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Teaching Technologies

Whether you are teaching in-person, in a hybrid modality, or online, you may need to learn some new tools to help you accomplish your teaching tasks, keep students engaged, and be prepared to teach to a different modality if the need arises. We’ve assembled a variety of resources to make it easy to know how to use what you need.

If you need help with any of these tools you can

 

Teaching with Canvas

What’s Canvas and what is it for?

Canvas is the online learning management system (LMS) used at Temple. In addition to serving as a central repository for course materials, Canvas provides a broad palette of tools for collaboration, communication, assessment, and feedback that help instructors and students meet their learning goals. Canvas can enhance student engagement with course content, streamline the grading process, enrich teacher-student and student-student interaction, and promote positive learning experiences and outcomes in both face-to-face and online learning environments. 

In Canvas instructors can create and share course content using Assignments, Discussions, Modules, Quizzes, Pages, and Files. They can also foster a collaborative learning experience using Collaborations and Groups. Canvas allows instructors to provide students with comprehensive feedback on assignment, discussion, and quiz submissions using SpeedGrader and manage grade reporting in the Gradebook. The use of the Canvas LMS with its wide array of tools can enhance student engagement and success.

A Basic Introduction to Canvas

Enter the Ready, Set, Canvas! course to learn how to get the most out of using Canvas for teaching and learning.

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Teaching with Zoom

What’s Zoom and what is it for?

Zoom is Temple University’s web conferencing tool, used for teaching synchronous online class sessions. Zoom allows you to host virtual one-on-one or group meetings easily. With powerful audio, video and collaboration features, Zoom connects remote participants with their instructor and with each other. 

A Basic Introduction to Zoom

Enter the Ready, Set Zoom course to learn how to get the most out of Zoom for teaching and learning.

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CAT Resources for Zoom
EDvice The Zoom Black Box Blues: Building a Flexible Camera Policy 
EDvice Best Practices for Zoom Breakout Rooms 
Allowing Participants to Choose Breakout Room in Zoom
Tech Tip: Advanced Polls and Quizzes in Zoom  
Tech Tip: Zoom Focus Mode  

Temple University is enabling certain functions of Zoom AI Companion. This tool can generate a detaIled summary of your meeting, organize your meeting summary by topic, and more. It is important, however, that faculty and staff who wish to use the tool do so responsibly following university guidelines, which are clarified in the document linked below. Also addressed are alternative AI note-taking tools such as Otter.ai and Reader.ai, which are prohibited at Temple University.

Polling with Poll Everywhere

What’s Poll Everywhere and what is it for?

Poll Everywhere is Temple University’s enterprise polling solution. Whether teaching face-to-face or online, instructors can use Poll Everywhere to create engaging polls and activities to gauge understanding, gather feedback, and spark discussion. Students can easily participate in activities from their own device (via SMS text message, the Poll Everywhere app, or at https://pollev.com), and results can be displayed in real time for immediate feedback. In addition to being able to create a variety of activity types, faculty can add Poll Everywhere activities as slides in their PowerPoint or Google Slides presentations and export poll results to the Canvas gradebook.

How can I access my Poll Everywhere account?

Faculty at Temple can access Poll Everywhere in two ways

  • In TUportal, click the Poll Everywhere link in the left navigation bar under TUapplications. Follow the prompts to activate your account (if prompted for your email, use your  email address).

  • In Canvas courses, click the Poll Everywhere link in the left hand course navigation menu. An account will automatically be created for first time users.

How can I use Poll Everywhere in my teaching?

The Poll Everywhere Instructor Guide can help you get started using Poll Everywhere, but here are some some specific ways you can incorporate Poll Everywhere into your teaching.

  • Ask multiple-choice questions for quick formative assessment that gauges understanding of course content, aids retrieval practice, and reinforces learning.

  • Generate a word cloud from student responses that expands in real time to visualize where students’ ideas converge or diverge.

  • Post open-ended questions to provide an opportunity for all voices to be heard and serve as a catalyst for deeper in-class discussion.

  • Set a Q&A poll to gather questions during a session, where students can upvote questions that they find most interesting or relevant.

  • Host Competitions to gamify your teaching, where students competitively answer your questions in a gameshow-style format.

  • Gather completely anonymous responses to your polls, useful when you are discussing controversial topics or asking students to share where they are struggling.

  • Track the identity of student respondents, needed if you plan to use responses for grading purposes or sync poll results to Canvas as a graded assessment.

Additional tutorials and guidance by Poll Everywhere

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Accessibility

Additional resources

Edvice Exchange: Making the Most of Classroom Polling

Using VoiceThread to collaborate

What’s VoiceThread and what is it for?

VoiceThread is an interactive presentation and collaboration tool that allows you to share your slides (or other materials and multimedia) with your students, and then allows you and your students to add text, audio, or video comments directly on those materials. It is a great way to facilitate rich discussions, as well as allow students to more directly interact with the material that you share with them. It also allows students to build digital presentations by adding images, documents, and videos, and other media to which other students can add comments for discussion. Visit VoiceThread's home page for an introduction to the platform.

How can you access and use VoiceThread?

To add VoiceThread into your Canvas course, you can either embed it directly in a module, if it is a non-graded activity, or you can embed it in an assignment if you want it to be a graded activity. Here are the steps.

Embedding Directly in a Module (Ungraded)

  1. Navigate to the “Modules” area of your course.
  2. Find the module to which you’d like to add VoiceThread, and click the “Add Content” button.
  3. Select “External Tool” from the menu.
  4. Select “VoiceThread” from the list of tools.

This will launch the VoiceThread Setup Page. You should see three types of VoiceThread activities: individual VoiceThread, Course View, and Home Page. In this case, you want to select an Individual VoiceThread. This option is the best way to create a VoiceThread activity or lecture. 

To build an Individual VoiceThread activity

  1. Click on “Individual VoiceThread.”
  2. If you have already created the VoiceThread you want to use, click on it in the list that appears, and then click “Continue” at the bottom of the page. If you haven’t yet created the VoiceThread you want to use, click on “Create a new VoiceThread” near the top-right corner, and proceed with uploading your slides. You would need to create your slide in another presentation tool such as PowerPoint.
  3. Click the yellow “Continue” button at the bottom of the page to go to the thread editing step.
  4. Add, rearrange, or delete any slides as needed.
  5. Click the yellow “Continue” button at the bottom page to go to the commenting step.
  6. Record any additional comments you’d like to include on this thread.
  7. Click the yellow “Continue” button at the bottom of the page to go to the titling step.
  8. Enter a title for this activity.
  9. Click the yellow “Publish” button at the bottom of the page.

Embedding as an Assignment (Graded)

  1. Navigate to the “Modules” area of your course.
  2. Find the module to which you’d like to add VoiceThread, and click the “Add Content” button.
  3. Select “Assignment” from the menu.
  4. Select Create Assignment, Name the assignment and then click Add Item.
  5. Click on the assignment and then click the Edit button.
  6. Under Submission Type, select “External Tool”.
  7. Click on the “Find” button.
  8. Click on “VoiceThread.”

This will launch the VoiceThread Setup Page. You should see four types of VoiceThread activities: assignment builder, individual VoiceThread, Course View, and Home Page. In this case, you want to select an assignment builder. 

There are three types of assignments: create, comment, and watch assignment. The create assignment requires students to create a full VoiceThread. They will upload the slides and record comments, then submit that to you for a grade. A comment assignment requires students to post comments on a VoiceThread that you have created. A watch assignment requires students to watch a VoiceThread in full. Grading is completed in the VoiceThread interface, built into the assignment, once the student has submitted their work.

Once you set up your VoiceThread activity, you can then provide students with instructions on how to create or comment on VoiceThread. These instructions are also helpful if you want to create VoiceThread and ask students to comment on them. Check out this list of official Voicethread tutorials that are themselves in the form of VoiceThreads to learn how to create, comment, and share VoiceThreads.

Accessibility

VoiceThread is designed with accessibility in mind. Visit their accessibility webpage for more information. 

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VoiceThread Support

Taking attendance with Qwickly

What’s Qwickly Attendance and what is it for?

Qwickly Attendance is a tool for recording and tracking student attendance within Canvas. Qwickly Attendance offers multiple ways to record attendance that make the process more efficient, including the Student Check-in method, which enables students to mark themselves present via their personal computer or smart device. Instructors also have the option to integrate Qwickly Attendance with the Canvas gradebook in a way that aligns with their attendance policy.

How can I access Qwickly Attendance?

Qwickly Attendance can be accessed by clicking the Attendance item* in the left-hand Course Navigation Menu of your Canvas course.

*If you do not immediately see the Attendance item in your course navigation menu, you can enable it by clicking on ‘Settings’ at the bottom of the menu,’ clicking the ‘Navigation’ tab along the top of the page, locating the ‘Attendance’ item in the bottom set of items, clicking the three dots next to ‘Attendance,’ choosing ‘Enable,’ then clicking ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page.

How do I use Qwickly Attendance?

How-to Videos
Qwickly hosts a library of How-to Videos that show how to do a number of things within its platform, including

  • How to take attendance using the Student Check-in and List modes.
  • How to edit the attendance record.
  • How to view the course report (an overview of all student attendance for the whole semester).
  • How to integrate Qwickly attendance data with your gradebook..

Access these video resources and then

  1. Click “How-to Videos”
  2. Choose “Qwickly Attendance” under Select Product
  3. Choose “Canvas” under Select LMS
  4. Click “Show all 16 Videos” to see all available videos.

Written How-to Guide
The CAT’s written How-to Guide to Qwickly Attendance provides step by step instructions how to perform a variety of options within Qwickly Attendance, including

  • How to access and set up Qwickly Attendance in Canvas.
  • How to take attendance in both Student Check-in and List modes.
  • How to take attendance for specific sections in a multi-section course.
  • How to modify the attendance record.

Accessibility

Qwickly Attendance is designed with accessibility in mind. This includes support for screen readers and full keyboard navigation.

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Using Perusall for social annotation

What is Perusall and what is it for?

You may have seen your students highlight sentences or sections of material they are reading and annotating or adding notes in the margins. Maybe it is something you do as well. Perusall is a social annotation tool that allows students and teachers to create annotations digitally and share them with others on the same document. Social annotation, also known as collaborative annotation, is a great strategy for making readings more interactive, promoting critical thinking, and facilitating focused, dynamic, open dialogue on course readings. 

Check out this video for a quick overview of Perusall and social annotation. 

How can you use Perusall in your course?

Perusall can be used in a number of ways to support student learning. Below are a few examples

  • Have students comment on assigned readings prior to synchronous class sessions. This allows instructors to identify patterns, note the ‘muddy’ areas in the readings, and see where questions are arising.
  • Create asynchronous reading groups to facilitate asynchronous small group discussions (for large classes). Instructors can then interact with smaller groups of students at a time.
  • Add open-ended discussion prompts and questions to help students engage more meaningfully with course materials and each other.

How can you access Perusall?

Perusall is integrated into Canvas Assignments so you can easily set up reading assignments through Canvas. Although you can access Perusall directly from the Perusall website, we strongly recommend that you launch it from within your Canvas course. This will minimize confusion and ensure a seamless experience for your students.  

This video walks you through the basic steps for creating a Perusall Assignment in Canvas.

Where can you get help for Perusall?

It is important to provide students clear guidance and expectations for social annotation. Perusall suggests sharing two documents with students

  1. A one-page rubric explaining the tool and how it works that you can modify for your class.
  2. Example annotations to help students get an idea of how to engage in social annotation.

Perusall provides detailed guidelines with step by step directions for setting up and using Perusall in your courses.

Accessibility

Perusall offers features for increasing accessibility of reading materials and assignments.

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Panopto for creating and sharing videos

What’s Panopto and what is it for?

Panopto is Temple University’s video creation and management tool, used for delivering content rich material to students enrolled in Canvas courses. With powerful video creation and sharing features, Panopto delivers accessible video content using an interactive video player with high quality streaming capabilities.

Panopto offers the ability to embed quizzes and have the quiz grades posted directly to Canvas course gradebooks. Additionally, video assignments can be created and shared from Panopto’s direct link to the Canvas course assignment page and integrated into the gradebook as well.

Watch this Panopto introductory video to gain a better understanding of the Panopto capabilities.

How can you access and use Panopto?

Center for the Advancement of Teaching Panopto Materials  

  • Self-enroll in our  Ready, Set, Panopto! Canvas course to get the most out of using Panopto for teaching and learning.

Accessibility

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Teaching with Google tools

What are Google Tools and what are they for?

The Google Workspace includes a suite of applications that can be used for collaborative learning. Instructors and students can easily create and share Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheets (if you are familiar with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, these tools are comparable). Users can also create shared folders to maintain group access to files and Google Forms forms to collect anonymous feedback.

How can you use Google Tools for teaching?

You can use the following Google tools for real-time co-authoring, collaboration and brainstorming in your classes. Documents created in Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheets can be saved in Google Drive to be shared with others for real time collaboration. Google Forms can also be created to collect feedback anonymously. Below are some guidelines to get you started

You might also want to check out Jamboard, a digital whiteboard created by Google. This is a great tool for collaborative and active learning. You can embed notes, images, and documents on the Jamboard for students to interact with collaboratively.

How do you access Google Tools?

  • Log in to TUportal
  • Under TUAPPLICATIONS on the left hand side, click the Google Workspace (Google Apps)
  • Click Go to Drive

Alternatively, go directly to Google Drive and sign in with your TU AccessNet email and password. Please note that your account is limited to 3 GB of storage. As long as you remain under this limit, your use of Google Tools for teaching will not be affected.

You can also use the Canvas Collaborations feature to quickly create collaborative Google Documents, Sheets, and Slides for individual students or groups. 

Accessibility

In addition to being able to create Google documents using accessibility tools, Google has also provided a useful resource exploring how to make your Google Documents more accessible.

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Teaching with Microsoft tools

What is Microsoft 365 and what is it for?

Microsoft 365 includes a suite of applications that can be used for collaborative learning. If you are familiar with using Google applications for collaboration, you will find that Microsoft applications offer comparable features. 

How can you use Microsoft 365 applications for teaching?

You can use the following Microsoft applications for real-time co-authoring, collaboration and brainstorming in your classes. Documents created in MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint can be saved in OneDrive to be shared with others for real time collaboration. (If you are familiar with Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheet, these tools are comparable). Below are some guidelines to get you started.

You might also want to check out Microsoft Whiteboard, a digital whiteboard. This is a great tool for collaborative and active learning. You can embed notes, images, and documents on the whiteboards for students to interact with content collaboratively.

Important note: The MS Teams application has video conferencing and file sharing features. For teaching purposes, we strongly recommend that you use Zoom for video conferencing and Canvas for file sharing in your course to maintain consistency and avoid confusion for students.

How do you access Microsoft 365?

Where can you get help for it?

Visit the Microsoft support webpage for more assistance.

Additional resources

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Using Adobe tools for digital content creation

What are Adobe tools and what are they for?

The Adobe Creative Cloud offers a variety of digital tools that afford faculty the ability to create engaging content that can help meet the needs of the modern student.  The digital tools allow students to showcase their learning in creative and engaging formats.  Perhaps the traditional research paper can, for instance, be re-imagined as a documentary project with interviews and graphics supporting any stated data. 

Adobe’s Frequently Used Digital Tools

  • Adobe Express: A suite of apps for creating graphics, web pages, and short videos for social media, easily and quickly. It’s aimed at marketing and social media professionals, as well as amateurs and beginners who want to create cool content.
  • Photoshop: Use Photoshop to edit and compose raster (not easily scalable) images, graphics and text in multiple layers; edit and render text and vector graphics; and create and edit 3D graphics and video.
  • Illustrator: Use vectors (instantly scalable) to create everything from simple graphics, such as logos, icons and infographics, to complex illustrations, and everything in-between.
  • After Effects: Create visual effects, motion graphics, and composited imagery.
  • Adobe XD: Vector-based UX tool for prototyping web and mobile apps.
  • InDesign: Page layout tool that’s used primarily for print, but also has digital publishing capabilities.
  • Lightroom: A good tool for a photo studio or photographer that needs to handle large numbers of images. It doesn’t have all the image editing features offered by Photoshop, but that does make for a simpler interface that’s easier to use for standard tasks.
  • Premiere Pro: Comprehensive video editing tool, based on a visual timeline, to edit everything from commercials and music videos to TV series and feature-length movies.
  • Rush: An all-in-one, cross-platform video editing software that processes and uploads video clips quickly, ideal for social media content creators.
  • Dimension: Tool for mocking up, compositing and rendering photorealistic 3D images based on 2D and 3D models, photos and textures you have imported from elsewhere, including Adobe Stock. 

How can you access and use Adobe tools?

Log in to TUportal and under TUAPPLICATIONS on the left hand side menu, click on Adobe Creative Cloud. If you have not already subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud click and follow the ITS Adobe instructions. 

Additional resources

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Using Turnitin for plagiarism detection

What’s Turnitin and what is it for?

Turnitin is a plagiarism and similarity checker. It is integrated in Canvas. Instructors can set up an Assignment in Canvas where all student submissions are processed through Turnitin. 

Used in conjunction with well-designed assessments and effective communication, Turnitin can be an effective teaching tool to help students learn how to write with academic integrity. 

How can you access and use Turnitin?

Instructor Turnitin Assignment Set Up

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Additional resources

Plagiarism Spectrum and Interventions to Uphold Original Work
Turnitin: On the Effective and Appropriate Uses of Turnitin 
Guidelines for Creating and Managing Assignments with Canvas Turnitin LTI
Considerations for Using Turnitin

EdTech tools database

While there are many Temple-supported tools at your disposal to enhance teaching and learning, the landscape of educational technology is wide open and includes many other tools that may not be Temple-supported that could be useful for your purposes. The CAT has created an EdTech Tools Database organized by different learning activities. While this list of tools is not exhaustive, we invite you to explore the options for your classes. If none of the suggested tools meet your needs, please reach out to an EdTech Specialist, and we will work with you to find other options. Our team can provide guidance and help you brainstorm how to use the tools effectively in your teaching.