New year, new tools

With many courses transitioning to online instruction, it’s safe to say that this semester will present unique challenges for faculty, staff, and students alike. That’s why we’ve spent the summer strengthening and expanding the digital part of our Academical Village to accommodate more features and potential applications than ever before.

Thanks to generous support from the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Chief Information Officer, seven tools have been newly added or significantly expanded for use in your course sites and activities. The Learning Tech catalog includes more information about these tools and their potential for teaching and learning, along with resources and contacts to help you get started.

The list includes:

• Digication: Design and publish simple, elegant ePortfolio websites for academic projects and professional development.
• Gradescope: Streamline the grading process for exams, problem sets, and other assignments by building intuitive, dynamic rubrics as you work.
• Hypothesis: Add annotations alongside digital texts to provide context, offer reflections, ask and answer questions, and more.
• MATLAB Grader: Build autograded programming assignments that provide immediate, contextual feedback, with detailed analytics.
• Peerceptiv: Encourage student development as teachers and learners through a research-validated cycle of anonymous feedback.
• Poll Everywhere: Post attendance items, quick quizzes, or polls, display live updates on your screen, and transfer scores to your gradebook.
• VoiceThread: Create a virtual seminar discussion by recording and embedding video commentary within posted documents or clips.

Stay tuned for tips, tricks, and examples of each tool! Don’t hesitate to send us an email at learningtech@virginia.edu with your questions or ideas, or leave us a note in the comments below.