Digital Student Guide

Canvas en Tools

• Canvas

  Canvas is the digital learning environment. Each course has its own page where all students and teachers of the course are located. Communication takes place via Canvas and students can create and submit assignments. Click here for more information about Canvas.

• CodeGrade

  CodeGrade is an online program that allows students to check and submit programming assignments and where teachers can assess the quality of the assignments. CodeGrade performs automated assessments to check the correct functioning of code and to detect plagiarism of code. In addition, teachers have the option to provide inline comments and use rubrics for assessment. Students can give each other peer feedback on the code.

  At the VU, CodeGrade is integrated with Canvas and is accessible via Canvas. In some cases, CodeGrade is used stand-alone.

  Questions?

  Contact your teacher or visit the CodeGrade help pages.

  Privacy statement CodeGrade

• Edubadges

  Edubadges are digital certificates that demonstrate that the owner has acquired certain skills or knowledge. The recipient of an edubadge can share it with others, for example on social media, a digital CV, an educational institution or with a (potential) employer. The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam only uses edubadges for non-formal or extracurricular activities.

  If the teacher of your project has an edubadge, you can request it. To do so, go to the website https://edubadges.nl/login. Log in with an eduID (you may have to create one first) and link the eduID to your VUnetID. By clicking on 'I have read this' you declare that you have read the full privacy statement. Then choose “Collect” to request your edubadge.

  Questions?

  Do you have further questions or problems using Edubadges? Please contact your teacher or visit the FAQ on the Edubadges website.

  Privacy statement Edubadges

• EndNote

  EndNote is a reference manager that allows you to:

  • collect, store and organize references and publications;
  • cite;
  • share articles, notes and comments.

  Learn more about EndNote

• FeedbackFruits

  There are several FeedbackFruits tools that all offer functionalities based on creating interaction and feedback between you and other students or your teacher. Read below which functionalities FeedbackFruits supports.

  • Interactive document allows you to comment on documents and answer questions from fellow students or the teacher. Also watch this video about interactive documents.
  • Comprehension of documents allows you to select and annotate parts of the study material in which the predefined topics are discussed. This helps you to understand the structure of the study material and improves your comprehension skills. Also watch this video about comprehension of documents.
  • Interactive video allows you to comment on the video and answer questions from fellow students or the teacher. Also watch this video about interactive video.
  • Assignment review allows you to submit individual or group assignments and lets you reflect on the assignment to help you understand the areas for improvement. Also watch this video about assignment review.
  • Peer review allows you to give feedback on the assignments of your fellow students. Also watch this video about peer review.
  • Group member evaluation allows you to assess the collaborative process and give self-evaluations. Also watch this video about group member evaluation.

  Questions?

  Contact your teacher or visit the FeedbackFruits Help page for the most up-to-date FAQ.

  FeedbackFruits Privacy Statement

• Mentimeter

  Mentimeter is an easy-to-use tool for interactive presentations. With Mentimeter, you can ask questions during a presentation that the audience can answer via smartphones or other mobile devices. The results are displayed directly on the screen.

  Mentimeter is available to all VU students with an email address ending in student.vu.nl, student.acta.nl or vumc.nl. If you already have a free, basic or pro account for Mentimeter with one of these email addresses, you can upgrade this account to the VU campus license. If you do not have a Mentimeter account yet, you can create a new account yourself.

  To create a new account:

  1. Go to www.mentimeter.com/join/vrije-universiteit
  2. Log in with your VU details
  3. After creating your account, log in to Mentimeter via www.mentimeter.com/login. Click on "Log in with SSO", search for "Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam" and log in with your VU details.

  Questions?

  Do you have a question about Mentimeter or are you experiencing a problem using the system? Then go to the Mentimeter Help Center.

  Privacy Statement Mentimeter

• Microsoft 365 for students

  You can now use the Microsoft 365 package for free, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. This allows you to share files with, for example, your fellow students and you can edit the files at the same time. This way you can easily and securely collaborate in real time with your fellow students. Because you can also access and use the apps via the browser (via www.microsoft365.com), you have access to all your files and apps regardless of time, place and device.

  Questions

  Would you like to know more about using the Microsoft 365 apps? On this page you will find references to useful sites with instructions and training courses.

• OnStage

  OnStage is the system at the VU to support a graduation project, such as a thesis or internship. OnStage helps the student, supervisors and other involved parties to guide the progress of the student.

  Go to OnStage for more information.

• Perusall

  Perusall enables you to annotate learning materials: providing thoughtful comments to articles that you have to read.

  Studying together (formative use)

  Your teacher can assign you to groups of students that can study online learning materials together. You can make and respond to comments that help you and your fellow students to study the materials closely and to deepen your understanding, for example by asking clarifications, asking examples, explaining concepts more fundamentally etc.

  Gaining credit (summative use)

  Your teacher can assign you to groups of students that can study online sources together, but also assign you to make a minimum number of comments. The teacher can decide to assess the quality of the comments, the timeliness of the commenting and your time reading (opening) the reading materials. These characteristics have shown to be predictive of study succes1. 

  The teacher can decide to incorporate your study achievement in Perusall into your final grade. This is comparable to assigning credit in for example regular group work.

  Automated credit awarding

  You may notice that Perusall is able to calculate an effort score for you automatically. The score can be (at the discretion of the choice of your teacher) composed of various weights regarding the quality, timeliness, quantity, and distribution of the annotations. Read about how annotations are used in a calculation in the document on this page 'For Students: How Perusall Works'. In practice, it is not that hard to gain a sufficient level of achievement for credit gaining purposes.

  You may also notice that the quality of your comments is scored in an automated way. For that purpose, Perusall and Harvard University (English language) and the University of Groningen (Dutch language) have trained and calibrated the system by having hand-scored a 1000 comments. Providing high quality comments is not per se difficult. Read the document on this Perusall Scoring examples.

  Questions? 

  Contact your teacher or visit the FAQ on the Perusall website.

  Privacy Statement Perusall

• VU Reading Lists

  VU Reading Lists is a tool that allows teachers to present course material in Canvas in a clear and quick manner. As a student, you can then find and use it directly. This way, you can access an article, book or knowledge clip with one click. You can also save personal reading goals, create personal bookmarks and easily export or import a bibliography.

  Read more about VU Reading Lists

• Zoom

  Want to know how to use Zoom in Canvas and how use Zoom safely? Check out Zoom for Studying.