Collaboration tools
Collaborative work not only increases media skills but also social skills.
Advantages of (digital) collaboration:
- using strengths and compensating for weaknesses
- an opportunity for hesitant participants to participate more actively
- strengthening of the group spirit
- development of important (digital) skills
- reduction of the amount of correction work for the teacher
You can use various methods and collaboration tools to increase students' motivation, encourage their participation and promote interaction.
Collaboration tools available at the University of Graz
The platform enables students and teachers to work together in different ways. Various Moodle activities and plugins offer the opportunity to make Moodle courses more interactive and motivating.
Activities that can be used on Moodle for collaborative tasks include forum, etherpad, wiki, glossary, student folders (for shared file uploads) or a chat for synchronous communication. If students are asked to give a one-word answer to a given question, this can be created and visualized using the Wordcloud activity. If students are to give each other feedback such as suggestions, criticism or ideas for improvement on their work (presentations, seminar papers, lesson plans, etc.), the Workshop activity can be used.
Detailed guidelines for the Moodle activities can be found on the Academic Moodle Cooperation website.
Audience response systems (ARS) are web-based voting systems that enable individual and anonymous feedback in real time. Students usually bring their own mobile devices to the course and only need an access code or link and an internet connection.
ARS tools ...
- provide diversity in the learning process
- increase learning motivation and commitment
- consolidate knowledge retention
- improve examination performance
- increase the expectation of self-efficacy
The University of Graz offers the Particify tool, which is a further development of the open source software ARSnova. It comprises three functional areas, each of which offers different pedagogical possibilities within a course: Questions and Answers (Q&A), Live Feedback and Question Series (with a wide variety of question types).
This quick guide (PDF) gives you an overview of the options for using this tool.
Detailed information about Particify can be found in the manual "Discovering the possible uses of Particify" (PDF/German).
uniPAD is based on the open source software Etherpad and is a tool for text-based collaboration. With uniPAD, teachers and students can edit a text document simultaneously. All changes are visible in different colors for each user in real time for all participants. uniPAD is available as a standalone version via browser or as the as an Etherpad activity in Moodle and is therefore well suited for collaboration and documentation processes within a course.
uniCHAT is a comprehensive communication tool based on the open source software "Element/Matrix" with many possible uses. Basic functions include chat rooms, telephone service and video conferencing without additional registration or appointment scheduling as well as the integration of other "widgets" (such as Etherpad, DeepL etc.). Lecturers and students can use this tool for (a)synchronous communication with each other.
LimeSurvey is an open source survey tool that allows you to create and publish online surveys and record the results in a database without any programming knowledge. The results can be viewed and exported online during and after completion of the survey.
The Moodle activity Feedback is also suitable for simple surveys within a course (e.g. preexisting knowledge, needs assessment).
uniSHARE is based on the open source tool Filesender. It offers a secure way to share large files with university employees and external persons.
Contact us
Center for Digital Teaching and Learning (ZDLL) | Liebiggasse 9/II digitales.uni-graz.at |
Servicedesk (uniIT) | +43 316 380 - 2240 https://intranet.uni-graz.at/einheiten/715/Pages/default.aspx |