What is My Workspace?
When you log in to Sakai, you will immediately see My Workspace, your individual workspace in the system. My Workspace displays the Message of the Day as well as course announcements, calendar, and message notifications. You will also see links to account utilities, enrolled courses, and other system-wide resources.
Note: The default location and availability of items in My Workspace may be customized by your institution.
My Workspace Navigation and Display
My Workspace consists of the following navigation and display elements:
- Site Navigation across the top
- The Tool Menu on the left
- The Message of the Day
- My Workspace: Calendar
- My Workspace: Recent Announcements
- My Workspace: Message Center Notifications
The My Workspace area of Sakai is designed to give you an overview of what is happening in your courses, and provide access to your individual account information and preferences.
Site Navigation
The Site Navigation across the top of the screen allows to you access all of the Sakai sites in which you are enrolled. You may also return to My Workspace at any time by clicking on the My Workspace button on the left. There is also Logout button in the far right hand corner to exit the system.
Jump to site tools.
You may click on the down arrows next to each site name to expand the Tool Menu for that site. Selecting a tool from that list will take you directly to that area of the selected course.
More sites.
The top site navigation can only display a small number of sites. If you have many active sites, clicking the down arrows on the More Sites button will display all of your actives sites. Sites are grouped by academic term and type of site (i.e. course or project sites).
Note: Inactive or Archived sites will not display in the More Sites listing. You can access inactive sites from the Membership or Worksite Setup tools.
Tool Menu
The My Workspace Tool Menu contains links to user account information and preferences. These links include:
- Profile
- Membership
- Schedule
- Resources
- Announcements
- Worksite Setup
- Preferences
- Account
- Help
Note: You may also see links to system-wide resources in this menu if they have been added by your institution. Also note that the tools displayed in the Tool Menu will be different depending on which Sakai site you are currently viewing.
Collapsing/Expanding the Tool Menu
You may expand and collapse the Tool Menu by clicking on the arrow tab in the upper right portion of the menu. When the menu is collapsed, the menu links are represented by their associated icons.
Message of the Day (MOTD)
The Message of the Day displays system-wide announcements and information posted by the Sakai Administrator. Most institutions use this space to display messages about scheduled maintenance, system updates, and important dates and events. You may customize the appearance of the Message of the Day by selecting the Options button.
MOTD Options
- You can choose to view just the subject line or the entire body of the message (default selection) by selecting the appropriate radio button.
- You may also use the drop-down menu to select to view All, One, or Two lines of the message body.
- You may also specify how many days in the past messages should be displayed. This is useful if you prefer to only see recently posted messages.
My Workspace: Calendar
The My Workspace Calendar shows events from all of the sites in which you are enrolled. In addition, you may also create individual, private calendar entries that are only visible to you from your My Workspace. As with the Message of the Day, you may customize the appearance of your Calendar by selecting the Options button.
My Workspace: Recent Announcements
The Announcements area in My Workspace displays announcements from all of the sites in which you are enrolled. You may use the drop-down menu to view All items, Public items only, or items By Group. (You must be a member of a group in order to see group announcements.)
By default, you will only see announcements that have been posted within the last 10 days in this location. If you wish to see announcements posted within the past year, you should click on the Announcements link in the Tool Menu.
My Workspace: Message Center Notifications
The Message Center in My Workspace displays the count of Messages and Forum posts for all of the sites in which you are enrolled. New messages are indicated by a number and envelope icon. If there are no new messages or posts, the word "none" will be displayed.
- Clicking on the title of the site will take you to the homepage for that site.
- Clicking on the New Messages indicator will take you directly to the Message Inbox for that site.
- Clicking on the New in Forums indicator will take you directly to the Forums for that site.
You may click on the Options button to customize the list of sites displayed in the Message Center area.
My Workspace: Message Center Notifications - Display Options
Click in the Don't Show box to place a check mark next to any sites that you prefer not to see in the Message Center list and then click Update. If you have already hidden sites in Preferences, they will not show up in this list.
