Over the summer, the CTools team added several tools that represent a new direction in development: increasing value by integrating external tools and services.

For many years, faculty, staff and students have used tools that were built as part of the CTools application. These recently added tools, in contrast, were developed outside of CTools — some elsewhere within U-M and some outside the university. The key to this new capability is the Learning Tools Interoperability standard, which provides a lightweight and industry-supported mechanism for users to access a potentially unlimited number of external tools.

What follows is a sample of some recent tools that have been integrated. Several others currently are being tested for release to the university community.

• BlueReview — This is a scheduled recording system that is available in select LSA classrooms. BlueReview captures the A/V signal and mixes it with public-address audio. It then encodes this content to a podcast-compatible format (both audio/video and audio-only versions) and delivers it via CTools. BlueReview can capture an entire semester of lectures or single events.

• CAEN Lecture Capture — This tool allows courses in the College of Engineering to automatically link to the CAEN recording system. It records video and audio of the instructor, along with any projected slides or other content. Instructors can schedule recordings in advance or make them on an impromptu basis. Most of the process is fully automated, including access to course recordings from within CTools.

• SiteMaker Connect — This tool allows users to embed Web pages, files or data tables created in UM.Sitemaker into a CTools site. (UM.Sitemaker is an online Web-authoring tool.) Users set up a Shared Secret that allows anyone on a CTools roster to automatically have access to restricted resources in a UM.Sitemaker site.

• LectureTools — One of the first integrated tools, LectureTools allows faculty to upload and present PowerPoint presentations, view real-time measures of student comprehension, and collect student responses. Students can view presentations, take notes, ask questions digitally, provide feedback during class and bookmark slides for later review.

For more information, send email to connect.tools@umich.edu.