Course Tools and Software

On this page, you can find some software and tool suggestions used for course development and improvements.

OSU CS Ecampus Module - Design Markdown Template

This Markdown Template aligns with the Canvas template to use for module development. Make a copy, fork, or download for use. You may find this menthod as a great way to share development updates with your instructional designer.

The Markdown template is one optional method to use when sharing content with your Instructional Designer. It can streamline your course development by providing a consistent, lightweight format that allows you to focus on content creation, leaving the complex formatting to your ID, while ensuring materials remain easily readable, version-controllable, and convertible to multiple output formats like HTML or LMS-compatible files.

General List of OSU Licenses for Software Available

Featured Employee Software

Here you will find access to OSU Faculty software licenses such as Microsoft Office 365 and other Microsoft Products, Zoom, Adobe, Box, Wolfram, SPSS, Zotero, and more.

Canvas & Teaching Tools

OSU Canvas Integration Tools

Here you can find detailed information on various tools and integrations available within Canvas specifically for OSU. Integrations include features for managing courses, enhancing accessibility, and connecting with external platforms like Gradescope, Ed Discussion, Kaltura, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Qualtrics, and ALEKS. You can also find infromation on all the integration tools within Canvas, including Analytics, Grading and TA management.

OSU Teaching Tools

Here you can find an overview of various educational technologies available through our OSU licensing agreements. You can find additional information and tutorials on tools such as Canvas (LMS), Kaltura for media content, and Turnitin for plagiarism detection

OSU Accessibility Tools

Here you can find resources to help create accessible course content. You can find information on tools like UDOIT, Canvas Accessibility Checker, and Ally, which assist in identifying and fixing accessibility issues in Canvas content and uploaded documents

Canvas Smart Search

Here you can find the Canvas Smart Search readme documentation and additional tutorials for the Canvas tool.

OSU Student Resources for Canvas

Here you can find student facing resources for Canvas through OSU.

OSU Bookstore Adoptions

OSU TekBots

- ECE and ENGR Lab and Hands On Student Course Equipment Kits
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General Course Integration & Development Tools

h5p

An open-source tool for creating interactive learning content like quizzes, videos, and simulations. It integrates with Canvas to enhance engagement. Create embedded practice (ungraded) or graded assignments with instant feedback. The tool supports accessibility, and allows instructors to track student performance. This tool can promote student engagement by embedding low or no-stakes practice assignment within Canvas Exploration pages. proving more a dynamic, hands-on experience. Examples of H5P content include interactive videos with embedded questions, drag-and-drop activities, and branching scenarios. Additionally, H5P can be particularly beneficial by providing interactive coding exercises and simulations that reinforce programming concepts and problem-solving skills.

Your ID will help to create H5P content. Check the link for content ideas. These integrate well within Canvas learn and assignment pages.

Find some more information about h5p on the EECS EITP Committee Canvas Page on h5p

MS Teams

A collaboration platform that supports interactive learning through chat, video calls, and file sharing. It integrates with your Canvas roster. Teams can be used for live office hours, general course chat, group work, file sharing, real-time collaboration, polling, and more. This is a great tool to enhance student engagement and instructor presence. It also creates a social community for online courses to help connect students outside the classroom.

Kaltura

A video platform, similar to YouTube, that enhances interactive learning by enabling video creation, hosting, and sharing. It integrates with Canvas, allowing you to add quizzes, captions, and analytics to videos. Disability services has direct access to your media within Kaltura, making for easy accessibility and accommodation requests.

Asciinema

Free and open-source solution for recording terminal sessions for instructional videos and demonstrations

Grammarly Pro

Great for checking tense and improving writing

Perusall

A collaborative annotation tool that integrates with Canvas. Great for creating more interactive discussions of a paper, case study, or other pre-loaded content.

Qualtrics for Canvas

Create an assignment where students submit a Qualtrics survey. This link/assignment can be created once and will carry over to each new term without needing modifications. Reports can be filtered by term/date. To use Qualtrics, login here with your OSU/ONID credentials.

Canva Live

  • A versatile tool to enhance your course development
  • Create visually appealing and interactive content
  • Easily incorporate videos, animations, and collaborative features, making learning more engaging and dynamic.
  • User-friendly interface and customizable templates for all skill levels.

Mind mapping process for Group Work

  • This guide explores the science behind mind mapping, step-by-step techniques to create your own, and expert tips to refine your approach.
  • Mind mapping lets you visually organize thoughts, solve problems, and boost creativity.

Ecampus list of additional Educational Software options available

Full list of software that integrates with Canvas

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For pre-skill assessment requirements

Students enrolled in courses that demand prerequisite skills, especially transfer students, may benefit from extra resources or refresher opportunities to evaluate their abilities. Canvas offers a feature that can be activated to require a pre-assessment, which students must complete before accessing course content. Additionally, guided practice can be provided to help develop these skills, allowing students to bypass sections that do not require further assistance.

  • This can be accomplished by using quizzes with conditional release settings on course modules.
  • Canvas also has Mastery Path options under the course settings -> Enable individual learning paths for students based on assessment.
    • Mastery Paths allows instructors to configure differentiated learning content that is automatically delivered to students based on their individual source assignment scores. Any graded assignment, graded discussion, or graded quiz may be used as the source content for a Mastery Path.
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Coding assignments:

Vocarium

Streamline coding assignments and provide integrated, automated feedback, enhancing the learning experience with real-time support and collaboration.

Gradescope

Github for education

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Discussion assignments:

Canvas discussion board guide

Ed Discussion

MS Teams (Integrates well with Canvas, synchronous roster)

Ecampus discussion board tips

GRADED ASSIGNMENT TIP *To use graded assignments on Ed or Teams, create a URL submission assignment on Canvas and have students copy and paste their Ed or Teams link into the Canvas assignment. This will allow the page to load in the speedgrader.*

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Proctored exams:

Watch the scheduling deadlines for declaring the use of proctored exams for your course.

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Qualtrics for assignments or course data collection

Qualtrics is a great tool for creating surveys, polls, tests, and for the collection and analyzation of that data.

Qualtrics integrates to graded Canvas assignments or create perma-links to polls that can be embedded into an assignment, an announcement, or an email/Teams message.

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Using AI in your teaching or development:

Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) - AI in Teaching and Learning Resources

Here you can find resources, guidance, and support from OSU's CTL team.

OSU Ecampus - Artificial Intelligence Tools and Guidance

This resource is intended to help the Ecampus course development team as well as faculty and staff use a principles-based approach in deciding if and how to incorporate artificial intelligence tools into course development, research and other work projects.

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Canvas Modules Available To Copy Into Your Course

note that some of these modules have been worked into the new Ecampus CS Canvas Template

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COE IT Support Software Guideline Timelines

Request times below for various needs:

  • Existing software updates - Deadweek (Week 0) of the previous term
  • New software - 2nd week of the previous term of desired launch
  • Backend services (e.g. VM's, server setup) - 2nd week of the previous term of desired launch
  • Specialized hardware setups - 1 term in advance of desired launch
  • University lab resources - 1 term in advance of desired launch
  • Events (e.g. conferences, hackathons) - 1 term in advance of desired launch
  • Exam Proctoring - Check with Testing for exact dates, typically 2 terms before launch
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Hardware and/or Equipment Options:

  • High-quality camera or microphone
  • Tripod
  • Greenscreen
  • Computer writing pad
  • Laptop with a different operating system
  • Have something not listed in mind? Reach out to the CDM for requests.
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