Supported Technologies
More Blended Course Design documents
List of supported technologies to use in course content creation
Tool selection is an important part of building a sustainable course design. It will determine the level of support you receive, the level of support your students receive, and how robust and reliable that support will be. The following is a list of centrally-supported tools. The criteria for tools to be on this list are that users should receive some combination of the following levels of support:
- Technical support from DoIT Help Desk;
- Technical training is available from DoIT Academic Technology;
- In-class support and training through DoIT Software Training for Students;
- Individual consultations with DoIT Academic Technology;
- Campus licensing — making them available at no cost to campus users; and/or
- Access to software from Windows and Mac operating systems.
NOTE: This list is not intended to restrict or discourage use of tools outside of this list, but instead, it is a guide for those who desire a fully-featured support ecosystem around the tools they use. Faculty are encouraged to consult with their departmental support services for lists of software leveraged through their school, college, division or institute.
|Course Management Systems
The following are resources available for course management systems (CMS) supported by campus.
Canvas
Canvas is the new learning management platform for the campus. It contains a variety of robust tools ranging from communication to the online submission of course assignments. Canvas can support online, face-to-face, or hybrid course models. You can turn course tools on and off so that the tools available in your course are specifically tailored to your pedagogy and course materials.
Additional Resources
Presentations
Lecture and presentation technologies are important tools in the presentation of content within absorb-type activities.
Adobe Captivate
Adobe® Captivate® CC offers enhanced support for HTML5-based eLearning content and also lets you create courses that meet accessibility standards.* Add more interactivity to your courses with drag-and-drop modules, YouTube video streaming, and in-course web browsing. Record system audio along with narration. Generate reusable advanced action templates. Import GIF format questions to create quizzes in a jiffy.
Additional Resources
Adobe Acrobat
Acrobat is a great way to deliver content to students. While most operating systems now allow you to print to PDF, Acrobat provides additional features to make more interactive documents. Acrobat is provided to campus at no cost.
Additional Resources
- Download from Adobe Creative Suite
- Getting Started with Adobe Acrobat DC
- Help Desk Documentation
- Get Assistance
TechSmith Camtasia
Camtasia is a video creation application for creating tutorials, narrated presentations, and screencast recordings, and other multi-source recordings. While Camtasia is not an advanced video editing tool, it is not recommended for beginners to video content. Those new to Camtasia should complete the built-in tutorials, as well as the LinkedInLearning training resources.
Additional Resources
- TechSmith Camtasia Support Site
- Download Camtasia (Campus Software Library)
- Information on Campus Licensing
- LinkedInLearning Training Resources
- Instructional KnowledgeBase Resources
Google G Suite
Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. Share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. Collaborate in real-time with your team or with your whole school. You can publish final documents to the entire world, too.
Additional Resources
Kaltura MediaSpace
Kaltura (vendor and product name) MediaSpace is a media management platform that provides users with the:
- Easy upload, transcoding, and publishing
- Course and personal media galleries
- Screencasting
- Players optimized for mobile, captions, and accessibility
- Integration with Canvas.
Additional Resources
Kaltura CaptureSpace
Kaltura CaptureSpace combines painless recording, automated publishing, and interactive viewing to enable easy video capture in class, at the office, at home, or on-the-go.
- Content creators capture multi-stream recordings of up to three video inputs synchronized with a PowerPoint presentation or screen capture.
- Viewers can navigate to desired content, search through slide text, switch between video streams, and view picture in picture.
- Screen recordings,
- Screen and webcam recordings,
- Webcam recordings,
- Voice recordings, and
- Multi-source recordings.
Users are encouraged to keep recordings created with CaptureSpace short — less than 10 minutes in length.
Additional Resources
- About CaptureSpace
- Installation
- Getting Started
- CaptureSpace Settings Guide
- Screen Recordings Guide
- Screen and Webcam Recording Guide
- Webcam Recording Guide
- Voice Recording Guide
- Get Assistance
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Office is a ubiquitous application for creating course content. The Office suite includes applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All of these tools are supported by the Help Desk and campus has a site license for it.
Additional Resources
Zoom
Zoom is an enterprise cloud platform for video, voice, online meetings, screen sharing, chat, and webinars. This enterprise web conferencing and distance learning application runs across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. Zoom can be used to record stand-alone content for students as well as for recording synchronous meeting sessions for later viewing by participants and non-participants alike. Zoom is integrated with Canvas, allowing instructors and enrolled students to easily access web conferencing sessions from within their courses. It can help instructors optimize their time and engage students in new and stimulating ways. It can be used to support face-to-face, blended and online courses. Current UW–Madison instructors are using it to deliver: online lectures; guest speakers; virtual office hours; student group projects; student presentations; virtual and outside class review sessions and more.
Additional Resources
Feedback
These tools provide a means by which instructors can provide formative feedback before, during, and after online learning activities.
Canvas
Canvas is the new learning management platform for the campus. It contains a variety of robust tools ranging from communication to the online submission of course assignments. Canvas can support online, face-to-face, or hybrid course models. You can turn course tools on and off so that the tools available in your course are specifically tailored to your pedagogy and course materials.
Additional Resources
- Canvas Login
- Request Sandbox Course
- Getting Started
- Training Resources
- Frequently Asked Questions
- KnowledgeBase
- Get Assistance
Google G Suite
Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. Share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. Collaborate in real-time with your team or with your whole school. You can publish final documents to the entire world, too.DoIT Academic Technology does not provide individual consultations for these applications.
Additional Resources
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Office is a ubiquitous application for creating course content. The Office suite includes applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All of these tools are supported by the Help Desk and campus has a site license for it.
Additional Resources
Qualtrics
Qualtrics is a web-based survey service that is available for use by all UW–Madison faculty, staff, and students. The UW-Madison Qualtrics Survey Hosting Service allows the campus community to easily create surveys, collect and store data, and produce reports. Qualtrics was selected by the UW System because it combines exceptional ease of use with an advanced set of features. Some of the new capabilities include the following:
- a wizard to help build surveys, requiring no prior training
- dozens of sample surveys on various topics to customize for your own use
- integrated sending and tracking of e-mail invitations and automatically generated reminder e-mails sent through the UW–Madison WiscMail Service
- integrated graphics and statistical tools
- ability to download data into Excel or SPSS with the full syntax retained
Additional Resources
- Qualtrics Login
- Getting Started
- Qualtrics Informational Site
- KnowledgeBase
- Get Assistance
- Phone Support 1-800-340-9194
Top Hat
Top Hat is a student engagement system that allows you to ask questions, take polls, give quizzes, and receive feedback from your students during class. Top Hat is a bring-your-own-device solution, which means that students can use any web-enabled device (laptop, tablets, smartphones) to participate. Top Hat also allows for text messaging to submit answers, so students can use older cell phones, as well.
The SRS features of Top Hat are available to campus students at no cost. Be aware, however, that this access does not extend or include integrations of results into the Canvas grade book. Results of the Top Hat discussions are for the use of classroom facilitation of discussions alone and not for the formal allocation of points.
Additional Resources
Communications
These tools are helpful in the facilitation of instructor-student and/or student-student interactions within the technology-enhanced portion of your course.
Canvas
Canvas is the new learning management platform for the campus. It contains a variety of robust tools ranging from communication to the online submission of course assignments. Canvas can support online, face-to-face, or hybrid course models. You can turn course tools on and off so that the tools available in your course are specifically tailored to your pedagogy and course materials.
Additional Resources
Classlists
Classlist is an automated no-charge system that allows instructors to have email distribution lists generated based upon their course enrollment. The Classlist system is based entirely on authentication using your UW–Madison NetID and password. The Classlist system automatically updates the email distribution lists with Registrar data six times a day, seven days a week, throughout the semester. Thus, student changes, e.g. add/drop, are automatically reflected.
Additional Resources
Piazza
Piazza is an interactive, student-driven online service for managing Questions and Answers in both online and face-to-face classes. Piazza gives students a space to ask and collaboratively answer course-related questions in a timely manner.
Additional Resources
Zoom
Zoom is an enterprise cloud platform for video, voice, online meetings, screen sharing, chat, and webinars. This enterprise web conferencing and distance learning application runs across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. Zoom can be used to record stand-alone content for students as well as for recording synchronous meeting sessions for later viewing by participants and non-participants alike. Zoom is integrated with Canvas, allowing instructors and enrolled students to easily access web conferencing sessions from within their courses. It can help instructors optimize their time and engage students in new and stimulating ways. It can be used to support face-to-face, blended and online courses. Current UW–Madison instructors are using it to deliver: online lectures; guest speakers; virtual office hours; student group projects; student presentations; virtual and outside class review sessions and more.
Additional Resources
Collaboration
These tools provide a means by which instructors can provide formative feedback before, during, and after online learning activities.
Canvas
Canvas is the new learning management platform for the campus. It contains a variety of robust tools ranging from communication to the online submission of course assignments. Canvas can support online, face-to-face, or hybrid course models. You can turn course tools on and off so that the tools available in your course are specifically tailored to your pedagogy and course materials.
Additional Resources
Doodle
Doodle radically simplifies the process of scheduling events, whether they’re board or team meetings, dinners with friends, reunions, weekend trips, or anything else. UW–Madison has licensed Doodle for campus use.This smart assistant saves time for millions of people worldwide, and in the end, it brings people together.
Additional Resources
Google G Suite
Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. Share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. Collaborate in real-time with your team or with your whole school. You can publish final documents to the entire world, too.
Additional ResourcesMicrosoft Office 365
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Office is a ubiquitous application for creating course content. The Office suite includes applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All of these tools are supported by the Help Desk and campus has a site license for it.
Additional Resources
UW-Madison Box
UW–Madison Box is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration service. UW–Madison Box accounts are providing users with 50.0GB of storage. In addition to uploading and editing a variety of file types, Box also allows campus users to:
- Add collaborators to folders via their campus accounts
- Sync Box with desktop folders for one-step editing
- Include Box file links in the place of email attachments for more efficient collaboration
- Link Box accounts to third-party apps and services for easy content management
- Track account activity via notification subscriptions
- View account content and activity on mobile devices from any location.
Additional Resources
Zoom
Zoom is an enterprise cloud platform for video, voice, online meetings, screen sharing, chat, and webinars. This enterprise web conferencing and distance learning application runs across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. Zoom can be used to record stand-alone content for students as well as for recording synchronous meeting sessions for later viewing by participants and non-participants alike. Zoom is integrated with Canvas, allowing instructors and enrolled students to easily access web conferencing sessions from within their courses. It can help instructors optimize their time and engage students in new and stimulating ways. It can be used to support face-to-face, blended and online courses. Current UW–Madison instructors are using it to deliver: online lectures; guest speakers; virtual office hours; student group projects; student presentations; virtual and outside class review sessions and more.
Additional Resources
Hosting
The following are resources where you and your students can host websites, files, and videos for your course.
Web Sites
Google Sites
Google Sites can be used to create web sites for a course, organization, or personal use. A UW–Madison is available for campus users to conform to campus website standards.
Additional Resources
WiscWeb
WiscWeb (formerly “WiscWeb CMS”) is a web content management service that enables users to easily deliver an engaging online experience for students, potential students, parents, faculty, staff, and interested visitors. We provide website authoring, collaboration and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage the site’s content with relative ease. The WiscWeb service utilizes a custom campus theme (known as the <a href="https://uwtheme.wordpress.wisc.edu/">UW Theme</a>) in a content management tool known as WordPress.
Additional Resources
File Storage
These tools allow students to share files with each other on group projects outside of face-to-face class activities within a blended course.
Need | Canvas | Box | OneDrive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File Types | Any | Any, some gaps in Office file support | Any | Any |
| Capacity | 1 GB very limited capacity | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 TB |
| Ease of Use | Very Easy | Very Easy | Very Easy | Very Easy |
| Access across devices | Yes Via browser | Yes Google Drive Sync | Yes Box Sync | Yes OneDrive Sync |
| Sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Google Drive
Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. Share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and drawings. Collaborate in real-time with your team or with your whole school. You can publish final documents to the entire world, too.
Additional Resources
UW-Madison Box
UW–Madison Box is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration service. In addition to uploading and editing a variety of file types, Box also allows campus users to:
- Add collaborators to folders via their campus accounts
- Sync Box with desktop folders for one-step editing
- Include Box file links in the place of email attachments for more efficient collaboration
- Link Box accounts to third-party apps and services for easy content management
- Track account activity via notification subscriptions
- View account content and activity on mobile devices from any location.
Additional Resources
Microsoft Office 365 — OneDrive
Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration service. Office 365 users are providing users with 1 TB of storage within OneDrive. In addition to uploading and editing a variety of file types, it also allows campus users to:
- Sync your files from your PC or Mac and access them from your favorite browser or mobile device.
- Securely store and share files from anywhere. OneDrive offers native desktop, browser and mobile experiences on your devices. Access and make changes that sync automatically in the cloud or sync local copies of files for offline viewing and editing on your PC or Mac. Confidently share your files so other people can access them seamlessly and securely.
- Work faster and smarter with anyone inside or outside your organization. OneDrive enables real-time co-authoring in familiar desktop apps like Word and PowerPoint and saves you time with a single click to attach files to emails in Outlook. Use built-in search and discover tools to find the most relevant files and let others find your work.
- Stay connected with your files and folders from anywhere. OneDrive mobile apps for Android™, iOS®, and Windows present the best Office experience, beautifully rendered on your favorite devices. Access files and folders in OneDrive or in SharePoint team sites when you’re on the go.
- Set device access rules, view device reports, and wipe devices that are lost or stolen — all from the admin center. You can see which files are being shared and with whom. In-app sharing enables each employee to seamlessly share and set specific access permissions for their files, based on the organization’s settings.
Additional Resources
Video Hosting
Need | Kaltura | YouTube |
|---|---|---|
| File Types | Video, audio, images | Video |
| Capacity | Unlimited | Undisclosed by vendor |
| Ease of Use | Very Easy | Very Easy |
| Access across devices | Yes Via browser | Yes Via browser |
| Sharing | Yes | Yes |
Kaltura MediaSpace
Kaltura (vendor and product name) MediaSpace is a media management platform that provides users with the:
- Easy upload, transcoding and publishing
- Course and personal media galleries
- Screencasting
- Players optimized for mobile, captions, and accessibility
- Integration with Canvas.
Additional Resources
YouTube
YouTube is a video delivery platform that provides users with the:
- Easy upload, transcoding and publishing
- Transcription services
- Players optimized for mobile, captions, and accessibility
- Integration with Canvas.
Additional Resources
Design
Text-based Content
Google G Suite
Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. Share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and drawings. Collaborate in real-time with your team or with your whole school. You can publish final documents to the entire world, too.
Additional Resources
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Office is a ubiquitous application for creating course content. The Office suite includes applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All of these tools are supported by the Help Desk and campus has a site license for it.
Additional Resources
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a professional desktop publishing tool in which you and students can create posters, books interactive PDFs and more. Campus users may not receive any support for these tools other than directing users to existing Adobe support resources.
Additional Resources
Pressbooks
Pressbooks is software that lets you author textbooks for the web in formats like PDF, MOBI, and EPUB. It can be used to create Open Educational Resources (OER)
Additional Resources
Graphics and Illustrations
Adobe Photoshop
The world’s most advanced image editing app lets you enhance, retouch, resize, and manipulate photographs and other images in any way you can imagine. Campus users may not receive any support for these tools other than directing users to existing Adobe support resources.
Additional Resources
Adobe Illustrator
Create vector art and illustrations using advanced, precise drawing and typography tools. Work quickly and intuitively on everything from brand identities and marketing materials to graphics for the web, video, and film. Campus users may not receive any support for these tools other than directing users to existing Adobe support resources.
Additional Resources
Audio and Video Content
Adobe Premiere
Edit video faster and more fluidly with Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Brand-new features include an integrated color grading pipeline with Adobe SpeedGrade CC, expanded native format support, improved multi-cam editing, and more.
Additional Resources
TechSmith Camtasia
Camtasia is a video creation application for creating tutorials, narrated presentations, and screencast recordings, and other multi-source recordings. While Camtasia is not an advanced video editing tool, it is not recommended for beginners to video content. Those new to Camtasia should complete the built-in tutorials, as well as the LinkedInLearning training resources.
Additional Resources
- TechSmith Camtasia Support Site
- Download Camtasia (Campus Software Library)
- Information on Campus Licensing
- LinkedInLearning Training Resources
- Instructional KnowledgeBase Resources
Kaltura MediaSpace
Kaltura (vendor and product name) MediaSpace is a media management platform that provides users with the:
- Easy upload, transcoding and publishing
- Course and personal media galleries
- Screencasting
- Players optimized for mobile, captions, and accessibility
- Integration with Canvas