NAU-supported faculty tools

Learning management system

Blackboard Learn (Bb Learn): Northern Arizona University’s learning management system. The university provides a Bb Learn course shell for every course taught, including in-person, hybrid, and online courses. Instructors are not required to use the shells for in-person courses, but many instructors find the shells a useful way to distribute course materials even for face-to-face teaching.

LOUIE: the Lumberjack Online University Information Environment, LOUIE is the PeopleSoft student information system, where official grades, course rosters, and more are stored and maintained.

Pearson MyLabsPlus: A learning management system used for MAT-100, MAT-108, and MAT-125, as well as for Math Placement testing. The Math Peak Performance program also uses MyLabsPlus.

Communication and web conferencing tools

Blackboard Collaborate and Collaborate Ultra: NAU’s live web conferencing tools. You can use Collaborate from inside your Blackboard class for live activities, or access it directly as a stand-alone tool. It is best used when everyone participating in a live conference is at a distance, with access to their own computer, a good internet connection and, ideally, a USB headset with a microphone. Instructional Design & Support staff can support your use of this tool remotely by joining your live session.

Classlist mailing list: This is provided to all instructors as a way to email all students enrolled in your course. You might use this tool to contact students before a class begins to inform them of textbook requirements, email/attach the course syllabus, or inform them of late-breaking schedule changes, etc. If you create a welcome message and select “save and send,” the welcome message will be sent to all current students as well as any who subsequently add the class at a later date.

Class roster request form: This allows an instructor to enter term and class number and retrieve class roster, including students’ email addresses, major, and academic level. The roster can be retrieved on a web page, via email, or as an RTF file.

NAU email (faculty and staff): web access to NAU’s faculty and staff email service.

NAU G-Suite (Gmail and Google apps): This includes NAU Gmail (student email) and other Google apps including Drive, Docs, Sites and Groups. Faculty and staff may request a Google apps account here.

Zoom video conferencing: Zoom Pro accounts need to be requested from the Solution Center. Zoom is an additional web conferencing tool that provides screen sharing, video conferencing, and related online conferencing functionality. This tool is fully functional on all platforms and will soon be available to all members of the NAU community free of charge.

Grade and early warning tools

Blackboard Learn Retention Center: A built-in early warning system. Instructors may set up “rules” in Blackboard to indicate at-risk behaviors and grades. Instructors may email students directly from Blackboard.

Faculty2Student (F2S) outreach tool: This provides an automated method for communicating with students. The positive or concerning feedback you provide to the student will help them understand where they stand and what actions they should take.

Grade upload to LOUIE: this walkthrough guides instructors through uploading final letter grades from Bb Learn to LOUIE.

NAUPass attendance manager: Helps instructors track attendance in face-to-face courses. Some NAU classrooms are equipped with attendance readers. Students “swipe in” with their NAU ID card, which records their attendance.

Testing and academic integrity

Academic Integrity @ NAU online course: In this self-paced tutorial, presented as a stand-alone Bb Learn course, students will check their understanding of what it means to plagiarize or cheat, often discovering they knew less about this subject than they thought. All students are auto-enrolled in the student-facing shell on an ongoing basis.

Honorlock: An online AI-enabled proctoring service that prompts an observer to drop in upon questionable activities by the student. This service can be set up in Bb Learn while creating a test. This service requires students to use Chrome and have Honorlock’s extension already downloaded.

ProctorU: This service provides a live observer for the full duration of the exam. Use of ProctorU is reserved for specialized cases, such as exams that are prescribed by an accrediting body to be live-monitored 100% of the time. Click here to request this service.

SafeAssign: This is an anti-plagiarism tool that searches its own archives, paper mills, and the web to generate “originality reports” on students’ papers. Take informative (proactive) rather than punitive (reactive) measures to educate students about unintentional plagiarism and proper citation.

Tutoring and learning resources for students

Tutoring: A variety of tutoring services are available to students, all free of charge. Services include one-on-one tutoring, online tutoring, the University Writing Commons, and English language support.

University Writing Commons: The University Writing Commons works with students at any stage of the writing process. They are located in three different sites for easy access to writing support, the Health and Learning Center, Inclusion and Multicultural Services, and the Cline Library.

Accessibility

Alternative testing: Disability Resources administers academic tests, quizzes, and exams that require the accommodation of extended time, a distraction-reduced environment, adaptive equipment, readers, scribes and/or an alternative test format, and other assistance.

Assistive technology: Available from Cline Library, this technology gives blind or visually impaired students better access to library materials. The new technology includes Top-Braille, SmartView Versa+, and Tiger Embosser.

Blackboard Ally: Ally seamlessly integrates with Bb Learn and automatically generates alternative accessible formats, provides instructor feedback, and generates an institutional accessibility report.

Customizing Bb Learn assessments: Bb Learn assessments may be customized to accommodate students. The user has the ability to add test availability exceptions, which allows the selection of one or more groups of students and can make a number of exceptions to the already established test settings. Instructors may use these exceptions to provide accommodation to a disabled student. These settings can be changed at any time; if conflicts in rules occur, the most permissive settings for that user or group of users is granted. For example, students would receive the greatest number of attempts, longest availability time, and so on.

Usable Materials Center: The Center assists in making print material and video content accessible for all users. Some examples of this include making sure a PDF document is properly tagged and formatted so that it is readable by an individual who is blind or visually impaired and using a screen reader, and adding closed captions to video content to make it accessible for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Media and interactive learning tools

iClickers: Also known as “audience response systems,” clickers can be used to gather attendance and do live polling of students. Designed for large face-to-face classes, they help instructors gather feedback and keep students engaged. In clicker courses, students each have their own clicker.

Top Hat: This is a cloud-based platform alternative to hardware clicker solutions. Instructors can use various question types to engage their classroom, create assignments on the fly, and securely administer quizzes and tests. Instructors can also adopt and author next-generation interactive textbooks. To get started, please contact NAU’s Account Executive, Luke O’Connor. 

Kaltura: Instructors can record narrated slideshows, screencast presentations, mini-lectures, and brief video announcements to include in Bb Learn. Such media establishes an interpersonal connection, particularly in online classes, and reduces static text-heavy content, replacing it with dynamic media content.

Policies, academic calendars, etc.

Faculty handbook: the Office of the Provost is responsible for the faculty handbook.

Student handbook: the NAU student handbook includes policies and guidelines for student conduct.

Syllabus requirements: this includes Safe Environment, Students with Disabilities, Academic Contact, Academic Integrity, Research Integrity, Sensitive Course Materials, and Classroom Disruption Policies.

Term dates, deadlines, and grading schedules

Faculty services

Cline Library: research help, special collections, document delivery services, loan services (including laptops and equipment), course reserves, and more.

CoursEvals evaluation tool: Online course evaluations for most courses; also accessible from within Bb Learn.

Faculty Activity and Achievement Reporting (FAAR): facilitates the evaluation process and allows faculty to report accomplishments for departments, colleges, and the university.

Faculty Professional Development Program: organizes and conducts offerings aimed at engaging faculty in focused conversations about designing teaching and learning experiences to contribute to a “teaching commons” at Northern Arizona University.

Office of Curriculum and Assessment: This office collaborates with faculty to advance intentional curriculum, strategic learning design, and meaningful assessment. The office provides tailored consultations, assistance, and support for the enrichment of student learning and academic excellence at Northern Arizona University.

Quality Matters: QM promotes a continuous improvement model supported by a database of professionally trained, community-based QM peer reviewers eligible for assignment to peer review teams. Courses that successfully meet the QM rubric standards in an official course review are eligible to carry the QM certification mark.

Technology help

Classroom support: ITS classroom support assists faculty with in-classroom technologies, including projectors and classroom computers.

Faculty help desk: dedicated faculty support for Bb Learn, Kaltura, Collaborate, and other learning tools.

ITS Solution Center (faculty and staff support): the central point of contact for NAU faculty, staff and affiliates requiring technical assistance and support with NAU software, hardware, networking, and telephones.

ITS Student Technology Center (student support): technical help for students for passwords, Bb Learn, Gmail accounts, and more.

ServiceNow incident management system: request services, report problems, and track your own service incidents with ITS, Telecomm, and Instructional Design & Support.

ServiceNow Knowledge Base: articles, FAQs and walkthroughs on a variety of NAU technologies, from Blackboard to Zoom.

Tutorials (Bb Learn): on-demand video tutorials for instructors for a variety of Blackboard Learn tools and procedures.

Tutorials (Udemy): technology tutorials on a wide range of topics, from programming to photography.