Faculty Quick-Start Guide

Last updated: August 18, 2023
Audience: InstructorsResearchersFaculty

UW-IT provides many resources to help instructors teach dynamic and engaging courses. Use this guide to find out about the resources available to you, and check with your local IT department for their technology recommendations and guidelines.

Teaching remotely

The UW offers technology tools, resources and guidance that can help you create a successful remote or hybrid learning experience for your students.

  • Find out what technology tools are offered by the UW that you can use to teach remotely with the Technology for working remotely guide.
  • Learn best practices, important policies, and essential aspects of effective instruction, including remote instruction, from the Teaching @ UW.

Tools for teaching classes

Provide an interactive learning experience using technology tools from the UW, leverage the power of the UW’s learning management system, and empower your students to review lectures online.

  • Bring interactive learning to your course. Poll Everywhere is an audience response system that students can use on their own devices. No clicker required!
  • Easily record your lectures and post them online for your students to view with Panopto, the UW-IT-supported lecture capture solution.
  • The Canvas Learning Management System lets you easily publish course materials, simplify course management, grade assignments, as well as communicate and collaborate with students.

In your office – or home office

Get the most out of the UW’s online learning management tools and analyze your data with ease, on your own schedule and from wherever you like.

Administrative

Submit grades, host online meetings with voice and video, and stay informed about what’s happening around campus and in your work life.

  • Submit your students’ grades easily, with the help of GradePage, which integrates with Gradebook, Canvas, and other software and makes it easy to submit your grades at the end of the quarter.
  • Host meetings with Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
  • Find out what’s going on around campus and online and post extracurricular events such as lectures and performances on your departmental event calendar using Trumba, the UW’s official calendar system.
  • MyUW presents personal, timely, and relevant information to support your work. The upgraded Teaching page supports the quarterly workflow of preparing and leading a course. MyUW closely integrates with other teaching and learning tools and the registrar’s systems, to make the use of these tools more efficient.

Research

Beaker with bubblesLearn about the wide array of research computing tools and solutions offered by UW-IT to accelerate your research and or take advantage of expert consultation to help you choose a service tailored to your research needs.

  • Take advantage of Hyak, an on-site supercomputer capable of handling a broad range of workloads.
  • You have several commercial cloud providers, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform, to choose from, along with assistance to match your research to the best cloud solution.
  • UW-IT offers an array of on-site data storage services, and a high performance research network supporting fast data transfers within and outside of the UW network.

Grading and feedback

Use online tools to make grading and submitting grades quick and simple, and check student work for originality against a large database.

  • Canvas provides an easy way to provide grades and feedback for your assignments, and Canvas’ SpeedGrader allows you to grade assignments efficiently.
  • Check for plagiarism with SimCheck plagiarism detection, which compares student papers with sources available on the Internet, select commercial article databases, and papers submitted at the UW.

Tutorials and training

Learn how to create an inclusive course, and expand your skills with a wide variety of online tutorials and in-person workshops.

Get connected

get_connected1Connect to online resources at the UW, use secure wireless internet, set up your UW NetID and email, and store your work on centralized servers.

Connect to the UW Networks

  • Husky OnNet provides individual users with a secure temporary connection to the UW network from remote locations.
  • Wireless internet access is available throughout most buildings on campus and some outdoor areas around campus.
    • Connect to Eduroam, UW-IT’s recommended Wi-Fi network. Eduroam is a free encrypted Wi-Fi network that offers more security than the unencrypted general purpose University of Washington Wi-Fi network. Eduroam provides access to the internet at the UW and at any eduroam-enabled institution in the United States and around the world.

Learn about your UW NetID

  • Your personal UW NetID (and password) provides access to many UW online services including MyUW and UW Email. Your UW NetID verifies who you are, ensures the privacy of your personal information, and restricts the use of UW resources to authorized users.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a layer of security when you sign in with your UW NetID. With 2FA, first you enter your password, then use a 2FA device to prove it’s really you. 2FA is required to sign in with your UW NetID on the web.

Set up your email

You have two options for email—forward email to a non-UW email system, or use the email services offered through the UW, UW Gmail and Exchange Online.

Access your U Drive

Store your work safely on UW servers with the U Drive. The U Drive provides faculty, staff and students with a place to store files that can be accessed from anywhere, on- and off-campus, and everything on your U Drive is automatically backed up.

Practice safe computing

safe_computingProtect your computer, identity and privacy, and yours and UW’s data. Download free antivirus software, and learn how to protect yourself on the web.

Get software

get-softwareDownload essential software from UW’s software catalog, and discover online productivity tools available to empower your work and courses.

Resources available to students

Let your students know about tools that can help them plan, get into the courses they want and find the resources they need on campus.

  • If a course is in high demand, Notify.UW can help. Students can sign up to be alerted by text or email when space in a course becomes available during registration.
  • The MyPlan academic planning tool helps students create and manage their academic plan, find courses, compare programs, build a schedule, explore options and more.
  • Scout helps students (and instructors!) find study spaces that meet specific criteria such as lighting, ambient noise, proximity to food and coffee, and availability of amenities such as printers, whiteboards, etc.; campus food locations; and tech items such as tablets, digital cameras, digital video cameras, laptops, data projectors, etc. (Seattle campus only).