The Sakai Open Academic Environment is a new system being developed in parallel with the original Sakai CLE project. It adapts capabilities from the modern consumer web, like social networking, for use in an academic setting. Sakai OAE began as an experiment developed by one Sakai school. It attracted participation from other Sakai schools, and eventually was brought into a managed project phase under the official auspices of the Sakai Foundation. The system is also designed based on principles developed by the Sakai community's teaching and learning committee.
Sakai OAE will interoperate with Sakai CLE, providing rich new functionality to existing Sakai CLE users while establishing a path forward for those schools that eventually would like to migrate fully to Sakai OAE.