Selecting digital tools for teaching

Selecting a digital tool

Digital tools and environments can be utilized to support teaching and the learning process in many different ways:from fully online courses to hybrid teaching that combines in-person and remote groups, or using digital tools to support face-to-face instruction. When appropriately selected, digital tools can help illustrate and deepen understanding of the subject matter, offer flexibility in participation methods, and support both the learning process and assessment.

Start by defining the task and purpose for which the digital tool is needed.Are you using the tool solely for planning, preparing, and creating teaching materials, or do you want to build an environment that supports students’ progress and learning throughout the entire course? Are you looking for a tool to support student interaction and collaboration, assignment completion and assessment, or to make their progress in the course visible?

Also consider the following questions that affect tool selection:

- Who will use the tool? Students, the teacher, or both?
- Do all users of the tool have a TUNI account?

Available digital tools for teaching

Find a suitable tool for your intended use primarily from the Digital Tools for Teaching – Onion Model, which lists the learning environments and digital tools used within the Tampere higher education community. The interactive onion model illustrates the available tool options and their roles within the community. By clicking the info icon next to a tool’s name, you’ll find detailed information and links to instructions.

This section provides guidance on selecting tools presented in the model for various use cases. The tools are categorized according to the most frequently asked usage scenarios.

• Videos
• Materials
• Learning environments
• Assignment
• Group work and collaboration
• Exams

Videos

Subtitling videos

Choose Panopto, if…

• you want to publish the video through Panopto
• you want automatic speech recognition to produce subtitles. Panopto creates subtitles when the video is uploaded, the subtitles are immediately available and editable. However, note that speech recognition does not produce perfect text and you may have to edit and check the subtitles.

Choose Stream, if…

• you want to publish the video through Stream
• you want automatic speech recognition to produce subtitles

Choose Subtitle edit, if…

• you want automatic speech recognition to produce subtitles
• you want to adjust precisely how much and how long text is displayed on the screen at a time.
• you want to subtitle the video and publish it later in the place of your choice (Stream, Panopto, other…)
• you want to use Whisper speech recognition to produce the most accurate subtitles and you can wait a little longer for the subtitles to process.

Creating and publishing video materials

Choose Panopto, if…

• you want to link the video to your Moodle course area
• you want the viewing rights of the videos to be limited to the students of the Moodle course
• you want to publish the video to viewers by sharing a link to the recording
• you want to record camera footage and screen sharing with Panopto software (publish directly to Panopto)
• you want to edit the video by hiding parts of it from viewers. This can be done with Panopto’s editor in a web browser without a separate editing program
• you want statistics on video viewing
• you want to create quizzes/surveys (quiz) on the video

Choose PowerPoint, if…

• you want to record sound or image to your PowerPoint presentation

Choose Stream, if…

• you want to share the video in a Teams
• you want to record Teams video meetings (recording automatically to Stream service)

Choose YouTube as a publishing place, if…

• If you want to share marketing videos to an external audience

Video format assignment submission

Choose Panopto, if…

• you want students to make videos and submit them either for the teacher to view or for all the students of the course

Video meetings, streaming and hybrid teaching

Choose Teams meeting, if..

• you want a quick way to invite participants to a remote meeting or teaching event (link is automatically included in calendar invitation)
• you want to share material, use subgroups or surveys in the meeting
• there are participants outside the university community

Choose Zoom, if…

• you want to create a webinar. The Zoom webinar participant limit is standard up to 500 participants. If necessary, a temporary license for 1000 participants can be obtained through the IT Helpdesk.
• you want to create a link (permanent / changing) to a room used for remote teaching
• If you want to create meeting links in Moodle
• you want to share material, use subgroups or surveys
• there are participants outside the university community
• you are organizing an open public event. Zoom has good functionality for audience management

Materials

Creating and sharing materials

Choose PowerPoint, Word or another Office file, if…

• you want to share a single file with students
• you want to share the file via OneDrive with a link, or by uploading it to Moodle or Teams

Choose Sway, if…

• you want a visual presentation that resembles a web page
• you want the presentation to contain images or video
• you want to share the presentation via a link. You can put the link in Teams or Moodle

Choose Library of open educational resources (aoe.fi), if…

• you want a more permanent storage place for materials that many use
• you want to publish the materials openly online for others to use as well

Learning environments

Course home base

Choose Moodle, if…

• you want that the students are enrolled to the course area automatically after acceptance in Sisu/Peppi
• the tools in Moodle area essentials in course
• you want to build a study path for the students

Choose Teams, if…

• co-writing and co-producing tools are essential for the course
• you want the student group to work as a team or project group
• you want easy access to other M365 tools (OneNote, shared files, forms surveys, etc.)

Choose DigiCampus Moodle, if…

• the course is organised together with other universities
• students who do not have a user account from any university should be able to access the course (wider login options)

Choose Howspace, if…

• you need platform for organizational development process, change management or fasilitated learning process
• participation and collaboration is emphasised

Assignment

Assignment submission only to the teacher

Choose Moodle’s assignment tool, if…

• the course’s home base is Moodle
• you want the assignment to be submitted as a file only for the teacher to view and evaluate
• you want a small group to submit one common file for evaluation

Choose Teams Class workspace’s Assignment tool, if…

•  you are using Teams Class workspace
• you want the assignment to be submitted as a file for the teacher to view and evaluate
• you want to create a template document for the students to complete

Peer feedback and assessment

Choose Moodle’s discussion area, if…

• you are using Moodle in course
• you want the assignment to be submitted for other students to view and comment on as an attachment to a message.
• you want the submissions to be visible to all students (immediately or after their own submission)

Choose TUNI Moodle’s Workshop tool, if…

• you want the students’ assignment submissions to be distributed to other students for evaluation through your defined automatic distribution.
• you want the submission to be seen only by the students selected as evaluators.

Choose Teams files, OneNote or Class notebook, if…

• you want students to share material for the whole group to view and edit
• the course’s home base is Teams area

Group work and collaboration

Working with shared documents

Choose OneNote, if…

• you want to create a folder-structured document that everyone can add sections and pages to

Choose ClassNotebook, if..

•  you want the folder-structured document to contain sections that students cannot edit, co-writing sections and a section for each student that only they can see

Choose OneDrive shared file, if…

•    you want the shared document to Word, Excel or PowerPoint

Choose Sway, if…

• you want shared document to be a visual, web page-like presentation
• you want the presentation to include images or video

Whiteboard tools, concept maps and brainstorming

Choose M365 Whiteboard, if…

• you need a tool for brainstorming or co-creation
• all the participants have TUNI account
• the work takes place in a Teams meeting. In this case, users outside your organisation can also access the whiteboard during that Teams meeting.
• you want to use templates (brainstorming, storyboard…)
• you want easy way to gather thought and ideas in event

Choose Zoom Whiteboard, if…

•  you need a tool for brainstorming or co-creation
• all the participants doesn’t have TUNI account.
• you want to use templates (brainstorming, storyboard…)

Exams

Home exams and tests

Choose M365 Forms, if…

• students take the exam at different times
• there are large numbers of respondents, simultaneous exam or short response time
• the same questions are given to all respondents
• you want an easy-to-use form for open answers or automatically graded multiple choice exam
• students can take the exam without supervision

Choose Tuni Moodle’s exam tool, if…

• you want that exam is available within certain time period (not at the same time)
• you want the questions to be drawn from the question bank for each examinee
• students can take the exam without supervision