It is essential, when considering whether to use learning technology, to make sure the tool is compliant with BC privacy law (FIPPA). FIPPA requires that all information about our students remain in Canada unless there is consent. Many third-party tools are cloud-based, meaning that instructors and/or students need to create an account to use the service. This almost always involves the sharing of personal information, which can result in a breach of FIPPA. 

Before you purchase any tools, a VCC procurement process must be started. This process involves a complete review of the vendor’s Terms and Conditions, end user license agreement, privacy policy, and any other legal documents. This will ensure that a Privacy Impact Assessment is completed before the tool can be used in your teaching. 

If you use free, online apps in your teaching (such as Mentimeter or Kahoot!), please refer to the Guidelines for using 3rd-party apps.

Please contact eLearning Support if you have any questions.

Moodle

Moodle is VCCs learning platform for delivering online and blended courses.

Moodle Plug-ins

Plug-ins are tools that extend the capabilities of Moodle, adding new features. These are the most frequently used Moodle plug-ins at VCC:

A11y: Integrated into VCC Moodle, A11y focuses on making online course content more accessible.

H5P: Using H5P makes it easy to create rich interactive content, such as video-based quizzes, audio-based (spoken) language assessment, graphical presentations, drag and drop activities, flashcards, and more.

Kaltura: Kaltura is VCCs video platform for instructors and students to record and share video content. Kaltura includes the ability to upload, publish, and search videos, embed video directly in a Moodle course, and create shortened clips from existing video content.

Pearson MyLab: Integrating Pearson's MyLab & Mastering course content into Moodle gives you and your students single-sign-on access to your Pearson courses, plus automatic syncing and importing of grades from the Pearson gradebook into your Moodle course.

WeBWorK: Webwork is an open source online assignment and quiz application for mathematics and science, where students receive instant feedback on answers to problems and instructors can allow for multiple attempts until a student finds the correct solution. (Note: WeBWorK is being trialed by the Mathematics department and not yet available for wide use.)

Pressbooks

Pressbooks is an online publishing platform that is built on the popular WordPress publishing and blogging platform.

Below are a few useful links describing how Pressbooks are created:

• BC Campus Pressbooks tutorials;
• Publishing with Pressbooks: A Visual Guide;
• UBC Library Pressbooks Template;
• Using LaTeX in Pressbooks (LaTeX can be used in math and science subjects to display non-standard characters and text);
• Open Textbook Publishing Guide.

Contact Elena Kuzmina, VCC E-resources and Open Resources Coordinator, for more information on Pressbooks at VCC.

Kaltura

Kaltura is the platform that VCC uses to manage audio and video media. Kaltura allows VCC instructors and students to easily share and manage video content. Users can upload, publish, and search videos, easily embed videos into online courses, and create video-based assignments and quizzes.

Camtasia Studio

Camtasia Studio is a great all-around tool for editing videos or recording screencasts.

Screencast-o-matic

This is a free web-based screencasting tool that's realtively easy to use. If budget or speed is an issue, and you won't need to do much video editing, this may be a good solution (as well as a good place to begin exploring how to screencast).

Zoom

Zoom is used primarily for online sessions for synchronous instruction in online courses. It may also be used for online meetings and special events.

CTLR's Zoom support page has lots of training resources to help faculty get started using Zoom.

Microsoft Teams

Teams is part of VCC's Office365 suite of online applications for employees.

CTLR's Using Microsoft Teams for Online Teaching page has more information to help faculty get started using Teams.