Teaching with CourseWorks
Set Up Discussions in CourseWorks
View Tips and Strategies for Online Discussions
CourseWorks provides an integrated discussion tool that allows for interactive communication between instructors and students, focused discussions, and graded assignments.
- Learn how to Create a Discussion Board in CourseWorks.
- Review Discussion Board Best Practices and additional options for using discussion board in CourseWorks.
Create and Grade Assignments (for setting up HW and Take-Home Exams) in CourseWorks
Instructors can create assignments in CourseWorks, and students can submit them electronically. Once students have submitted assignments, the CourseWorks Gradebook allows instructors to enter grades, track students and their progress, and calculate and submit final grades to SSOL.
- Learn how to Create an Assignment in CourseWorks.
- Review the CTL’s quick video tutorial on Using the Gradebook in CourseWorks.
- Engage in a full overview of creating and grading assignments in CourseWorks in the CTL’s self-paced course: Assessment and Grading in CourseWorks.
Create Online Quizzes and Exams
The CourseWorks Quiz tool is best for assessments with questions that list a limited number of answers or options (i.e. multiple choice, true and false, and fill-in-the-blank). Turn on automatic grading to provide immediate feedback to students and to save time.
The CourseWorks Assignment tool is best for more complex responses, such as essays, presentations, videos, or multiple files. This tool allows students to submit multiple files as part of their response. It is also a good option if you intend to have students complete paper-based exams at home and they need to upload pictures of their work as part of the submission.
For more information on the variety of CourseWorks tools, options, and settings that can help implement online exams efficiently and fairly, as well as recommendations on academic integrity, please visit our Creating Online Exams page.
Additional Tools
The following resources offer additional options to facilitate and support remote classes.
- Host a video conference with BigBlueButton (built into CourseWorks).
- Use collaborative tools freely available through Lionmail Drive such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, Hangouts, and more:
- Learn more about Lionmail Drive at Columbia.
Further Reading
- Review best practices and strategies for engaging students in online teaching and learning.
- Learn about blended learning practices and experience a guided design process for a blended lesson or unit of study in the CTL’s self-paced course: Blended Learning Essentials.
- Read about Actively Engaging Students in Asynchronous Online Classes (Riggs and Linder, 2016).