Astronomy Professor Eric Jensen has been collecting assignments electronically using Moodle, grading them on his iPad, and returning the documents to students in Moodle. He made a helpful screencast showing his paperless workflow, including all the details on each step of the process and has generously allowed us to share the video with the rest of the campus community.

Using Assignments in Moodle lets instructors collect student work, provide extensions, allow for group submissions, assign grades, and provide feedback. See our How can I set up an assignment in Moodle? page for instructions on getting started with Moodle Assignments.

The tablet interface provides the ability to write out information by hand during a recorded lecture or naturally mark up student work. The Teaching with Tablets program organized by Academic Technologist Ashley Turner has provided over 50 iPads and Microsoft Surfaces for faculty use. We’ve seen innovative uses in classes ranging from Manga, Bande Dessinée, and the Graphic Novel: A Transnational Study of Graphic Fictions taught by Alexandra Gueydan-Turek and Will Gardner to Kathryn Riley’s Foundations of Chemical Principles course. ITS is planning to purchase additional iPads to make available to faculty this summer.

If you have been using a tablet for your courses or research, we’d be interested to hear about how it is working for you. If you are curious if an iPad would be useful for your work, we’d be happy to discuss the possibilities. Get in touch with the Academic Technology team at acadtech@swarthmore.edu.

Featured image “skoko iPad Pro Paper Protection Film” by TheBetterDay is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0