Academic Tech Tips

Piazza is a Sakai tool that can be used as an alternative to the Sakai Forums tool to easily manage Q&A with your students. Designed to simulate a live discussion, Piazza allows students to post and respond to one another’s questions and allows instructors to answer questions, endorse student answers, and edit any content.   […]

Starting with Spring 2018 courses, the new Gradebook will replace Gradebook Classic on the course menu. Faculty still wanting to use Gradebook Classic for Spring 2018 will have to turn on the tool by navigating to Site Info, then Manage Tools. It is strongly recommended that only one Gradebook tool be available on the course […]

Panopto, Loyola’s lecture capture software, has some exciting new features. Panopto now allows users to easily upload slides to an existing session, change the thumbnail image for a session, access speech-to-text captions, and add quizzes to a session. For instructions on updating slides or thumbnail images, please click here. Automatic captions are now available to […]

On May 12th, Loyola’s learning management system will be upgrading to Sakai 11. Per this upgrade, you will discover a few changes within Sakai. Some of these changes include: A new Gradebook tool Anonymous forum discussions More customization options for lessons A new Hot Spot question type within exams We will be introducing the new […]

Panopto is Loyola University Chicago’s lecture capture software. Panopto allows users to create sessions using a combination of audio, video, slides, and screen capture. As of August 1st, all Loyola faculty, staff, and students now have access to a “My Folder” in Panopto. This will allow users to create, edit, share, and store sessions within […]

iTunes U is a section within the iTunes Music Store that allows users to upload educational audio and video files for others to download on their computers and mobile devices. This gives faculty the opportunity to create an asynchronous course for their students, allowing them to view the courses in their own time. You would […]

Panopto is a lecture capture platform used at Loyola to provide users with the ability to capture screen content, audio, and video simultaneously. Panopto can serve many purposes for instructors including allowing instructors to record their lectures in the classroom or to pre-record their lectures. Pre-recording lectures allows instructors to “flip their classroom” and use […]

PowToon is an easy to use resource that allows users to create animated videos and presentations. An instructor could use PowToon to enhance lectures or a student could use PowToon to create entertaining presentations. Creating a PowToon presentation allows the user to add visually appealing backgrounds and animations with audio and text that will keep […]

BigBlueButton is a web conferencing solution that Loyola is piloting this year. BigBlueButton allows instructors to host class sessions, meetings, or office hours online. Additionally, students are able to enter a BigBlueButton online room without their instructor. Therefore, students have the ability to utilize BigBlueButton rooms for group work at times that are convenient for […]

VoiceThread ~ Interact, Collaborate, Communicate! Looking for a way to collaborate and communicate with your students online in a fun, engaging format? Check out VoiceThread which is fully integrated with Sakai, and now offers new features including the option for assignment linking to the Sakai Gradebook. VoiceThread allows instructors to place collections of media including […]