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Technology Tools

Overview

The technology tools on this page can be used by Hunter faculty in their teaching. Faculty can learn more about these tools through the links below and by attending ACERT lunchtime seminars, technology workshops, or EdTech consultations. For recommendations regarding what tools to use to meet instructional purposes, please see Instructional Needs and Tools to Consider. A list of CUNY tools and their capabilities can be found at CUNY Cloud Systems’ Feature Guide for Faculty.

Maintaining Student Privacy in Distance Education
Keep in mind FERPA regulations in an online teaching environment, where personally identifiable information must be protected. With email and all online communications, it is important to evaluate the risk associated with sending student information and recognizing if it is personally identifiable information. Evaluating online educational services also requires sensitivity to privacy issues. See a recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Education and the many other resources that it points to at U.S. Department of Education Guide to Student Privacy in Distance Education.

Tools

Blackboard is a learning management system that can be used to structure course content and communicate with students. Course shells are created for every course listed on CUNYFirst, but instructors need to make a course available to students if they intend to use it. Hunter College professors can receive training and support from the Technology Resource Center by contacting training@hunter.cuny.edu.

Blackboard support documents & videos for faculty
Blackboard support documents & videos for students

Workshop recordings

Intro to Blackboard
Intermediate Blackboard
Assessments
Grade Center
Blackboard Tips & Tricks
Blackboard for Students

Blackboard Collaborate is the synchronous tool in Blackboard. Every course shell has a course room that professors can use to hold real-time class sessions. Collaborate has interaction tools such as text chat, screen sharing, polling, and whiteboards. Professors can also record lectures or virtual class sessions and make them available to students. Hunter College professors can receive training and support from the Technology Resource Center by contacting training@hunter.cuny.edu.

Collaborate help pages & videos for faculty
Collaborate help pages & videos for students

Workshop recording

Blackboard Collaborate

Camtasia is a tool to create instructional videos with interactivity. It allows instructors to create, edit, and share videos. To request a license and receive download instructions, please email Noeli Rosario-Sanchez at nrosa@hunter.cuny.edu.

CUNY Camtasia training & resources

Dropbox can be used to store and access files from different devices, share files, and collaborate on content. Active faculty and students can access CUNY Dropbox accounts by logging in through https://dropbox.cuny.edu with their @login.cuny.edu credentials.

CUNY Dropbox training & resources

ACERT Tech Tuesday presentation

Dropbox for the win! (Julie Van Peteghem)

Gradescope is an artificial-intelligence-assisted grading tool for worksheets, quizzes and computer code. Hunter College professors can start using Gradescope by

Going to GradeScope.com and creating an instructor account using their Hunter email addresses.
Choosing “Hunter College” for “School.”
Entering “Hunter” in “invite code.”
Uploading a class roster as CSV file (first name, last name, email). (Consider using WebRoster.)
Notifying students to go to a link to GradeScope that the professor sends them and setting a password. (Students do not need to create new accounts.)

Gradescope resources & training

ACERT blog post

Using Gradescope at Hunter (Katherine St. John)

ACERT lunchtime seminar

Assessment with Gradescope (Partha Deb)

Hypothesis is a social annotation tool recently integrated into Blackboard. Professors can create asynchronous discussion and annotation assignments around webpages and PDF documents.

Hypothesis help & resources

Workshop Resources & Recordings

Hypothesis Advanced Features workshop recording
Starter Assignments

ACERT Tech Tuesday presentation

Better Reading and Writing through Annotating: hypothes.is in the composition classroom (Jeff Allred & Renee Schaller)

The Microsoft Office 365 for Education suite includes standard tools such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as Forms (for surveys and quizzes), Sway (for webpages and presentations), OneDrive (for cloud storage), and Stream (for videos). It also includes the video discussion tool Flip. Active faculty at CUNY can access it by logging in at https://login.microsoftonline.com/?whr=login.cuny.edu using their @login.cuny.edu credentials. Instructors should read the Acceptable Use of Microsoft 365 for Education Policy before using it.

CUNY Office 365 information & resources

Padlet is a tool for sharing, collaborating, and posting notes. It allows professors to create digital boards (called “walls”) to gather text notes, images, websites and videos. Professors create walls and share them with students through a link. Hunter professors who want pro accounts can request one by writing to helpdesk@hunter.cuny.edu from their Hunter email addresses.

Padlet help & resources

ACERT Tech Tuesday presentation

Padlet Power! (Laura Baecher)

SnagIt is a simple tool to create, edit and share screen captures and recordings. To request a license and receive download instructions, please email Noeli Rosario-Sanchez at nrosa@hunter.cuny.edu.

SnagIt help & Resources

If your curriculum requires the use of any speciality software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite, SPSS, ArcGIS, streaming services), please communicate with your dean. Some of these offerings are available through CUNY Virtual Desktop.

We will do our best to accommodate faculty requests and will address them on a case-by-case basis.

Top Hat is a courseware platform with tools for compiling student responses, giving interactive quizzes and collecting homework assignments. Professors can use it to create slides, author textbooks and customize content of textbooks in Top Hat’s catalog. At the moment, Top Hat is not connected to Blackboard or any CUNY system. Hunter students purchase licenses at the Hunter bookstore or the Top Hat website at a discounted price.

Top Hat Knowledge Base
Top Hat catalog

VoiceThread is a presentation and discussion tool integrated into Blackboard. VoiceThread allows instructors to record mini-lectures and create asynchronous conversations around course content. VoiceThread can also be used for students to create presentations.

VoiceThread help & resources

Workshop Resources & Recordings

Humanizing your Online Courses with VoiceThread
Game-Based Learning with VoiceThread
VoiceThread for Assessments
VoiceThread Assignments: Watch, Comment, Create
Be Ready for Mother Nature with VoiceThread
VoiceThread for STEM Courses
VoiceThread for Language Courses
VoiceThread & UDL (Universal Design for Learning)
The Cure for Discussion Board Fatigue
Group Projects in VoiceThread

Zoom is a video-conferencing tool that can be used for synchronous online classes and office hours. Zoom has interaction tools such as breakout rooms, screen sharing, polling, and whiteboards. It also has accessibility features such as live transcript generation and audio transcript editing in recordings. Faculty can use CUNY Zoom accounts by logging in through https://cuny.zoom.us with their @login.cuny.edu credentials.

Zoom help & resources
Hunter College Zoom Virtual Backgrounds (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5)
CUNY Zoom
Meetings Best Practices
Webinars Best Practices

ACERT Tech Tuesday presentation

Superquick Presentation Recording using Zoom! (Laura Baecher)