Academic Tools & Technologies

AAC&U is the leading national association dedicated to advancing the vitality and public standing of liberal education by making quality and equity the foundations for excellence in undergraduate education in service to democracy. UND has an institutional membership to AAC&U. The organization offers a number of free resources to faculty and state at member institutions.

Blackboard is a Learning Management System that facilitates an active and engaging online education experience. Blackboard LMS supports tools that deliver new and exciting digital learning experiences to students and educators.

Blackboard Ally works seamlessly with Blackboard Learn to gauge the accessibility of your content. Ally provides guidance and tips for lasting improvements to your content accessibility. In addition to providing you with insight to your content accessibility, Ally automatically creates alternative versions of your files. This allows students to choose the type of file they want that best suits their needs. While you're in the process of improving files, students can still access alternative copies.  

Blackboard Annotate is a new tool in Blackboard Learn for inline assignment grading. Bb Annotate replaces the New Box View integration. Bb Annotate offers a more robust feature set for instructors to provide customizable feedback to students. Features include a sidebar summary view, freehand drawing tools, various color selections, and much more.

Blackboard Blogs allow students to expand upon their ideas in a format that encourages both personal expression and student interaction. Blogs are similar to journals, but also address the need to expand social learning. Created and managed by instructors, users can view and create entries and comments in blogs. You can use blogs for a graded assignment, or to gather information without assigning a grade. 

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is an all-in-one online platform that uses conference tools to connect with students face to face. Collaborate supports audio, video, and recording capabilities.

Blackboard Discussion Board - Online discussion boards provide a place for student interaction to continue after class, or to replicate the discussions that take place in the traditional classroom. The format promotes thoughtful conversation and helps to build a sense of community in online courses.

Blackboard Journals - provide a personal space for students to post their thoughts and ideas and to communicate privately with instructors. Journal assignments can range from opinions and self-reflection to more formal instructor-directed topics.

Blackboard Voicethread - is a web-based platform that enables instructors and students to upload images, video, or documents, and then record comments in audio, video, or text onto the same file. VoiceThreads can be private or shared, so users can invite others to participate and add their own commentaries.

Blackboard Wikis - Wikis (collections of information compiled by course members) provide a platform for students to share knowledge and collaborate. You can create one or more wikis for the entire class, as well as divide students into specific groups.

Digital Credentialing (Credly's Acclaim) -  Digital badges assist with promoting, tracking, and organizing achievements by capturing and communicating credentials. Credly's Acclaim provides the framework through which UND can create badges, define evidence and criteria and then issue badges/digtial credentials to the earner.  

Digital Measures - Digital Measures is the system that UND faculty use to store professional development and academic information such as teaching, scholarship/research, and service. This data only needs to be entered once and is used for multiple reports, from CVs to the October Supplement.

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education through the use of information technology. There are many valuable resources available through their website, including research, conferences/events, networking with colleagues, webinars, and initiatives.

Follett Discover is a powerful online tool that transforms the course materials discovery and adoption process for faculty and helps students obtain, organize and instantly access their required and recommended course materials from within Blackboard.

Gradescope (formerly GradeHub) is a cloud-based Blackboard add-on which works similar to Scantron that can check and grade multiple choice questions.  Additionally, Gradescope offers mass grading and report generation for its grading system. 

Infobase is an online training resource that is available to all UND students, faculty and staff, providing a robust library of eLearning content.

JAWS - Job Access With Speech, is a popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output for the most popular computer applications on your PC

MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed to and used by an international education community

Microsoft Teams can be used for chat and video collaboration. Use instant message, audio call, or video conference with instructors, classmates, club or other organization members. Use teams to coordinate messages, files, calendars, meetings, and so much more within your department, team, or group.  Microsoft Teams is part of Office 365 ProPlus and is free for UND students, faculty and staff.

The NCFDD is an independent professional development, training and mentoring community for faculty of all levels, postdocs and graduate students and is dedicated to supporting academics in making successful transitions throughout careers

The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is the leading professional organization devoted to advancing quality online learning by providing professional development, instruction, best practice publications and guidance to educators, online learning professionals and organizations around the world.

PowerPoint (adding audio) - Add audio to your presentations to enrich the online learning experience and replicate the traditional classroom lecture environment.

ProctorU is a live, online proctoring service available 24/7 that allows students to take exams from anywhere using a webcam and Internet connection.  Live proctors monitor exams by observing the student (via webcam) and his/her computer screen in real time.

Qualtrics - Qualtrics is a powerful online survey tool available to all faculty, staff and students at the University of North Dakota for academic purposes.

Read&Write -Read&Write is an easy-to-use, intuitive toolbar add-on for PCs and Macs that supports students with reading, writing, studying, and research. Read&Write seamlessly integrates with Microsoft applications, PDFs, e-mail, the Internet, and other software.

Respondus Exam Authoring Tool - Respondus is a powerful tool for creating and managing exams that can be printed to paper or published directly to Blackboard. Exams are created offline in Windows and then the software provides many time-saving tools such as equation editors, web links, and multimedia functions.

Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Blackboard. When students use Respondus LockDown Browser they are unable to print, copy, go to another URL, or access other applications. When an assessment is started, students are locked into it until they submit for grading. Compatible with Mac and Windows.

Riipen is an experiential learning platform and marketplace for project-based learning.  Riipen allows faculty to embed experiential learning into courses and provide students with experiences working as a team on real-world problems. 

SafeAssign - SafeAssign is effective as both a deterrent and an educational tool. Use SafeAssign to review assignment submissions for originality and create opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase.

Smarthinking is an online tutoring service offering support in a wide range of subjects on-demand, whenever students need help.

Starfish is a tool that provides an efficient way to quickly offer coordinated support to all students ensuring they receive the right type of assistance or intervention to keep them on track.

CourseLeaf Syllabi (SYL) makes the creation of syllabi quick and straightforward while you effectively enforce consistent and accurate institutional syllabi policies. SYL allows you to centrally archive finished syllabi for easy search and use.  

TurningPoint Polling Software - An interactive polling software, TurningPoint is the polling software standard at UND. The use of polling software alongside lectures and presentations allows for instant feedback and evaluation of students and increases the level of communication between participants.

UND has access to open educational resources which include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

VoiceThread is a web-based platform that enables instructors and students to upload images, video, or documents, and then record audio, video, or text comments onto the same file. VoiceThreads can be private or shared, so users can invite others to participate and add their own commentaries.

WCET is the leader in the policy, practice, and advocacy of technology-enhanced learning in higher education. WCET is widely recognized as one of the most informative, reliable, and forward-thinking organizations regarding the role of technology and innovation in higher education. Connect with WCET – wcet.wiche.edu.

YuJa allows instructors to record lectures for students to view any time and anywhere. Traditional students can easily review recordings, allowing for a more thorough understanding of the course material, and online students enjoy a more humanized learning experience.

Zoom is a cloud-based videoconferencing and collaboration platform. With Zoom you have the flexibility to create virtual classrooms and invite students to join from their desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Students can also share content from their devices such as PowerPoint presentations, and YouTube videos.