Google Classroom

Google Classroom makes teaching so much easier by putting everything in one place. Teachers can post assignments, grade work quickly, and keep in touch with students without drowning in paperwork. Students love it because they can see all their work and deadlines in one spot (Meehan & Salmun, 2016).

Benefits:

• Streamlined Feedback Loop - Instructors can provide detailed, timely feedback on writing assignments directly within documents, helping students see patterns in their writing errors and growth over time (Meehan & Salmun, 2016).
• Organized Resource Library - Creates a centralized repository for supplemental readings, writing examples, and grammar resources that students can access anytime throughout the semester.
• Simplified Submission Process - Eliminates paper management while creating clear submission timestamps, reducing "lost assignment" issues that plague writing courses.

Implementation in English Instruction: English professors love Google Classroom for its practical classroom applications. They share PDF readings and thought-provoking discussion questions with a simple click. As students muddle through the messy writing process, their drafts get uploaded at each stage - from rough outlines with coffee stains to polished final versions. The beauty lies in the peer review - students can comment directly on each other's essays while instructors peek over their virtual shoulders to track how that struggling student finally grasped topic sentences or how another finally stopped writing five-page paragraphs. The comment feature allows teachers to highlight strong rhetorical choices and suggest improvements directly within student essays.

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Padlet

Padlet is like a digital cork board where everyone can stick their ideas. It's perfect for those "what do you think?" moments in class when you want everyone to share thoughts at once. Students can add photos, videos, links—pretty much anything—to create rich, collaborative workspaces (Meehan & Salmun, 2016).

Benefits:

• Visual Brainstorming - Helps visual learners map connections between literary concepts, character relationships, and thematic elements in shared digital space.
• Low-Pressure Participation - Encourages contributions from quieter students who might hesitate to speak in traditional discussions but will share insights digitally.
• Multimedia Integration - Enables students to connect literature to contemporary media, building bridges between classical texts and modern contexts.

Implementation in English Instruction: During poetry analysis, instructors can create Padlet boards where students identify and share examples of literary devices from assigned readings. For literature courses, students can develop character analysis boards, building collaborative understanding of character motivations and development. When teaching research writing, students can use Padlet to collect and evaluate potential sources, receiving peer feedback on source credibility and relevance.

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Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is that digital notebook you wish you had in college. It keeps everything organized with tabs and pages, syncs across all your devices, and lets students work together on projects in real time. Perfect for those group projects where everyone needs to contribute their piece (Meehan & Salmun, 2016).

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Kahoot!

Kahoot! turns boring review sessions into competitive game shows. Students get so caught up trying to beat their classmates that they forget they're actually studying. The music and countdown timers create a buzz of excitement that's hard to match with traditional quizzes (Kincey et al., 2019).

Benefits:

• Grammar Reinforcement - Transforms tedious grammar practice into engaging competitions that increase participation and motivation.
• Immediate Concept Checking - Provides instant assessment of comprehension, allowing for immediate clarification of misunderstandings about literary concepts.
• Pre-writing Engagement - Creates an energetic classroom atmosphere that primes students for deeper discussions about challenging texts.

Implementation in English Instruction: Instructors can develop Kahoot! quizzes to test understanding of assigned readings before discussions, ensuring students completed the reading and comprehended key elements. For grammar instruction, competitive Kahoot! sessions can reinforce concepts like comma usage and sentence structure identification. Before major exams, review Kahoots help students identify knowledge gaps in literary periods or rhetorical strategies.

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Canva for Education

Canva for Education lets students create professional-looking designs without needing a graphic design degree. Even the most artistically challenged students can whip up impressive presentations, posters, and infographics that they'll actually be proud to show off (Paolo et al., 2017).

Benefits:

• Beyond Basic Essays - Breaks students out of the five-paragraph essay rut by letting them play with colors, fonts, and images to communicate their ideas when words alone fall short.
• Job-Ready Materials - Gives students a fighting chance in the real world by helping them create eye-catching resumes and portfolio pieces that won't get tossed in the rejection pile.
• Know Your Audience - Teaches the hard lesson that how something looks dramatically affects whether anyone will bother reading it, a reality check many English majors desperately need.

Implementation in English Instruction: Students dig into magazine ads during rhetoric units, pulling apart visual persuasion techniques and rebuilding them in Canva to show they truly understand ethos, pathos, and logos. After slogging through research papers, they transform dense findings into colorful infographics that actually make their discoveries digestible. The real fun happens after finishing novels—students channel their inner book designers, creating covers that capture the heart of works like "The Great Gatsby" or "Beloved," then defending their artistic choices in quick presentations that reveal surprising depth of understanding.

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Turnitin

Turnitin catches those sneaky copy-paste moments that students think you won't notice. Beyond just busting plagiarism, it gives students feedback on their writing and helps them understand how to properly credit sources (Kincey et al., 2019).

Benefits:

• Citation Skill Development - Provides concrete examples of proper vs. improper citation, helping students internalize academic integrity standards.
• Revision Guidance - Similarity reports help students identify areas where they need to better synthesize or paraphrase source material.
• Writing Self-Assessment - Encourages students to review their own work for originality before submission, building valuable self-editing skills.

Implementation in English Instruction: Students submit all major writing assignments through Turnitin, receiving detailed originality reports. For research papers, preliminary drafts can be submitted to help students identify paraphrasing issues before final submission. During research instruction, instructors can use anonymized examples of proper and improper source integration to demonstrate citation expectations.

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Academic Integrity

Keeping students honest in a world of copy-paste requires more than just tough talk. Clear guidelines, tools like Turnitin, and creating a classroom culture where original thinking is valued go a long way. Teaching students how to properly research and cite sources gives them skills they'll use long after your class ends (Kincey et al., 2019).

Also, GCU has made a very clear video about Academic Integrity that could serve as a rule of thumb for any student or educational institution for what is expected in a student's work.

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