Educational Technology

The Division of Academic Innovation maintains, and makes available for your use, several pieces of software. Click each item below to learn more.

Ally (created by Blackboard) is an accessibility tool integrated directly into Canvas. It provides users a course accessibility checklist following many WCAG 2.1 AA rules.

The Ally course accessibility report is available to any course instructor. In Course Navigation click on Accessibility Report.

For assistance utilizing the Ally accessibility tool, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

From the Blackboard Ally website: “A unique inclusive approach to accessibility that focuses on improving the quality and usability of course materials for all students.”

Ally provides a variety of instructor tutorials on the Blackboard Ally Help page.

Articulate Rise is a web-based, responsive authoring tool for creating component-based course. As a rapid authoring alternative to Articulate Storyline, it includes pre-built lesson templates optimized for different device types and orientations, which allows you to use learning blocks to create custom lessons. It is fully responsive and mobile friendly, which means learners can access your course through a variety of platform including desktop, tablet, or phones. Unlike Storyline, learners control the interactions and navigate freely within a course without having to wait on the animation or voiceover on each slide.

The Division of Academic Innovation provides a computer work station in the DAI equipped with an Articulate Rise license. Personal accounts can be acquired either personally or through a request to your department.

See this Faculty Quick Start Sheet to get started with Articulate Rise. You may also contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

See the Articulate website for its Accessibility Statement.

For additional Articulate Rise support, see the Articulate Rise help page.

BioRender users create professional science figures. Features include icons and templates that are editable and customizable. In addition, BioRender offers secure, team-based collaboration!

If you would like to utilize one of the UNTHSC BioRender licenses, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

BioRender provides numerous tutorials and other learning opportunities through the BioRender Learning Hub.

BioRender’s accessibility policy can be found on the Accessibility at BioRender page.

BioRender provides numerous tutorials and other learning opportunities through the BioRender Learning Hub.

Camtasia is a screen recorder and video editor. Multiple features include transitions, annotations, and recently PowerPoint integration through the Camtasia Add-In.

Faculty may request a Camtasia account at canvas@unthsc.edu.

Camtasia’s Support page assists in troubleshooting Camtasia issues. You can also contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

The accessibility statement for Camtasia can be found on parent company’s TechSmith website.

The TechSmith Academy provides video tutorials for utilizing Camtasia to its fullest.

Canva provides cloud-based graphic design for presentations, flyers, social media, and much more. The user can start from scratch or use one of the hundreds of templates.

Sign-up for a free account on the Canva website. Pro features are available for a fee.

For assistance with Canva, explore the Canva Support page  or contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

Canva maintains a Voluntary Accessibility Template (VPAT) for the Canva application.

Canva provides a self-paced beginner’s course in the Canva Design School.

Canvas is our institution’s Learning Management System (LMS). All courses are delivered through Canvas which houses content, assessments, and the gradebook.

Visit https://unthsc.instructure.com/ and log in with UNTHSC credentials. If you do not have UNTHSC credentials, use https://unthsc.instructure.com/login/canvas.

General Canvas help can be found at the UNTHSC solution guides.  Assistance with specific Canvas issues is available from the Canvas Helpdesk at canvas@unthsc.edu.

See the Canvas website for its Accessibility Statement.

Specific instructor guides covering a variety of Canvas topics are available on the Canvas website. If you are interested in additional Canvas training, see the Faculty/Staff Development Opportunities page. Canvas student guides are also available on the Canvas website.

Design Tools for Canvas was developed to help instructors create course content. By using Design Tools, you can easily customize the content of content pages, assignments, the course syllabus, discussion descriptions, and quiz descriptions. For some, Design Tools may seen scary, but the tool offers many basic features as well. For more advanced users, you may consider some of the intermediate and advanced tool options within Design Tools.

Design Tools is available to course instructors within the Canvas course shell. Click edit on the desired page, then click the airplane icon in the page’s upper right corner. If you need further assistance, contact canvas@unthsc.edu

For help with Design Tools contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

The Cidilabs Support Center provides the Cidilabs/Design Tools accessibility statement.

Access the Design Tools User Guide Course for a complete training course to help you get started and to advance your Design Tools skills.

Create and share interactive content. H5P plugs right into Canvas and can be pushed to the Canvas gradebook.

Faculty and staff can receive an H5P account through the Division of Academic Innovation. Contact the Canvas Helpdesk at canvas@unthsc.edu.

For additional assistance see this quick start sheet. You may also contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

See the H5P website for their Accessibility Statement.

For additional H5P support, refer to the Content Author guide page. It is suggested to start with the basics guide or the Tutorials for Authors guide.

iClicker Cloud is an audience response tool for gathering responses from students to questions you pose in the class. iClicker Cloud is the newest version of this tool, which now allows students to respond to questions using an iClicker remote, a smartphone, a tablet, or a laptop computer.

Instructor accounts for iClicker Cloud are free. To create an instructor account, navigate to the iClicker Cloud Instructor page, then click the “Create an Account” button. It is strongly recommended that you use your UNTHSC email account.

For iClicker support contact canvas@unthsc.edu or explore the iClicker Knowledge Base.

See this iClicker article for their accessibility statement.

iClcker provides an extensive Knowledge Base as well as Customer Support.

Mediasite is one of the biggest players in automated classroom recording solutions, where you can create, publish, search and manage all of your videos. For most Faculty and Staff members, you can record your lecture (via the PC in the room or your Laptop) and it will save directly in your Mediasite account. Previously recorded videos can be uploaded to your Mediasite account. You can also view analytics to see exactly who has viewed it.

Faculty and staff can access their Mediasite account through their Canvas account. Select the desired course, go to settings and click on My Mediasite on the right. Course lectures recorded via Mediasite are loaded automatically in your MyMediasite folder.

Contact canvas@unthsc.edu for help with any Mediasite issues.

Mediasite maintains a Voluntary Accessibility Template (VPAT) for both the Mediasite platform and the Mediasite recorders.

The Division of Academic Innovation (DAI) offers a collection of articles to assist you in using Mediasite.

Mindomo is an online collaborative mind mapping and concept mapping software for visualizing and organizing information.

Faculty and students can automatically create a UNTHSC Mindomo license by clicking on the Mindomo link in any Canvas course. Faculty please contact canvas@unthsc.edu to upgrade your Mindomo account to a teacher license.

If you need additional assistance with your UNTHSC Mindomo account, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

Mindomo maintains a Voluntary Accessibility Template (VPAT) for the Mindomo application.

Mindomo Help provides tutorials in a variety of categories.

Slide-based interative lesson presentations, gamification activities and interactive video are all part of the Nearpod application.

Sign up for a free Nearpod account on the Nearpod website.

The Nearpod Help Center provides support articles in numerous categories.

The Nearpod Accessibility page not only includes their accessibility statement but helpful instructor content on creating accessible lessons.

The Nearpod Help Center provides support articles in numerous categories.

Padlet is a cloud-based productivity software designed for online collaborative walls or boards. Start from scratch or choose from dozens of templates.

The DAI makes available Padlet licenses to faculty and staff. If interested, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

For assistance with Padlet, explore the Padlet Support page.

Padlet’s accessibility policy can be found on the Accessibility and Padlet page.

Along with the Padlet Support page, Padlet provides video tutorials on their Padlet YouTube channel.

PeerWise provides active learning through question creation, answering, commenting, responding and rating.

To establish an instructor account, complete this form.

The PeerWise Ask/Share/Learn Support page provides tutorials to help you get started.

PeerWise does not currently provide an accessibility statement.

The PeerWise Ask/Share/Learn Support page provides tutorials to help you use PeerWise in the classroom.

Portfolium is an online software tool for tracking microcredential progress, creating and managing a personal ePortfolio, and building a professional network. Portfolium is available for all HSC personnel including faculty, staff, students, and alumni, as well as all participants in all UNTHSC microcredentials. Microcredentials earned and projects uploaded to Portfolium can be directly linked to in resumes, CVs, personal websites, and other professional networking sites.

You can create your free account by visiting the UNTHSC Portfolium homepage.

For additional assistance, see these quick start sheets.

See the Portfolium website for its Accessibility Statement.

For additional Portfolium support, refer to the Portfolium Guides page.

Qualtrics is an online survey tool. With over 85 question types, Qualtrics is certainly versatile; you can tailor questions to fit virtually any research purpose. Or, if you just want to do send out a standard customer satisfaction survey, net promoter score survey, etc., then you can choose from several pre-built templates. Researchers working with human subjects can download Qualtrics surveys and import them into the IRB (Institutional Review Board) template.

Faculty and staff can request a UNTHSC Qualtrics account by contacting canvas@unthsc.edu.

Contact canvas@unthsc.edu for help with any Qualtrics survey issues.

From the QualtricsXM website: “We are striving to make products all people can use, including the more than 1 billion worldwide who have a disability. We acknowledge the needs of these customers and have a multi-year investment into assistive technology that caters to those who need assistance for vision, hearing, cognitive learning, and mobility.  We will follow the universal standards outlined in WCAG 2.0 AA to the extent possible with a goal of eventually meeting WCAG 2.1 AA standards.”

Qualtrics provides a series of webinars to help you get started with the survey creation process.

Quizlet is an online database of nearly 350 million study sets created by students and teachers. Data sets include both text-based and visual study materials. The subject areas covered on Quizlet include but not limited to Arts and Humanities, Languages, Math, Science, and Social Sciences, etc. Students can remix existing sets or create their own. For each study set, Quizlet offers up to nine study activities, including matching, fill-in-the-blank games, and timed quizzes etc. Adaptive learning technology helps students study effectively by offering more difficult questions as mastery increases. In addition Quizlet offers features such as Quizlet Live, Quizlet Checkpoint, and Quizlet Learn.

You can create a free account or plus account. This step by step guide will help you get started.

General Quizlet help can be found at the Quizlet Teaching Help Center. You may also contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

Quizlet at this time does not have an official accessibility statement.

The Quizlet Help Center provides information regarding teaching, troubleshooting and a number of other topics.

Respondus LockDown Browser is a secure testing solution available at UNTHSC for use in face-to-face classes to enhance the integrity and security of tests delivered in Canvas. LockDown Browser is a software program that functions as a web browser that prevents students from navigating away from the testing screen. Respondus Lock Down Broswer + Monitor provides a more secure test environment for online, asynchronous testing.

For assistance configuring Respondus Lockdown Browser + Monitor within your course, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

For help with Resondus Lockdown Browser + Monitor issues, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

The Respondus accessibility statement can be found on the Our Commitment to Accessibility page.

Respondus provides resources for the LockDown Browser ad well as the Respondus Monitor.

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection and prevention service. Students submit their writing via a Turnitin dropbox in Canvas. Turnitin can be configured for any student assignment requiring file upload or text entry.

The Creating a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas (UNTHSC) video will help you get started with the Turnitin tool.

For help with Turnitin related issues, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

Turnitin’s Accessibility Statement as published on their website: “Easiness of use and enhancement of learning to people inclusive of disability and circumstance. Turnitin complies with WCAG 2.1 AA standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.”

The Turnitin Help Center provides numerous articles for assistance with Turnitin.

The UDOIT Cloud accessibility tool scans your course content, generates a list of accessibility issues and provides guidance on how to correct them.

UDOIT Cloud can be found by instructors in the Course Navigation of the courses they have been assigned. UDOIT is not visible to students.

For help with UDOIT Cloud related issues, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

The UDOIT accessibility statement can be found at Cidi Labs Support.

The UDOIT Cloud Help Sheet for instructors and staff can be found in the DAI Freshdesk Solutions.

Zoom is a convenient and easy to use software tool for group or one-to-one video conferencing. Zoom has become one of the premiere tools for synchronous video sessions of online classes and for teleconferencing in general. If you have a webcam and an Internet connection, you likely already have everything you need to use Zoom to its fullest.

To receive a UNTHSC Zoom account, go to https://unthsc.zoom.us. Click “Sign in,” which will take you to the UNTHSC SSO page. You must use your UNTHSC credentials to log in, which will automatically create your UNTHSC Zoom account. For further assistance, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

If you need additional assistance with your UNTHSC Zoom account, contact canvas@unthsc.edu.

The Zoom accessibility statement and features are available on the Zoom is for Everyone page.

Software Guides and general training are available on the Zoom Support page.