The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning endeavors to provide Detroit Mercy faculty and students support and training in the use of a broad range of tools used in the development and pursuit of excellent online education experiences. It is impossible, however, for CETL to fully support all the software tools that could potentially be used to build and teach online courses. In an effort to provide the Detroit Mercy community with a deeper level of support, the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning maintains a list of officially supported software tools. Focusing on a core set of tools not only allows designers to build a deeper comprehension of the features of each supported tool, it reduces students’ need to learn to navigate and manage multiple tools that serve the same purpose.
Policy
Faculty developing and teaching courses that incorporate online components are strongly encouraged to use tools listed below. These tools are fully supported by the Instructional Designers who are available to train and support both faculty and students in their use. More importantly, using a predefined scope of software tools provides a better experience for students. Adhering to a specific range of tools means students need not learn to navigate multiple tools with similar functions for different courses, allowing them to focus more fully on engaging with course content and activities.
Software tools on this list may not be available on all platforms. Though designers endeavor to select software that may be used by students with a broad range of technologies, some tools are only available to users on specific platforms. For example, while the list indicates iPads are supported, parts of Blackboard (e.g., online discussion) may not be accessible on an iPad.
The list is not fixed. Designers are constantly seeking out new software tools and evaluating whether they should be included on this list. As time goes on, some tools on the list may be replaced by ones that have better features or are more user-friendly. CETL will continue to support discontinued tools for as long as possible, but faculty using discontinued tools are encouraged to move to newer tools as soon as is reasonable.
Faculty interested in using off-list software tools must contact the CETL Associate Director for Digital Education before implementing these tools in an online course environment. The CETL Associate Director for Digital Education will determine whether the tool in question should be included on the list of supported tools or suggest currently supported tool that may meet the need of the course or program. After consultation with the CETL Associate Director for Digital Education, faculty may still use an off-list tool if the faculty member feels the supported tools do not fill the course’s specific needs. In so doing, faculty take on responsibility for providing students with any necessary training and support in the use of the tool.
The purpose of this discussion is three-fold:
- First, it helps the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning be more conscious of the specific instructional technology needs of the faculty and whether faculty needs are or are not being met by the current suite of available tools.
- Second, it makes the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning aware of what non-listed tools are being used and whether by multiple faculty members. Multiple usage could effect a decision to officially support a tool.
- Third, it helps faculty become more aware of the tools already supported and the tools capabilities.
Specialized software is not included on this list. Many colleges, departments, and programs use software and tools specific to their subject area. This software is not excluded from use in online courses and need not be approved by the CETL Associate Director for Digital Education. Support for this software must be managed by the academic unit or ITS.
The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning will do its best to support faculty developing course content regardless of the tool being used. Instructional designers will continue to assist faculty with all manner of software and hardware tools used to develop online course content. Faculty should be aware that the level of support for tools not included on the official list will vary.
List of Supported Tools
Online Course Management + Delivery
Blackboard Learn
Pre-recording Video for Asynchronous Use
YuJa Media Library Software Capture
Microsoft Office 365 PowerPoint (Desktop) Record Slide Show
Microsoft Office 365 Stream Record Screen
Camtasia Studio (Windows / Mac)
Swivl Lecture Capture System
Kandao 360 camera
Flip (formerly FlipGrid) (https://flip.com)
Asynchronous Video Delivery
YuJa Media Library through Blackboard (automated captioning and embedded quizzing)
Blackboard (link to video in YuJa)
Audio Capture
Audacity
Online Testing
Blackboard (test development and delivery)
Respondus (Word-to-Blackboard test conversion)
Respondus LockDown Browser (secure online testing environment)
Respondus Monitor (secure online testing environment with video capture)
Classroom Response System ("clicker")
Top Hat Classroom
YuJa Engage (new 24-25)
Synchronous (Live) Classroom / Remote Office Hours / Online Meetings
Blackboard Collaborate
Microsoft Teams
Asynchronous Online Discussion
Blackboard discussion tool
Blackboard Messages
Microsoft Teams
No longer supported: Flip
Plagiarism Teaching / Detection
Blackboard SafeAssign
Online Assignment Collection
Blackboard assignment tool
Student / Course Blogs
Blackboard (classic) blogs tool
Online Journaling
Blackboard (classic) journals tool
Surveying
Blackboard (classic) surveys (course-limited)
Microsoft Office 365 Forms (outside of courses)
Limesurvey (outside of courses, for highly customized surveys)
Student Group Work
Blackboard groups tool
Blackboard (classic) wikis tool
Microsoft OneDrive
Microsoft Office 365 OneNote
Microsoft Teams
Student File Sharing
Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive
Microsoft Teams
Blackboard (classic) group file share
Student & Faculty ePortfolios
Blackboard Portfolio Tool
Wiki / Collaborative Authoring
Blackboard (classic) wikis tool
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Office 365 Word + OneDrive
Microsoft Office 365 OneNote
Web Browser
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Mobile OS
iOS
Android
Mobile Apps
Blackboard Student App
Blackboard Collaborate Mobile
Desktop / Laptop OS
Windows (7 and later)
Mac OSX (10.6 and later)
Document + Presentation Creation and Viewing
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Powerpoint
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Publisher
Adobe Acrobat
Off-hours Phone Contact
Google Voice
Mind-mapping / Brainstorming
WiseMapping (http://wisemapping.com/)
Image Creation & Editing
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Fireworks
Pixlr (free web based image editor)