More Tools to Improve your Teaching

Tools available through individual or UW site licenses

Breakout EDU

Breakout EDU is an immersive learning games platform that brings collaboration to both remote and in-person learning. Breakout EDU games consist of a combination of physical and digital puzzle elements that must be solved in a set amount of time. Click here for more information.

Office 365

As a Microsoft-based campus, faculty and students have access to a powerful suite of cloud-based applications, storage, and more. For a quick overview of applications within 365, click here.

  • UW-IT supports and provides trainings Office 365.

DesignPlus

DesignPLUS is a set of design tools that integrate into Canvas to speed up course design, improve accessibility and consistency, and work more easily with visuals within Canvas shells.

Camtasia

If you’re ready to move beyond the editing capabilities of VidGrid, Camtasia is a tool to consider. UW has a limited number of licenses, but this is a screen recording and video editing tool that works on both Windows and Mac systems. It also allows for interactivity and quizzes.

Qualtrics

UW has an institutional license for Qualtrics, which can be easily integrated into Canvas course shells to collect anonymous information from students or to develop surveys for scholarly or community-based research. Contact UW-IT for support with this application. 

Poll Everywhere | Kahoot

Poll Everywhere and Kahoot allow you to make your synchronous lectures and interactions more engaging. Use these applications to create real-time quizzes, polls, and discussion-starters.

  • UW has a site license for Poll Everywhere. Contact UW-IT for more information.

Zoteroo | Mendeley 

Citation Management

Citation management systems can help students and faculty better organize and manage their research. The UW Libraries provide support for various citation management systems -- including Zotero, Mendeley, RefWorks, and EndNote. 

Gradescope

UW has an institutional license for Gradescope. Gradescope is a rubric-based grading application that offers instructors online and artificial intelligence-assisted grading and feedback tools that are designed to streamline and standardize paper-based, digital, and code assignments. 

Free Tools

UW does not have specific licenses for these applications. Instructors and students may have to sign up for free accounts to use these applications.

Perusall

One user describes Perusall as “an e-reader platform that allows students and faculty to annotate the assigned readings and engage the reading material in a style akin to social media posting. Students can write full comments, ‘like’ comments, use hashtags, link URLs to their comments and even use emoticons.”This app serves as a way to make student reading practices more visible and more social--which can help you identify and promote effective practices and intervene when students are struggling with understanding course readings. 

Nearpod

Nearpod provides classroom management tools including interactive activities, attendance checks, anonymous responses, formative assessment, and more. This tool also offers pre-made lessons and integration with Google, YouTube, and other common applications. Nearpod requires teachers and students to register for free accounts.

Google Drive |Docs, Forms, Sheets

Though UW is not a Google school, Google’s free accounts and apps still provide faculty and students with a range of tools that can support and enhance teaching and learning. See Google’s support pages for general help with many of their apps. 

Plagiarism Detection

Looking for turnitin or another plagiarism detector? We don’t have an institutional license, and ECTL discourages use of plagiarism checkers without extensive discussion about the pedagogical vacuum these types of services can create.

If you’re curious about another application not on this list, reach out to us to see if we can help: wyocourses-inst@uwyo.edu!