5. Choose the learning environments and tools based on your plan

This page introduces you to the learning environments and digital learning tools that are available at Tampere Universities. The image below illustrates the range of tools available and their role at Tampere Universities and will help you select the tool that meets your needs.

The image is interactive, so pressing the red info icons will bring up a description of the tool or category. At the bottom of the page you will find the tools listed by category, with a more detailed description and links to the tool’s instructions.

See the picture in full size

Accessible view

Selecting a Tool

Inner circle: Primarily select one of these tools because they are available to you free of charge and meet the data protection and information security requirements. These tools also have a long lifespan and will not be discontinued abruptly. To find out more about these tools, type the name of the tool in the software catalogue lock, as a search term in the search field of the intranet lock or see the tips available in the Digital Toolkit. The IT Helpdesk will provide you with user support.

Outer circle: These tools are also checked for security and data protection issues, but the use and duration of use depends on the terms and conditions of each service and the contract. Support for using the tool may also not be available. Check the software catalogue to see if the tool in question is

free of charge and free for all to use, but you have to download it to your computer from the Software centre lock
software available for a fee or on a separate request or for a limited time: follow the instructions in the software catalogue lock or contact the IT Helpdesk.
Note! Any discipline-specific tools that are not available to the wider community are also included in this circle. They are not listed in the model, but you can also find them in the software catalogue lock or by asking the IT contact person lock (university) or IT helpdesk.

External services: Before you use any external services and tools (such as social media), you must always read the terms of use. Users are responsible for adhering to the data protection and information security requirements. If you need software that is not included on this page, you can inquire about the possibility of purchasing this software by contacting the IT contact person or emailing it-helpdesk@tuni.fi. Before deciding to purchase new software, IT staff will look into data protection and information security questions and the license terms.

Tools and instructions

1. Presentations, materials, sharing information

Panopto: With Panopto, you create and publish video learning material. You can capture and edit images, audio and screenshots. You can record and edit video, audio and screenshots. You can publish a video recorded with or uploaded to Panopto (such as a Zoom recording) to the participants of a Moodle course, selected persons, users with a TUNI user account, or anyone else who receives the link.

Software catalog: Panopto lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital Toolkit
Purpose of use: videomaterials

M365: Stream: You can record and edit video, audio and the screen. You can publish a video recorded with or uploaded to Stream to a group in Teams, selected persons or users with a TUNI user account or anyone else who receives the link.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: Digital Toolkit, Microsoft: Instructions
Purpose of use: videomaterials

Moodle: H5P interactive video, material tools: With this H5P plugin, you can create interactive video content where questions, elaborating text and quizzes pop up while your students watch the video. The video will be available on your Moodle page.

If you publish material in Moodle, check out the material tools. In addition to a single file, you can create larger packages of materials, for example with the Book tool or interactive and illustrative materials with the H5P toolkit.

Software catalog: TUNI Moodle lock
Instructions: Digital Toolkit, H5P tutorials
Purpose of use: videomaterials, presentations, sharing information

Zoom, Teams: You can create video content with the videoconferencing systems by recording the “meeting”. You can record yourself giving a presentation or, for example, group discussions or interviews. You can share the video, for example, via Panopto or Stream.

Software catalog: Zoom lock, Teams lock
Instructions: Digital Toolkit
Purpose of use: videomaterials, video meetings

M365: Office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio): PowerPoint is a presentation tool that can be used to create presentations that include not only text, but also images, charts, audio, video and animations. You can also configure your presentation to automatically progress and have access to new features, such as an online subtitled presentation. When you save a presentation to OneDrive, you can edit and share it together via a link. In PowerPoint, the Recording tab allows you to record video, audio or a frame on top of a slide show and save the presentation as a video. A video made in this way can be published to viewers, e.g. in Panopto.

Visio is a tool for visualising processes. With Word word processor, you can create learning materials on your own or with others. Files created with Excel can also be shared.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital Toolkit
Purpose of use: videomaterials, presentations, sharing information

M365: Sway: A Sway is like a PowerPoint presentation but can include videos, links and images for a more visual experience. A Sway can function much like a website because you can easily share it with the viewers by providing them with the URL.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital Toolkit, Microsoft: Instructions
Purpose of use: presentation, information sharing

M365: OneDrive: OneDrive is an M365 cloud storage space where you can store your files and access them from any device. You can share files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) to be edited or viewed by others.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital toolkit, Microsoft: Instructions
Purpose of use: information sharing

Library of Open Educational Resources: In the Library of Open Educational Resources, you can search for and share open educational resources (OER) from all levels of education. The service and its OERs are available for use by teachers, learners of all ages and everyone interested in learning.

Instructions: Intra lock, aoe.fi
Purpose of use: information sharing

Funet FileSender: The Funet FileSender is an easy-to-use, browser-based file sharing service. With Funet Filesender, you can transfer and share files up to several gigabytes in size. This service is available for all university users. Funet FileSender is not intended for the permanent storage of files; all files are deleted after a predetermined period of time.

Software catalog: Funet FileSender lock
Instructions: CSC
Purpose of use: Information sharing

Read more about the services that are available upon request, are subject to a fee or must be separately installed:

Videomaterials: OBS Studio lock, Camtasia lock, Screenpal (former Screencast-O-Matic lock), Shotcut, lock YouTube lock (TAMK), Subtitle Edit lock
Audio: Audacity lock
Presentation materials: Thinglink lock, Adobe Express lock, Paint.net lock, CmapTools lock, Corel, lock TAMK: Adobe Creative Cloud lock, TAU: Adobe Creative Cloud lock

2. Learning environments and tools

TUNI Moodle: Moodle contains many tools for interaction and collaboration between course participants and small groups. The teacher of the Moodle area has to add all the tools for the students to use. Collaboration is possible with the following tools:

Assignment: a students or groups submit their finished work to the teacher for assessment.
Glossary: The group can compile a glossary of terms or concepts together.
Wiki: a page in the Moodle area where the whole group or a small group has editing rights.
Database: students can submit a file, images or their answers for others to see.
Workshop: students submit their work and it is shared for peer review with other students.
Discussion area and chat: discussions and comments on work between groups or small groups. Attaching an attachment to a message allows the work to be published for others to see.

Software catalog: TUNI Moodle lock
Instructions: TUNI Moodle instructions, Moodle.org
Purpose of use: learning environment, interaction, group work, assignments

M365: Teams: Both the teacher and students can create groups in Microsoft Teams (TUNI Groups) to create a collaborative workspace with access to the M365 tools, discussion forum and virtual meeting option. In addition to these long-term groups, the Teams chat can be used for communications purposes with the entire group or between students and to share files. When you host a virtual meeting, you can use the chat and breakout rooms to encourage interaction.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital Toolkit
Purpose of use: learning environment, interaction, group work, assignments, video meetings

M365: Outlook: With email you can reach individual students. Mailing lists can be used to provide information to students before a course begins.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions
Purpose of use: interaction

M365: OneDrive: To edit a shared file together, someone in the group creates a file (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Onenote) in OneDrive and shares it with others. The teacher can also share the file with small groups if they wish. With everyone editing the same file at the same time, the final version is always available and up to date. If there is a Teams area, the file imported there is automatically editable by team members.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital Toolkit, Microsoft: Instructions
Purpose of use: sharing of knowledge

M365: Class Notebook: The Class Notebook tool is like a OneNote notebook, with not only a shared workspace but also a dedicated content area for the teacher and a dedicated area for each student, visible only to the teacher and the student.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital Toolkit, Microsoft: instructions
Purpose of use: sharing knowledge, group work, assignments, portfolio

M365: OneNote: OneNote, an electronic notebook, allows you to organise notes thematically. In OneNote, you can organise individual pages into sections to create a table of contents that makes the pages easy to find. In addition to text, you can add images, audio and video to the pages. OneNote is also ideal for collaborative work in small groups or projects.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital Toolkit, Microsoft: instructions
Purpose of use: sharing knowledge, group work, assignments, portfolio

M365: Planner: Planner is a tool suitable for project-based work, allowing even a large group to divide and assign tasks into and monitor their completion together.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: Digital toolkit
Purpose of use: group work, projects, progress tracking

M365: Lists: Microsoft Lists helps you track information and organize work. You can start with empty list or use templates with ready made colums. You can easily share lists with others.

Software catalog: M365
Instructions: Microsoft
Purpose of use: data management, projects, progress tracking

M365: Forms: With Forms, you can create surveys that students can answer, for example on mobile devices. This allows even a large group to share their views and contribute to the discussion, even in a mass lecture. The results can be easily displayed, e.g. as a pie chart. In a Teams video meeting, you can integrate Forms generated questionnaires and word clouds into the meeting view. Forms can also be used for exams, self-study tests and quizzes where the correct answers are set by the teacher.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital toolkit, Microsoft: instruction
Purpose of use: activation, surveys, exams

M365: Whiteboard: The whiteboard is suitable for creating mind maps and sketching. The ready-made template templates make it possible to use Whiteboard for different types of group work. The Whiteboard tool can also be found inside the Teams meeting.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: Digital toolkit
Purpose of use: activation, mind mups, group work

Zoom: A real-time group meeting can be organised using Zoom. Breakout rooms, i.e. splitting the group into sub-groups, are also available. During the Zoom meeting, students can be activated, e.g. through polls. This allows even a large group to express their opinion on the issue. There is also a whiteboard tool in the meeting room where each participant can write.

Software catalog: Zoom lock
Instructions: IT instructions lock,Digital Toolkit
Purpose of use: video meetings

Flinga: Flinga is a collaborative platform that can be easily shared with participants via a link. Flinga allows even a large group to work together online without logging in. Flinga makes it possible to brainstorm and structure things, for example in the form of a mind map. In addition, Flinga offers a Wall function for collecting opinions and ideas.

Software catalog: Flinga lock
Instructions: Digital Toolkit
Purpose of use: activation, mind mups, group work

Read more about the services that are available upon request, are subject to a fee or must be separately installed:

DigiCampus Moodle, Howspace lock, TUNI Virtual Desktop

3. Assessment, feedback and demonstration of learning

TUNI Exam: Electronic exams are completed in supervised facilities on campus.

Instructions: TUNI Exam
Purpose of use: exams

TUNI Moodle: Moodle includes a number of tools for demonstrating and assessing skills. Moodle’s exam tool is suitable for exams and tests. In addition to essay answers, a variety of automatically checked exams can be created (multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, etc.). There is no control over the exam, but the opening hours, duration and performance times can be defined.

Among the Moode tools, you will find tools to return an assignment for viewing by the teacher only (assignment, exam, Turnitin) or for reading and commenting by other students (discussion, database, workshop). The Panopto block allows you to return video assignments.

Moodle stores a lot of data on students’ activities. In the report view, the teacher can see student or activity specific data. Through the progress tracking feature, the student can also view his/her progress in the course.

You can use the Quiz tool in Moodle to create exams and quizzes. Besides essay-type questions, the quizzes can include automatically marked questions (multiple choice, true/false, etc.). Students will not be supervised while completing a quiz, but you can determine how long the quiz remains available, how long it can last and how may attempts are allowed.

Software catalog: TUNI Moodle lock
Instructions: TUNI Moodle: instructions
Purpose of use: Exams, progress tracking, assignments

Turnitin (Moodle, M365): Turnitin checks the similarity of the text submitted into the service against theses, articles, books and websites in Turnitin database. Turnitin creates a report where found similarites are reported as a percentage. The similarity found and the high percentage does not necessarily mean plagiarism, because similarity is also shown with references and quotations that are completely correctly made. A low percentage should therefore not be aimed at, but the report should be interpreted carefully and similarities pointed out by Turnitin should be checked.

The Turnitin tool is integrated into Moodle and M365 and can only be accessed via these environments.

Software list: Turnitin lock
Instructions: intra lock – Purpose: scientific writing, plagiarism detection

M365: Forms: Forms is an easy to use tool for creating quizzes, assignments and feedback surveys. Besides essay-type questions, you can create, for example, multiple-choice questions. Forms is used via a browser, so you can share a link to your quiz with the respondents.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: Digital Toolkit
Purpose of use: exams, surveys

M365: Teams: There is an assignment tool that allows students to return work to the teacher for assessment in the Teams Education -type team. In addition, all areas have M365 tools to create a variety of assignments.

Software catalog: M365 lock
Instructions: IT instructions, Digital Toolkit, IT instructions
Purpose of use: assignments, exams, progress tracking

Student information systems:

Peppi/SISU: The student information systems include tools for planning and monitoring teaching and learning.

Instructions: IT instructions: TAU:Sisu lock, TAMK:Peppi lock

Course feedback system (OJP)/Norppa: Feedback survey that students fill out at the end of the course. The University’s course feedback system will be replaced in the autumn of 2023. New course feedback system is called Norppa

Instructions: IT instructions lock

Wihi: Wihi is a tool used at TAMK to guide and manage theses.

Instructions: intra lock

Read more about the services that are available upon request, are subject to a fee or must be separately installed:

Alva lock

Key questions

Before selecting a digital tool, consider the following questions:

What must students learn in your course? What type of competencies are they expected to acquire?

What methods and strategies will be used to ensure students can achieve the learning outcomes? What will students need to support their learning?

After you answer these questions, it will be easier to select a tool that will facilitate learning and support the achievement of your defined learning outcomes. The tools displayed in the above image can be divided into three categories based on their intended use.

Presentations, materials, sharing information

The tools in this category are suitable for creating, publishing and sharing video and presentation material. In addition to the standalone video meeting and video material services, you will also find a number of tools for creating video and presentation materials on M365 and Moodle.

The following questions will help you choose a tool:

What types of learning materials are needed? What types of materials will support learning?

Are there any recorded lectures available that you could use? What other existing online materials could you use?

What will be the format for creating and sharing materials? (text, video content, audio content, slides)

Who will create the materials? (teacher, students)

How will you support learning and the acquisition of knowledge, for example, by incorporating assignments and interactive activities into the materials?

Learning environments and tools

The tools in this category support teamwork and interaction during learning events. In addition to the learning environments, Moodle and Teams, several M365 tools are listed in this category to enable the group to work together and share information.

The following questions will help you choose a tool:

What tools will support your selected teaching strategies and facilitate the completion of your planned activities, such as assignments, interaction and content creation?

Where will be course “home base” be located?

How will students receive important information at the beginning of the course and instructions for completing the course? How can they access the necessary tools, content and assignments?

What content will students be able to study independently? When will they need to interact with their fellow students and receive guidance from the teacher?

How will students interact remotely? Are the tools used to facilitate interaction suitable, considering the size of the group and the learning outcomes? How will you support collaboration among students and ensure they receive peer support?

When will it be necessary to deliver teaching virtually in real time? When will it be best to use recording?

Assessment, feedback and demonstration of learning

Assessments are stored in main information systems for studying and teaching (Sisu, Peppi), but you can collect information on student performance and progress using a variety of tools. Some of them can be found within learning environments (Moodle, Teams), but also among the applications of M365.

The following questions will help you to choose a tool:

How will students be required to demonstrate their learning? What will student assessment be based on?

What assessment methods are suitable cosidering the size of your student group and the available teacher resources?

What working methods could you use to limit the amount of written assignments and ensure that students are able to broadly demonstrate their learning? Can students achieve the learning outcomes by completing assignments, attending reading circles and other learning activities?

Can you utilise peer assessments?

Can the exam be done completed remotely?

Other resources and instructions:

IT instructions: The IT Services handbook on the intranet offer you easy access to all our IT instructions.

Digital toolkit:The Digital Toolkit is a practical resource that offers you information and advice for using a variety of digital tools for teaching, learning and work-related purposes.

Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC): The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) of the Tampere Universities community is a network that brings together pedagogical expertise and the information and services needed by teachers.

Support services: Support services for developing teaching available in the Tampere higher education community

IT Services: Remember the many electronic service help channels of the IT Helpdesk.

Software catalog lock: All the available softwares are listed in software catalog

The TUNI Virtual Desktop: lock Service that allows you to use the same programmes on your own computer that you have previously used on a computer in a computer class.

Eduhouse: lockSelf-study materials and online training sessions of the Eduhouse portal are available for the staff and students of the Tampere university community.

Page updated: 5.9.2023, Questions related to tools: it-helpdesk@tuni.fi