The University of Tennessee main campus has recently switched from Blackboard to Canvas for course management. Canvas is a secure and customizable Learning Management System that makes teaching and learning easier. Instructors can create and assign quizzes, track student progress and stay connected with students through full integration with Outlook and other productivity apps. Canvas trainings are offered regularly by the main campus OIT and can be schedule for groups such as law faculty upon request.
Many law professors are using TWEN for course management, but may not have discovered all of the tools available therein. Features offered in TWEN include: InstaPoll, Customized Polling, Document Quizzes, Wiki pages and Advanced Grading.
Lexis Classroom is another course management option for law professors. Sign in at the above link and click the Lexis Classroom link in the top bar. Lexis Classroom boasts embedded learning analytics, complete integration with Microsoft OneDrive, simple content creation and targeted notifications for course members.
Essay Tagger uses powerful learning analytics to speed up the essay grading process. Instructors begin grading essays, only to have previous comments auto-populate in future essays when similar language is used by different students. Instructors retain full-control over the comments, but can see a drastic reduction in grading time. Originally designed by a high school English teacher, the program is gaining traction in higher education. More information about EssayTagger can be found here.
iAnnotate takes the pain out of grading essays, letting you ink, highlight, underline, stamp, make notes, and more on a PDF version of your students’ essays via your iPad.
If you are using the Canvas course management system, you can create assignments with Unicheck, which will conduct plagiarism checks on any work submitted.
