Overview of Tools for Learning and Teaching

A reference overview of the technology available to support learning and teaching at Bowdoin. Describes Canvas as the central learning management system in a hub-and-spoke model and lists the most widely used tools organized by common purpose, such as assessment, discussion, collaboration, video creation, and web conferencing. Applies to Bowdoin faculty, students, and staff.

Questions

• What software and tools does Bowdoin provide for learning and teaching?
• What technology is available to support my courses?
• Which tools can I use for assessment, discussion, or document collaboration?
• What video creation and web conferencing tools are available for classes?
• Where can I find a list of academic technology tools organized by purpose?
• Who do I contact about specialized or discipline-specific software?

Environment

This article applies to Bowdoin faculty, students, and staff. Because of the large number of specialized tools, this overview covers only the most widely used and adopted tools across the College. For discipline-specific or faculty-specific tools, contact your Academic Technology and Consulting (ATC) Liaison.

Resolution

The Technology Landscape

The center of Bowdoin's academic tools and resources is Canvas, the College's learning management system (LMS). It provides the core resources, which are supplemented with other tools in a hub-and-spoke model.

• Canvas provides material distribution tools (syllabus, modules, reading links), conversation tools (blogs, wikis, journals), assessment tools (assignments, quizzes, exams), and course maintenance tools (gradebook, attendance).
• Microsoft Teams and Zoom provide synchronous course meetings as well as recording and closed captioning. These are supplemented with Panopto for video distribution and asynchronous recording of lecture material with Panopto or QuickTime. Teams and Zoom also provide tools for use during a synchronous session, such as whiteboards and breakout rooms.
• For collaborative documents, the Microsoft Office suite and Google Docs are available.
• For specialized needs, Jupyter (Python and R), the Adobe CS Suite, ESRI ArcGIS, and a number of other software titles are provided. More details are listed below.

Tools and Resources by Common Use

Accessible Course Materials

• Blackboard Ally
• Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint accessibility checker
• Acrobat Writer

Assessment

• Canvas Assignments tool
• Canvas Quizzes and Exam tool
• Canvas Gradebook

Annotation

• Adobe Acrobat - PDF markup and annotation
• Hypothesis - social annotations

Communication

• Canvas Announcements tool
• Canvas Inbox/Email tool
• Class email lists
• Microsoft Teams

Course Management

• Canvas Learning Management System (LMS)
• Microsoft Bookings - for office hours
• Panopto - create video playlists and video drop-boxes
• LinkedIn Learning - supplemental materials

Discussion

• Canvas Discussion Boards
• Microsoft Teams Chat
• Zoom Breakout Rooms
• Zoom Chat
• FlipGrid
• WordPress

Document Collaboration

• Microsoft OneDrive - sharing documents and files
• Microsoft Teams - general collaboration and communication
• Office 365 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - live collaboration on documents

General Software

• Microsoft Office Suite - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
• Adobe CS Suite - Photoshop, Acrobat, Spark, Premiere, Audition

Mapping / GIS

• ESRI ArcGIS (via AWS Workspace if on macOS)
• ArcGIS Online

Peer Review

• Canvas Discussion Boards
• Microsoft Word - using track changes and comments

Podcasting

• Adobe Audition
• Audacity - recording and editing sound files

Polling / Student Response

• Zoom Polling
• Poll Everywhere (limited availability)
• Microsoft Forms
• Qualtrics

Reference Management

• EndNote
• Zotero

Statistics and Mathematics

• Jupyter / JupyterHub - interactive Python and R notebooks
• RStudio Server - R
• SPSS (via AWS Workspace if on macOS)
• Mathematica
• MATLAB (via AWS Workspace if on macOS)

Video Creation / Production

• Panopto - screen capture, creating asynchronous video, editing, adding quizzes
• QuickTime - screen capture, creating asynchronous video
• Adobe Premiere and Premiere Rush - video production and editing
• iMovie - video production and editing
• Final Cut - video production and editing (limited off-campus availability)
• Microsoft Stream - video storage and distribution

Web Conferencing / Meetings

• Zoom
• Microsoft Teams

Websites

• WordPress
• Adobe Spark
• Spark Page (mobile app)
• ArcGIS Story Maps

Whiteboards / Brainstorming

• Zoom Whiteboard
• Microsoft Whiteboard

Wikis, Journals, and Blogs

• Canvas Learning Management System
• WordPress

Additional Help

If you need further assistance, you have several options:

• Bowdoin Bot: Chat with Bowdoin Bot directly from any KB page for instant answers.
• Phone: Call the Bowdoin College Service Desk at (207) 725-3030.
• In person: Visit the Tech Hub in Smith Union during business hours.
• Submit a ticket: Request assistance through the Service Catalog.