faculty ask, "Can Sakai do this?" and the answer is never "No."
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    • Goal Tracking: Enables users to chart goals, track progress, and provide details about what they want/expect to achieve.
    • Praise Wall: A public place to post positive and encouraging comments about other employees.
    • 360 Reviews: Users can request and gain 1:1 feedback; this can be anonymous if desired.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Apereo
    • The coming upgrade will address many issues, the visual presentation of sites and courses
    • The Forums (discussion) tool is not natively integrated into the Gradebook, but needs another step to connect the two.
    • The Wiki tool is awkward and not WYSIWYG. But I understand that is common with wikis in most platforms
    • The Help documentation could use some focus on student needs rather that course developer needs
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    • Being able to edit projects more easily (and have a documented edit history) would be beneficial.
    • Possibly integrations with popular platforms (such as JIRA) to give expanded detail of project tracking.
    • Gantt charts would be a nice to have for a top level management view.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Apereo
    Sakai is a good general learning management system - it is not leading edge but rather a stable system with standard learning management system features. It can be fairly easily customized and is fairly easy to learn from both student learning and faculty administrative vantage points. New paradigms for online learning though are emergent so the current field should also be investigated with competitors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Apereo
    When faculty are preparing courses from term to term, a portion of the content is static within a specific discipline. The time it takes to import past lessons into new versions of Sakai can be an inefficient use of my time. When I want to add new content and edit from the old content, it's reliant upon me to cut and paste the content from term to term rather than simply import and edit from a backup.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Apereo
    Since Sakai is open-source their documentation is often lacking and support is absolutely needed onsite. Internal documentation is more important with Sakai than other services. The Sakai community is fun, passionate, engaged, and absolutely doing their best, but it's an uphill battle against the current market and trends.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    The customer support is quick and thorough, they have access to our account to answers are tailored to our needs. They also have a good knowledge base and self-help site with some video tutorials and FAQs which saved us time as opposed to just calling or emailing support. For the times that we did reach out, it only took one response to get our issue resolved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Apereo
    No, I don't
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Apereo
    As an adjunct professor, I didn't pick Sakai for the university. I have experience with Moodle, Blackboard, eCollege, iBoard and now Sakai. I would have to say that Sakai is one of my all time favorite LMSs to use as it is very easy to navigate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    Lattice was able to link in with core OKRs whereas from my memory, Small Improvements didn't support this goal setting and tracking framework. While it was good for sentiment and management frameworks, it was unable to connect with the greater company vision as well as Lattice - that was the reason that we moved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Apereo
    • Sakai makes it easy for students to monitor grades which puts their minds at ease.
    • Sakai makes it easy for teachers to assign and receive assignments from students.
    • Communication is one of the most important and one of the most taxing parts of an educational system. Sakai makes this process just a little bit easier.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Small Improvements
    • Before we had Small Improvements, personal goal setting was completely disorganized. Some managers made sure it was done, likewise many did not.
    • Having past goals collected in one repository has been a blessing. I couldn't imagine not having Small Improvements or something comparable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Small Improvements Screenshots

    Screenshot of Provide employees with structured opportunities for reflection and assessment through Performance ReviewsScreenshot of Decide whether or not you want manager to approve nominations for 360 FeedbackScreenshot of Share agenda items, meeting notes, and follow-up discussions with 1:1 MeetingsScreenshot of Create templated 1:1 meeting agendas for your managersScreenshot of Identify goals, set success measures, and track the results with ObjectivesScreenshot of Give public kudos to your colleagues with Praise