Educational Technology Tools
Educational Technology Tools
Embedded Files
Core Tools
Core Tools
The page provides information about UAA Core Tools. Core Tools are technology tools for teaching, learning, and productivity which are supported by the UAA Technical Support Center (907-786-4646), and can be used by all UAA faculty, staff, and students at no cost. See also, Faculty Success Learning Technologies.
Spotlight on Tools
Spotlight on Tools
Honorlock: UAA uses Honorlock for remote proctoring. Faculty must register each semester to use Honorlock. If you have any questions about remote proctoring or need help with Honorlock, email uaa_design@alaska.edu.
AI assistants: Google Gemini and Microsoft Co-Pilot are recommended for UAA faculty and students because they do not use or share our data if we log in with our UAA credentials. More information on AI tools below...
Foxit: Foxit PDF Editor is a handy tool! It can be used to make PDF files more accessible (check/fix accessibility errors and convert scanned PDFs to text), export PDF files to MS Word for editing, combine a variety of files into one file, and more. Be sure you are using the newest version from the Software Center (type "Software Center" in your computer's search bar). Call IT for help. PDF files are the most common problem in Blackboard courses. Watch this video to see how to improve PDF files using Foxit PDF Editor.
Blackboard Learn is UAA's Learning Management System
Blackboard Learn is UAA's Learning Management System
All UAA courses will be in Blackboard Ultra in Fall 2026. All Blackboard Original Courses will become read-only in January 2027.
UAA Blackboard Ultra Video Playlist (YouTube) and Blackboard Ultra Videos for Faculty (Kaltura)
Gradebook Setup (COH Video)
New Blackboard Ultra Instructor Help (note: redirects from the old Blackboard help page don't work well)
Reminder about Blackboard notifications: Instructors and students individually choose which notifications they want to receive about activity in their Blackboard courses.
Blackboard Ultra New Semester Setup
Blackboard Ultra New Semester Setup
When you enter your Spring/Summer 2026 courses in Blackboard for the first time, you'll see a pop-up prompting you to try the Ultra Course View. Click “Try the Ultra Course View” on the pop-up. If you don’t see the prompt, make sure your course is closed to students, then click the pencil icon to reopen the pop-up to choose Ultra. You will need to confirm your choice before you can open the course to students.
[Remember to set up the Overall Grade before you open the course to students. Faculty can use points or weighted categories to calculate the students’ overall grade. From the overall grade calculation details page, the default setting "Calculate grades based on points earned out of total graded points" is recommended.]
Points: From the Overall Grade page be sure that points is selected at the top. Change the “select how the overall grade is displayed” to points. Click Save.
Weighted: Click the Gradebook Settings and scroll down to the Grade Categories. Add a New Category for any “custom” categories you need. It is easiest to use existing categories when possible because Blackboard will automatically assign the category, saving you time.
Go to Manage gradebook items (in the Gradebook Settings)
Assign each assessment to the correct category (you could also do this one at a time from the gradebook, but here you can check multiple items and edit the category for them all at once)
Close Item Management
Go to Manage overall grade settings (in the Gradebook Settings)
“Exclude” categories you aren’t using (they should have 0 items) by clicking the null symbol
Enter percentages for each category by entering the number and locking the percentage in (Blackboard forces you to make it equal 100%)
Choose if you want items within a category to count equally or proportionally
Change “select how the overall grade is displayed” to percentage. Click Save.
Tips for Blackboard Ultra Navigation
Tips for Blackboard Ultra Navigation
Finding Courses: See if you prefer list or grid view. Use search to find your most used courses and add a star to bring it to the top of the list making it easier to find next time. Lost a course? Click the dropdown next to “Filter” to see if you have hidden courses. (Click the three dots to show the course again.)
Adjusting Notifications: Either from your profile (name) or Activity Stream (click the settings wheel) you can customize what notifications you receive by email, etc. Inform your students to set their notification preferences, too.
Institution Page: Includes announcements and quick links for Students and Faculty customized for UAA
Students have access to several tools which combine information from all their courses
Activity Stream allows students to see what's due and what needs their attention in their courses.
Calendar displays events and dates from all courses in one location. (Be sure to enter dates in the official “due date” field in all Blackboard assessments so they show up here.)
Messages is an alternative to using email for communicating with your students. In order to not miss messages from students, look for a number icon next to messages when you first log into Blackboard, before you go into a course.
Grades is populated with information from all courses that students are enrolled in. Students see a list of recent grades and their overall grade for each course. Faculty see a summary for each course.
UAA Blackboard Help Request
Submit a ticket with UAA IT by following these stepsUAA Blackboard Help Request
Go to the UAA Service Portal
Click the green button to Request Support or Service
Click Services by Category > Educational Technology > Learning Management System
Click the green button to Request Support and fill in the form
Student Engagement Tools
Student Engagement Tools
When looking for tools for student engagement, start with core UAA tools then expand to tools (like Padlet) that allow you to log in with your "edu" account via a Google or Microsoft login. Here are a few specific tools and ideas to engage students in your course.
Zoom Participant Engagement Features include polls and quizzes and whiteboards
Blackboard Ultra Knowledge Checks (ungraded) are created within Documents
Kaltura Quiz Example: Video Quiz in Kaltura and Guide to Video Quizzes in Kaltura
Teaching Tools: Activities (techniques)
Log in with UAA credentials for added security!
Google Gemini and NotebookLM (Included in Google Workspace for Education)
Otter.ai is prohibited!
Zoom
Zoom
Online Meetings at UAA
Online Meetings at UAA
At UA, the primary web conferencing meeting and teaching tool is Zoom. UAA faculty, staff, and students are provided Pro Zoom accounts.
Sign in to our UA web portal at alaska.zoom.us with your UA credentials to configure your Zoom Pro account, including Profile and Meeting Settings.
Zoom Workplace Tips
Zoom Workplace Tips
Sign into Zoom with SSO
Read about new Zoom features
Collaborate on documents during Zoom meetings
Record a Fancy Face Video in Zoom
Record a Fancy Face Video in Zoom
Zoom integration tool with Blackboard Ultra
Zoom integration tool with Blackboard Ultra
You cannot change the Bb Ultra menu, so I recommend that you add the Zoom tool at the top of your course content. Click the plus and choose Content Market. Scroll down to the Zoom Meetings tool. To schedule a new meeting, click the Zoom icon and schedule a new recurring meeting. Then go back and use the plus with the circle on the bottom right of the Zoom Meetings card to add it to the course content. Recorded Zoom sessions will automatically appear here.
You may want to add your class meeting days and times to the Course Schedule on the right side of the course below Question Banks. Click Add course schedule. Add the times the course meets with the plus. Fill in the blanks for nickname, dates, recurrence, etc. and paste the Zoom link in the location area and Save. Items added to the Course Schedule section will also appear in the Calendar.
If you add Zoom using Books & Tools in the Details & Actions section, the Zoom link will appear at the end of your course content which may be hard for students to find.
Kaltura Media
Kaltura Media
Kaltura is UAA’s media streaming solution. You can think of Kaltura as UAA’s YouTube-like platform. It makes storing, editing, and sharing videos (and audio files) to Blackboard easy. After logging in to Blackboard, click Tools to find Kaltura My Media. UAA faculty, staff, and students can use Kaltura.
UAA Mediaspace (home base and for sharing publicly)
Kaltura how-to videos (for faculty and students)
Visit the UAA Media Studio
VoiceThread
VoiceThread
VoiceThread is an asynchronous engagement tool for presentations and collaboration with your students. You can think of VoiceThread as a multimedia learning platform. It allows for video, audio, and text comments to slides and works well for interactive lectures, student presentations, and more. VoiceThread is integrated into Blackboard and can be connected to the Grade Center as an assignment.
VoiceThread Documentation and blog and free workshops
VoiceThread Literature Review (June 2025) found that VoiceThread supports “authentic engagement, communication skill building, and community connection" making it more difficult for students to use AI to complete assignments.
eWolf ePortfolio
eWolf ePortfolio
An eWolf ePortfolio is a space where students, faculty or staff can collect and curate a collection of digital artifacts geared towards a particular purpose and audience. Log in to eWolf
UAA support videos
UAA support videos
eWolf ePortfolio support: Visit the Help with eWolf site and find informational videos for Faculty and Students on UA MediaSpace (Kaltura) under Student Support Videos and Faculty Support Videos. For technical support with ePortfolio, contact the Instructional Media Studio at uaa_instructionalmedia@alaska.edu or book a session on the Media Studio appointment calendar.
Google
Google
The University of Alaska uses Google for basic office communication. Google Workspace includes many useful tools for productivity including Mail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Meet, Keep (Notes), YouTube and more.
Manage your files in the cloud and collaborate with others in Google: How to use Google Drive
Google Calendar Appointment Schedule instructions
Find more Microsoft training videos on LinkedIn Learning
Microsoft
Microsoft
UAA provides Microsoft products free for faculty, staff, and students. Microsoft Office 365 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, OneDrive, Teams, and more. You can install the full version of Microsoft Office on up to 5 computers at no cost.
Communicate with UAA colleagues via UAA Microsoft Teams
Level up your Microsoft Word skills
ScreenPal
ScreenPal
ScreenPal is a tool for making a video screencast (your voice and screen). The free version of ScreenPal is perfect for student use (log in with UAA email). Review the tutorials provided by ScreenPal.
Once you have recorded the screencast video, use the Screenpal editing tools as needed before you save the MP4 file to your computer. Then, I recommend uploading the MP4 file to your Kaltura Media account for captioning. Kaltura will add accurate captions, provide an accessible videop player, and make it easy to embed in Blackboard.
UAA pays for a pro version for faculty which allows videos longer than 15 minutes and more. Go to Faculty Success: Creating Videos for more information.
Foxit PDF Editor
Foxit PDF Editor
Foxit PDF Editor can be used to make PDF files more accessible (check/fix accessibility errors and convert scanned PDFs to text), export PDF files to MS Word for editing, combine a variety of files into one file, create fillable forms, and more.
Resources:
UAA Knowledge Base Foxit Installation Instructions
Surveys
Surveys
Qualtrics or Google Forms work great for collecting information from students, community partners, etc.
Resources:
Tips for Selecting Technology Tools for Teaching
Tips for Selecting Technology Tools for Teaching
When selecting technology tools to facilitate learning, it is important to consider your learning outcomes, your students, support, costs, interaction, accessibility, privacy, and more. See the Teaching with Technology guide from Pivot for more information.
Choose technology tools that facilitate the learning process (KISS)
Choose a variety of types of tools (asynchronous/synchronous, text-based/multimedia) but keep the total number of tools to a minimum
Start with UAA Core tools; also work for consistency within your program/department
“If your course has needs for technologies beyond those that are institutionally-supported, it is incumbent upon you as the instructor to understand the privacy and data protections for students in addition to the accessibility level of the tool that will impact your students” Quality Matters Bridge to Quality
Provide students with clear instructions, opportunities for practice, help resources, and expectations for using technology
Provide students a choice of tools (Universal Design for Learning)
Rubric for eLearning Tool Evaluation has been designed for instructors and staff as a formative tool to evaluate eLearning tools in higher education (Educause)
Rubric for eLearning Tool Evaluation by Lauren M. Anstey & Gavan P.L. Watson, copyright 2018 Centre for Teaching and Learning, Western University is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/Page updated
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