Sisu
Basic information about Aalto's core information system for teaching and studying.
Digital platforms for teaching and learning in Aalto University
Every teacher's core digital platforms include the student information system Sisu and the digital learning environment MyCourses.
Below, you will also find digital platforms that facilitate everyday tasks in contact and online teaching.
Below, you will also find digital platforms that facilitate everyday tasks in contact and online teaching.
Loading table of contents
What digital platforms does Aalto University use to facilitate teaching and learning?
The two digital platforms that every teacher needs to operate with are the student information system Sisu and the digital learning environment MyCourses.
In addition to Sisu and MyCourses, there are other recommended digital platforms to facilitate teachers' contact and online teaching tasks. You can find the most common cases below, accompanied by links to instructions, and contact details for support staff.
We highly recommend favouring the use of the digital tools supported by Aalto University. Then you are assured that the data security of the software has been checked and is maintained, and that support is available to answer questions that may arise regarding its use.
| Sisu is the core information system for teaching and studies | MyCourses is Aalto University’s main digital learning environment |
| Sisu is a tool that students, teachers and Learning Services staff in their various roles can use to handle all aspects of study planning, scheduling and credit entry. | Most of the learning activities (discussions, individual and group assignments, submissions, automated assessment) and tools (Zoom, Teams, Panopto, Turnitin and Course feedback) are integrated or otherwise made available for easy use through MyCourses. |
| Teachers need to confirm students to the course in Sisu and save the final assessments of the course into Sisu. | You can build a complete course with course material, quizzes, assignments, and workshops using MyCourses. MyCourses is highly useful and accessible for both contact and remote teaching needs. |
Sisu and MyCourses: the core systems and their connections
Most common teaching needs and recommended digital platforms
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registering students to the course | Confirm students in courses in Sisu. | Instructions for teaching staff - Sisu HELP | [email protected] | |
| Reviewing student activity and participant list | In MyCourses, you can see all course participants and their course activity in the participants list. | https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/mchelp/ Roles+and+visibility |
MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist | |
|
Restricting work space access and visibility. By default, MyCourses workspaces 1.9.2024 onwards are closed from guest users (i.e., to non-logged-in users). |
You can restrict workspace (course space) to Aalto/Haka-logged-in users only. You can restrict a section or resource access and make it inaccessible to all but your own course students |
Restrict workspace or section access - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki | MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist | |
| Creating different language versions of a course |
You can write your MyCourses pages, activities and other content in multiple languages You can restrict the visibility of activities and language versions for a student based on the student’s own language choices. |
MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Providing information or share news with all course participants, e.g. about the languages used in a course. |
Share your messages via MyCourses, use announcement forum. Create a MS Teams channel for your course |
Announcements and discussion forums - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki |
MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist Service Desk - for MS Teams |
|
| Communicating with individual students, small groups or different language groups |
Communicate via MyCourses, message feature. Create private subchannels for group work on MS Teams |
Announcements and discussion forums - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki Create a partially multilingual course – MyCourses help – Aalto University wiki |
MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist Service Desk - for MS Teams |
|
| Facilitating chat discussions |
Create a group chat using Zulip MS Teams can also be used for group chatting. |
Service Desk - for MS Teams |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preparing learning materials | Create presentations, visuals, texts etc. | Microsoft Office 365 Services | Aalto University | IT Help | Aalto University | |
| Create translations and captions for course materials. | Based on the format (e.g., Panopto-video, PowerPoint, Word) choose a translation tool. Use AI (artificial intelligence) to create language versions of your course content, presentations and videos. |
AI supported translation tools used in Aalto | Aalto University |
For Panopto: MyTeaching Support For Microsoft Office and AI assistant: IT services | Aalto University |
|
| Recording lectures | Simply record Zoom or Teams online sessions, for pre-recorded lectures videos and more advanced features and all sharing needs use Panopto media service. |
For Panopto: MyTeaching Support For Teams and Zoom: IT services | Aalto University |
||
| Sharing learning materials |
Design the course structure and upload the materials (files, videos, links, etc.) on MyCourses. Be aware of copyright issues. |
First steps in your workspace - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki Sharing materials (resources) - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki |
MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist | |
| Control the visibility of the course materials. | Notice that all logged in users can access files the teacher uploads. To restrict access, check MyCourses help how to restrict access. | Restricting access - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki | MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online lecturing |
Share links, schedule lectures and organise online lectures via MyCourses. Enable language simultanious translations or captions with PowerPoint Live (see AI supported tools). |
You can operate Zoom and Teams via MyCourses as an activity. Power Point Live |
Teaching session with Zoom - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki Zoom Quick Guide | Aalto University AI-supported tools for lectures and meetings | Aalto University |
For Zoom and Teams: For MyCourses: |
| Student activation | Use Presemo before, during or after a teaching session to collect student questions, comments and feedback, or to organise a poll. | Presemo: a tool for instant feedback during a lecture or online session. | presemo.com/docs/userguide.en.html New rooms can be created here: Presemo EDU - Aalto University |
[email protected] |
| Collaborative ideation or mind-mapping | Use Flinga, a digital whiteboard for collaboration | Flinga | Flinga - OPIT - Aalto University Wiki | MyTeaching Support |
| Q&A, small group communication | Create a Q&A channel or small group chats using Zulip or MyCourses Forum. |
Zulip for Q&A and small group chats. (Supports math equations) |
For Zulip: For MyCourses: |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment and feedback | Choose assessment methods based on your course needs. | On MyCourses there are variety of assessment and feedback options, from peer assessment to automated assessment. |
Digital learning assessment and online examination | Aalto University |
MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist |
| Originality checking and feedback | Assign and instruct students in the use of Turnitin, for ‘originality checking’ and giving feedback. | In Aalto University, Turnitin is operated and managed as a MyCourses assignment or activity. |
Aalto University Turnitin instructions for teachers | MyTeaching Support |
| Organizing online examination and quizzes |
1) Organize remote exams via MyCourses. The most typical activities used for the exam are Assignment and Quiz. or 2) Use the EXAM system, an electronic exam service at the campus. |
1) MyCourses or 2) EXAM, an electronic exam service at the campus. |
EXAM - OPIT - Aalto University Wiki Digital learning assessment and online examination | Aalto University |
|
| Mid-course feedback | Collect feedback during the course to check students' perceptions of the course and the ways in which they understand the content. |
The course feedback system that is used through MyCourses enables feedback to be collected during the course. Zoom poll or Presemo. |
Main page for instructions of course feedback tool | Aalto University Presemo: a fully web-based classroom participation system | Aalto University |
|
| Generic automated feedback at the end of the course | In the course feedback system, the teacher can create their own questions, make their own question libraries and respond to students' feedback. | MyCourses | Main page for instructions of course feedback tool | Aalto University | [email protected] |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Export grades from MyCourses | Teacher exports grades from MyCourses to Sisu. | Transferring results to Sisu - MyCourses help - Aalto University Wiki | MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist | |
| Final assessment and saving assessments in Sisu |
1) The teacher saves the final assessments in Sisu. 2) The responsible teacher* must confirm the assessments in Sisu. 3) The teacher informs the students. |
Assessment of course implementations in Sisu – Quick guide | [email protected] |
*The responsible teacher is indicated in Sisu.
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process a study plan in Sisu |
Communication on a study plan. Processing study plan approval applications (varies by school). |
Instructions for teaching staff - Sisu HELP | [email protected] | |
|
Thesis supervision -to receive and comment thesis -receiving Turnitin similarity reports |
Order a personal MyCourses workspace for thesis supervision. | Thesis supervision workspace in MyCourses - Turnitin - Aalto University Wiki | MyTeaching Support or Book a session with a specialist | |
| Coordinate and manage student meetings |
Find your academic advisees and thesis advisees on Student Success Hub. Set available time slots so that the student can schedule appointments with you. Write notes after the meeting. Send a pre-task or other task to the student. View statistics and reports on your meetings. |
Student Success Hub | Student Success Hub instructions | [email protected] |
| Most common teaching needs | Teacher actions | Recommended digital platform or software | Instructions | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organising a course in a digital course space with open access or controlled enrolment, also participants without Aalto- or HAKA.id |
Fill in a form for an Aalto OpenLearning workspace. or request a consultation with a digipeda specialist |
Aalto OpenLearning introduction Interface: Aalto OpenLearning |
Aalto OpenLearning - OPIT - Aalto University Wiki |
Read more about the digital platforms
MyCourses digital learning environment
MyCourses is the learning environment for Aalto University courses. With MyCourses, teachers can share course material, resources and other content. A teacher can set up and grade assignments, quizzes and workshops. MyCourses also provides tools for collaboration and interaction with students.
Digital learning assessment and examination
Digital, or online assessment enables flexibility in studies, and allows to reimagine assessment methods. Aalto has several digital assessment and online examination services: MyCourses assignments and activities, remotely proctored exams, EXAM, Turnitin and Safe Exam Browser (SEB).
On this page, you will find brief descriptions of all our services, along with helpful links. These services are not only supported by the university, but they are also secure and adaptable to various situations.
Panopto media service
Panopto media service for uploading and sharing videos and for creating video captures and webcasts.
Online meeting tools - Teams and Zoom
Teams and Zoom are tools for video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration. Panopto is a software and media service that is designed to capture, edit, stream, and share video presentations and recorded lectures. You can not use Panopto for online meetings.
Turnitin an originality checking and feedback software
Turnitin is a tool to help you not only identify plagiarism, but also teach students good scientific writing practices. Turnitin compares submitted text to a massive database of text, highlights all similar text found and creates a similarity report.
Presemo: a fully web-based classroom participation system
Presemo is a fully web-based classroom participation system.
Zulip chat platform
Zulip is an open-source chat platform suitable for group discussions. It offers LaTeX support and collaborative features that can be useful in teaching. Features like private streams, user groups and the option to mark topics as resolved can be used to enable Q&A and groupwork activities.
Aalto OpenLearning learning environment
Aalto OpenLearning is Moodle based learning environment for open online courses and educational materials created by Aalto teachers.
ThingLink
ThingLink is an education technology platform that enables it to augment images, videos, and virtual tours with additional information and links. You can use ThingLink to create accessible, visual learning experiences in the cloud.
Main page for instructions of course feedback tool
At Aalto University, course feedback is collected from almost all courses. On these pages you will find teacher's instructions for using the course feedback tool on MyCourses.
Read more about the use of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning
Guidance for the use of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning at Aalto University
Guidance for the use of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning at Aalto University.
Tips for teachers on using artificial intelligence in teaching
Tips how to use AI in teaching
Tips for using artificial intelligence for students
Tips for using artificial intelligence in learning
Training for teachers
Note! You will find the entire training schedule and enrolment at Workday Learning: Teaching competence development.
Pedagogical specialists at Aalto University offer university pedagogical training for employees engaged in teaching. The training offers possibilities to develop one's own teaching skills and philosophy as a teacher. We arrange several pedagogical training events each year both in English and Finnish.
If you need training or support, feel free to contact Teacher Services or Book a session with a specialist.
The Teacher services team organises training events, webinars and workshops for users of shared learning platforms and tools. MyCourses, Panopto, Turnitin, EXAM, Presemo
Are you looking to develop your skills as a teacher? Participate in Aalto's pedagogical training!
The Teacher services team advances learning centricity and the quality of teaching by offering support services for the teaching staff. The team is a part of Learning Services.
Applications, software and data storage for Aalto University employees and students
IT related details to consider before your course.
Find instructions on how to teach online or hybrid, and how to use our digital learning platforms. Also, find general guidelines and policies concerning teaching.
Information on the IT services available for Aalto University staff.
Comparison of different file services (home & work, file services, cloud, teamwork, teams, onedrive, googledrive, fairdata ida) .
Recommended file storage services to use in various use cases.
How did we succeed to deliver essential information?
Our mission is to provide teachers with accessible, current and accurate information. We develop the Teacher’s Handbook based on received feedback, as an ongoing process. We need users' help on this.
Please, take a minute and give us feedback with this simple ‘I like, I wish’ form.
Teaching and learning
A landing page for teachers to help them find services and support related to teaching and learning.