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Glossary

Assignments: The Assignments tool can be used to set assignments for individuals or groups. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Blogs: The Blogs tool can be useful for creating drafts of future project work or assignments without the formality of submitting an assignment. Blogs can be made visible to the whole class (to encourage collaboration and commentary) or visible only to the creator and the lecturers (for private work). It is an internal tool in Vula.

Chat Room: The Chat Room can be used similarly to the Forums as a place to converse and ask questions. It is best suited for synchronous communication. However, it lacks numerous features of the Forums tool (the ability to restrict by group, the ability to grade, etc.) and is generally better suited to general questions about the course or other unstructured forms of conversation. It is an internal tool in Vula.

CK Editor / Rich Text Editor: is an editor function on Vula which allows you to add and format text, record voice notes, use symbols and Mathematical language, link URLs, as well as insert emoticons, videos and images.

Comments: Comments can be added to Lessons pages (Lessons - Add Content - Add Comments Tool) to elicit quick, informal feedback on the contents of the page. This function can be used as an alternative to the more formal process of setting up a Forum if a more casual or low-stakes engagement is desired. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Commons Tool: Commons is a new tool, similar to a social media wall (e.g. Facebook wall) for posts and updates on the Vula site. Site members can post to the “wall” and reply to posts made by others. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Drop Box: Drop Box is a tool for students to upload content to Vula to share with lecturers. It can be used for sharing first drafts or final versions of work, supplementary resources that students themselves have sourced, or any other file that needs to be transmitted privately between student and lecturer. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Forums: The Forums tool is designed to support rich dialogue around a module, topic or course. Forums can be created to be group-specific and to have attached files (for instance, tutorial documents or explanatory videos) to help guide a particular conversation. They can also be graded to encourage participation and engagement with the topics presented. It is an internal tool in Vula and allows for both synchronous and asynchronous communication.

Lecture Videos: An alternative to uploading videos to Resources is to employ the Lecture Videos tool (Site Setup - Manage Tools - External Tools - OpenCast Video). Lecture Videos can be used to upload existing videos or record your own video content. An affordance of the Lecture Videos tool is the ability to request transcriptions of your videos through an automated process run by CILT. It is an internal tool in Vula.

OpenUCT: OpenUCT is UCT's Open Access and Thesis repository. Students can search for a variety of different content types, such as doctoral theses and Masters dissertations, Open Access journal articles, and other content such as policy briefs or working papers published by UCT lecturers and students. This is an external tool, it is not integrated in Vula.

Primo: Primo is UCT's comprehensive resource search portal. Using Primo, students can search across the different UCT databases, journal sites and other knowledge repositories to find the resources that they need. This is an external tool, it is not integrated in Vula.

Questions: The Questions tool (Lessons - Add Content - Add Question) can create basic MCQs or short-paragraph questions that can be inserted into Lessons pages, as a quick check-in exercise to test student knowledge. These questions can be graded and added to the Gradebook if required. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Resources: The Resources tool can contain any sort of static resource, from readings in PDF or DOCX format, to images, to audio or video files. These resources can then be linked to in Lessons pages or added as attachments in Forums. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Student Content: The Student Content tool creates pages (either for individual students or for groups) that replicate a limited set of a normal Lessons page's functionality. Students can edit these pages alone or collaboratively to create multi-media content that combines text, visual resources (images and videos) and audio content (using the Recorder function) which can be used as course notes or collaborative project spaces. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Synchronous Sessions: Existing or occurring at the same time such as live webinars on Zoom or MS Teams.

Tests & Quizzes: Tests or Quizzes can be used to test student knowledge and understanding, in both formative and summative ways. For instance, a course could schedule weekly quizzes on the course content. as well as more formal (possibly restricted to a specific date, or with a time limitation, or both) summative assessments. The Tests & Quizzes tool offers a large range of functionality, such as multiple question formats (short-answer/paragraph, MCQ, equation-type questions, etc.) and the ability to draw from question pools. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Voice Recorder Tool: The voice recording tool is a function within the CK Editor / Rich Text Editor. It can be used to create 180-second / 3-minute recordings. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Wiki: The Wiki tool creates a space that students can collaboratively edit, much like Student Content. It is an internal tool in Vula.

Zero-rated: Sites, applications, and tools that do not incur data costs when used in South Africa. This might differ for different users depending on their internet provider as not all South African internet providers have agreed to the same sites, applications and tools being zero-rated. This may have changed since 2020.

ZivaHub: ZivaHub is UCT's Open Data portal. It hosts research data emerging from UCT projects or (co)authored by UCT lecturers and students. Students can search ZivaHub to find Open Data in their field or area of study. This is an external tool, it is not integrated in Vula.