OVERVIEW
Target audience: McGill instructors and students
Several add-ons and utilities are recommended for instructors and students to get the most out of myCourses. This article focuses on tools that are available through McGill or externally for minimal or no cost. You can find additional tools that are integrated with myCourses on the Teaching and Learning website at Tools to support teaching and learning
Tip for faculty, staff and researchers:
If you would like McGill to provide a specific software or cloud service, first verify that we don't already have an approved cloud solution that meets your needs. See McGill Approved and Rejected Cloud solutions. If no solution meets your needs, please submit a request via the Software or cloud service acquisition webform.
In this article:
For students and instructors:
For instructors only:
Document viewers
Students and instructors can use the following document viewers:
- Adobe Reader to view and print PDF formatted documents (.pdf)
- Microsoft Office 365 Pro Plus apps to open, view and print Microsoft Word (.doc) documents and Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt) documents
Media players
Note: All players are for Mac and Windows unless otherwise indicated.
Students and instructors can use the following media players:
- VLC Media Player
- Windows Media Player (Windows only)
Students and instructors can use the following streaming media players:
Students and instructors can use the WinAmp MP3 player (Windows only)
Document publication
Students and instructors can use Adobe Acrobat Pro to convert all types of documents to PDF format (.pdf) to make your documents more accessible. Those who need to view your PDF documents only need the free Adobe Reader or other PDF viewer.
Audio and screen recording
Instructors can use the following tools to make recordings:
- Zoom is a web conferencing platform for remote teaching and learning. Zoom recordings are integrated with the Lecture Recordings in myCourses.
- Camtasia is an application that allows you to record your screen activity and audio. For example, instructors teaching in rooms that are not equipped for can use Camtasia to record lectures and post them on myCourses for students to view.
- Snagit (free for faculty and staff on the McGill Software Licensing site) is an application for taking screenshots. You can also use Snagit to edit and annotate these screenshots and other images for presentations or online quizzes.
To learn how to use these tools, you can submit a request for Consultation or group workshop on educational technologies. Techsmith's website also has step-by-step video tutorials for Camtasia.
Quiz and survey authoring
Instructors can use Respondus to create and manage quizzes and surveys. You can print the assessments to paper or publish them directly to your course in myCourses. Respondus is currently only available for Windows.
Download Respondus for free at Software available at McGill.
To learn how to use Respondus, you can submit a request for a one-one consultation or custom workshop.
Polling @ McGill with myCourses
Instructors can use Polling @ McGill (formerly the Student Response System or SRS) to assess students’ learning and encourage active classroom participation. At McGill, we use Slido, a web-based polling and Q&A system. Students respond to Slido questions using their personal device (smartphone, tablet, or laptop).
Learn how to get access to Polling @ McGill and how to use the system.
To learn how to use Polling @ McGill, submit a request for a one-on-one consultation.
