Teaching needs and digital tools
What digital platforms does Aalto University use to facilitate teaching and learning?
The two digital platforms that every teacher needs to operate with are the student information system Sisu and the digital learning environment MyCourses.
In addition to Sisu and MyCourses, there are other recommended digital platforms to facilitate teachers' contact and online teaching tasks. You can find the most common cases below, accompanied by links to instructions, and contact details for support staff.
We highly recommend favouring the use of the digital tools supported by Aalto University. Then you are assured that the data security of the software has been checked and is maintained, and that support is available to answer questions that may arise regarding its use.
Most common teaching needs and recommended digital platforms
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registering students to the course | Confirm students in courses in Sisu. | sisu@aalto.fi | ||
| Reviewing student activity and participant list | In MyCourses, you can see all course participants and their course activity in the participants list. | or Book a session with a specialist | ||
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Restricting work space access and visibility. By default, MyCourses workspaces 1.9.2024 onwards are closed from guest users (i.e., to non-logged-in users). |
You can (course space) É«É«À²/Haka-logged-in users only. You can restrict access and make it inaccessible to all but your own course students |
or Book a session with a specialist | ||
| Creating different language versions of a course |
You can write your MyCourses pages, activities and other content in multiple languages You can restrict the visibility of activities and language versions for a student based on the student’s own language choices. |
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or Book a session with a specialist |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Providing information or share news with all course participants, e.g. about the languages used in a course. |
Share your messages via MyCourses, use . Create a MS Teams channel for your course |
Announcements and discussion forums - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki |
or Book a session with a specialist Service Desk - for MS Teams |
|
| Communicating with individual students, small groups or different language groups |
Communicate via MyCourses, Create private subchannels for group work on MS Teams |
or Book a session with a specialist Service Desk - for MS Teams |
||
| Facilitating chat discussions |
Create a group chat using Zulip MS Teams can also be used for group chatting. |
Service Desk - for MS Teams |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preparing learning materials | Create presentations, visuals, texts etc. | Microsoft Office 365 Services | Aalto University | IT Help | Aalto University | |
| Create translations and captions for course materials. | Based on the format (e.g., Panopto-video, PowerPoint, Word) choose a translation tool. Use AI (artificial intelligence) to create language versions of your course content, presentations and videos. |
AI supported translation tools used in Aalto | Aalto University |
For Panopto: For Microsoft Office and AI assistant: IT services | Aalto University |
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| Recording lectures | Simply record Zoom or Teams online sessions, for pre-recorded lectures videos and more advanced features and all sharing needs use Panopto media service. |
For Panopto: For Teams and Zoom: IT services | Aalto University |
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| Sharing learning materials |
(files, videos, links, etc.) on MyCourses. Be aware of . |
or Book a session with a specialist | ||
| Control the visibility of the course materials. | Notice that all logged in users can access files the teacher uploads. To restrict access, check . | or Book a session with a specialist |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managing assignments and submissions | for individual or . | or Book a session with a specialist | ||
| Completion progress tracking | You can enable in MyCourses activities. | or Book a session with a specialist | ||
| Facilitating group assignments |
. |
or Book a session with a specialist | ||
| Create different language versions of the same activity. | Write activity instructions and allow students to submit in different languages. |
For translations, you may use the AI supported translation tools used in Aalto. |
or Book a session with a specialist |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online lecturing |
Share links, schedule lectures and organise online lectures via MyCourses. Enable language simultanious translations or captions with PowerPoint Live (see AI supported tools). |
You can operate Zoom and Teams via MyCourses as an activity. Power Point Live |
Zoom Quick Guide | Aalto University AI-supported tools for lectures and meetings | Aalto University |
For Zoom and Teams: For MyCourses: |
| Student activation | Use Presemo before, during or after a teaching session to collect student questions, comments and feedback, or to organise a poll. | Presemo: a tool for instant feedback during a lecture or online session. | New rooms can be created here: |
presemo@aalto.fi |
| Collaborative ideation or mind-mapping | Use , a digital whiteboard for collaboration | |||
| Q&A, small group communication | Create a Q&A channel or small group chats using or MyCourses Forum. |
for Q&A and small group chats. (Supports math equations) |
For Zulip: For MyCourses: |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment and feedback | Choose assessment methods based on your course needs. | On MyCourses there are variety of assessment and feedback options, from peer assessment to automated assessment. |
Digital learning assessment and online examination | Aalto University |
or Book a session with a specialist |
| Originality checking and feedback | Assign and instruct students in the use of Turnitin, for ‘originality checking’ and giving feedback. | In Aalto University, Turnitin is operated and managed as a MyCourses assignment or activity. |
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| Organizing online examination and quizzes |
1) Organize remote exams via MyCourses. The most typical activities used for the exam are and . or 2) Use the system, an electronic exam service at the campus. |
1) MyCourses or 2) , an electronic exam service at the campus. |
Digital learning assessment and online examination | Aalto University |
|
| Mid-course feedback | Collect feedback during the course to check students' perceptions of the course and the ways in which they understand the content. |
The course feedback system that is used through MyCourses enables feedback to be collected during the course. Zoom poll or Presemo. |
Main page for instructions of course feedback tool | Aalto University Presemo: a fully web-based classroom participation system | Aalto University |
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| Generic automated feedback at the end of the course | In the course feedback system, the teacher can create their own questions, make their own question libraries and respond to students' feedback. | MyCourses | Main page for instructions of course feedback tool | Aalto University | coursefeedback@aalto.fi |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Export grades from MyCourses | Teacher exports grades from MyCourses to Sisu. | or Book a session with a specialist | ||
| Final assessment and saving assessments in Sisu |
1) The teacher saves the final assessments in Sisu. 2) The responsible teacher* must confirm the assessments in Sisu. 3) The teacher informs the students. |
Assessment of course implementations in Sisu – Quick guide | sisu@aalto.fi |
*The responsible teacher is indicated in Sisu.
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process a study plan in Sisu |
Communication on a study plan. Processing study plan approval applications (varies by school). |
sisu@aalto.fi | ||
|
Thesis supervision -to receive and comment thesis -receiving Turnitin similarity reports |
or Book a session with a specialist | |||
| Master's thesis process management | Approve master's theses for supervision, and access the submitted thesis and save its evaluation. | Master's thesis management on the Service Platform | mystudies@aalto.fi | |
| Coordinate and manage student meetings |
Find your academic advisees and thesis advisees on Student Success Hub. Set available time slots so that the student can schedule appointments with you. Write notes after the meeting. Send a pre-task or other task to the student. View statistics and reports on your meetings. |
Student Success Hub instructions | mystudies@aalto.fi |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organising a course in a digital course space with open access or controlled enrolment, also participants without Aalto- or HAKA.id |
Fill in a form for an Aalto OpenLearning workspace. or request a consultation with a digipeda specialist |
Aalto OpenLearning introduction Interface: |
and
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