Below you’ll find brief introductions to the main learning and teaching technologies used at SPU. Each section provides an overview of the tool and tips for using it in your teaching.  Detailed “how-to” information for these tools can be found in the ETM Wiki.   

Canvas 

Canvas is SPU’s Learning Management System (LMS).  You can use Canvas for many different aspects of teaching, including (but not limited to)… 

  • Organizing course content and activities
  • Having students take quizzes
  • Providing document, video, and audio files for your students
  • Organizing peer review
  • Holding text-based discussions 
  • Grading
  • Having students submit assignments
  • Scheduling Zoom meetings
  • Facilitating group work
  • Making class announcements
  • Providing feedback
  • Sending emails to your class

More about Canvas…


Zoom 

Zoom is the program/app that SPU uses for virtual meetings, such as one-on-one conferences with students, department meetings, and whole class sessions.  You can use Zoom to  

  • video chat with others 
  • share your screen 
  • draw on the shared screen 
  • facilitate group discussions 
  • record meetings 

More about Zoom


Panopto 

Panopto is the SPU-supported tool for lecture capture.  It allows users to easily record their screen and/or self and additional camera inputs on their computer then upload and stream the content from an online location. Use Panopto to 

  • Record live, classroom-based lectures and demonstrations  
  • Pre-record lectures or demonstrations (e.g., to use in an asynchronous setting) 
  • Make informal videos (announcements, feedback, etc.) to share with your students 
  • Store your videos in a searchable format 
  • Have students complete video assignments 

More about Panopto…


Additional Resources

Accessibility is an aspect of Universal Design for Learning. Universal Design for Learning is a way of thinking about and creating a learning environment that makes student participation and engagement as ubiquitous as possible. An accessible course is designed with different learning styles and abilities in mind, so that the maximum number of students can participate without additional accommodation. If accessibility is built into the structure of the course upfront, less work will need to be done to facilitate an accommodation later on. For more guidance on making your course accessible, see ETM’s wiki.

Poll Everywhere is a web-based polling tool that doesn’t require clickers. 

SensusAccess is a free tool that can convert file formats into other formats or more accessible formats, such as making a PDF more accessible, creating an audio translation of a file or ebook, or creating a file in Daisy or Braille format

TurnItIn is both a plagiarism deterrent and an educational tool to teach students how to work with sources and improve their paraphrasing and quoting skills.  It is integrated into Canvas.  See ETM’s wiki for information on how to set up TurnItIn in your Canvas course.

Test accommodations are modifications made to tests or testing conditions that allow all students the ability to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a testing situation.  For instructions on how to provide specific testing accommodations in Canvas and/or Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor (Webcam), see ETM’s wiki.