In addition to the course syllabus, schedule, calendar, many tools are essential nowadays for effective course management. Use technologies such as the following to facilitate UDL designs before the course starts. For example, the online discussion forum and remote meetings enable multiple ways of engagement (1st principle of UDL framework), the video platform allows for multiple means of representation (2nd principle of UDLframework)  and the assessment tools help implement multiple ways of expression (3rd principle of UDL framework). 

Utilize the following types of tools to improve your course organization:

• Online Discussion Forums: to help your students stay engaged with your material and connect with each other
• Assessment Platforms: for manual and automatic grading of assignments and clear rubric for assessments 
• Roster Management: keeps your registration orderly, notifications and participation tracking easier
• Appointment Tools: to help arrange for office hours, student-arranged group meetings or study groups
• Remote Meeting Platforms: to use for office hours, remote group meetings, and remote class attendance 
• Gradebook Management Tools: to keep organized on assessments, grades, and make end-of-the semester reports easier
• Survey Tools: gather input and feedback from your students, demonstrating sound surveying practices
• Video Platforms: to allow students accessing and viewing course lectures and other videos.

Dig Deeper:

Below are examples of these various tools. These lists are not exhaustive. The availability of these tools vary – some are available to all campus populations, others are available within the Grainger College of Engineering, and still others are publicly available but might need to be purchased. Every effort has been taken to include at least one campus-level tool.

Online Discussion Forums: 

• Canvas Discussion Forums
• ED stem 
• Piazza
• Campuswire 
• Discord

Assessment Platforms:

• PrairieLearn: Demo Videos; Workshop Documents  
• Gradescope 
• Canvas Quizzes 
• CBTF

Roster Management:

• Engineering Portal – Rosters
• Canvas (the menu item “People”)

Appointments Tools: 

• Doodle 
• WhenIsGood 
• Zoom Scheduler

Remote Meeting Platforms: 

• Zoom 
• Microsoft Teams – available to everyone on campus through Microsoft Office 365

Gradebook Management:

• Canvas Gradebook Links: Info for instructors; How to send an email to failing students from gradebook, Canvas Docker 

Survey Tools: 

• Qualtrics – Available to everyone on campus, Qualtrics Service Information
• Red Cap
• Canvas Survey (using Quiz feature)
• Microsoft Forms – available to everyone on campus through Microsoft Office 365

Video Platforms:

• Mediaspace – campus-wide video storage and viewer
• Classtranscribe (Check out this previous nugget )

Thank you for your interest. If you found this tip helpful, please share it with your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe using the link at the bottom of this email.

See you again next week!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu