Your Digital Toolkit

Centrally supported tools and technologies

Explore the range of centrally-supported and digital tools for teaching, learning and assessment at Newcastle University. Each is aligned to our new Education Strategy and Leading Edge Curriculum.

Technology	What's it best used for?	LEC alignment
Canvas	The core online platform for your module: use it to organise asynchronous content, guide students through online and offline activities, communicate module expectations, and manage assessment in one place.
Canvas Quizzes	A quiz tool for creating a range of question types, including many that can be marked automatically. It is well suited to low-stakes checks for understanding, practice activities, and structured assessments, while longer written responses are usually better set up as Canvas assignments.
Canvas Discussions	A communication and collaboration space within Canvas where students can discuss ideas, respond to prompts, and work together asynchronously. It is useful for extending learning beyond in-person sessions, supporting peer interaction and enabling open participation or graded discussion activities.
Canvas Assignments	Canvas’s main tool for managing online assessment submissions, with features that support efficient marking workflows. It is useful for organising assessment clearly for students and staff, and can also include Turnitin similarity checking to support academic integrity.
Canvas Peer Assessment	Canvas's built-in assignment tools provide a structured way to manage peer assessment and review at scale, making the process fairer, easier to oversee, and more practical than manual approaches. It is useful for gathering feedback on individual work, discussion contributions and group projects.
Ally	An equity and accessibility support tool that helps improve the accessibility of digital learning materials; useful for making content easier to access for a wider range of learners.	Equity
ReCap	A lecture capture tool for recording teaching sessions; useful for revision, flipped learning, and helping students revisit complex explanations at their own pace.
PCap	A personal recording tool for creating and editing teaching videos on your own device. It is useful for pre- and post-session materials, personalised video feedback, and clear student guidance, with options to record screen, audio, webcam video, and editable captions.
Inspera	A secure digital assessment platform for summative in-person exams; best for running structured online exams with consistency, security, and efficient marking workflows.
Turnitin	Supports similarity checking of Canvas Assignments. Although you can set and mark assignments in Turnitin, we recommend you use native Canvas Assignments.
Numbas	A web-based system for building formative and summative maths-based exams and question sets; especially effective for subjects that need to teach and assess complex maths.
Buddycheck	A peer evaluation tool for group work in Canvas; helpful for making contribution to teamwork more visible and supporting fairer group assessment.
Vevox	An audience interaction tool that makes sessions more engaging through live polls, questions and participation activities; ideal for checking understanding and increasing interaction with large cohorts.
H5P	Don't let the name put you off - this is an easy to use tool for creating interactive content such as quizzes, games, and expandable accordions; great for making your Canvas pages more active and engaging.
Open Badges	Digital badges recognise achievement - usually extra curricula - and are useful for motivating students, acknowledging skills development, and making learning accomplishments more visible.
NU Reflect	A reflection tool best used for helping students track growth, connect learning to skills, and support personal, professional and academic reflection.
Placements	A system for managing placement-based assessment, reflection, and communication; valuable for keeping students, supervisors, and tutors connected during workplace learning.
Office 365	Support for getting more from Microsoft 365 tools; useful for collaborative teaching activities, shared documents, communication, and student productivity.