Educational technology resources listed on this page are brought to you by the UTHealth IT and Educational Technology Team (ET) of McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics (MSBMI) at UTHealth Houston.
If you do not find the information you’re looking for on this page please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]
MSBMI Educational Technology team is available during business hours (9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Central Standard Time). Requests sent in after 5 P.M. may be answered the next business day.
→ If you’re an MSBMI instructor, please visit our Educational Technology for Faculty Page.
Enrolling in MSBMI courses is an agreement to comply with the following minimum technical requirements(hardware, software and internet connectivity).
→ McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Hardware & Software Requirements list
Canvas is the official learning management system at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The majority of McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics courses will be hosted out of Canvas including the New Student Orientation.
→ Canvas Basics & Quick Orientation for Students
Per UTHealth policies, all online assessments contributing to a student’s grade must be proctored. McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics employs Proctorio as its primary and only source of proctoring services for online assessments.
Proctorio is an on-demand online proctoring service integrated into our learning management system: Canvas. There’s no need to create an account, schedule appointments, pay for individual assessment attempts nor to purchase hardware or software. Proctorio relies on the student’s computer webcam and microphone to monitor assessments on an on-demand basis.
Proctored Exam General Guideline For Students
Turnitin is a plagiarism prevention software that is integrated in Canvas. Turnitin automatically analyzes, scores and provides originality reports for submissions to assignments in Canvas. McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics instructors also access the same originality reports during the assignment grading process.
Turnitin training videos and manuals for students are available at:
→ Turnitin Student Quickstart Guide.
MSBMI provides students with free access to LinkedIn Learning, a great resource for technical training on a variety of topics.
For all students, activate your LinkedIn Learning account by going to https://go.uth.edu/linkedinlearning.
If you have trouble accessing your account, contact the MSBMI Educational Technology team at [email protected].
Symplicity CSM at MSBMI is a powerful platform connecting students with exclusive job and internship opportunities tailored to their academic pursuits. Offering MSBMI-vetted and approved listings ensures students access high-quality, hands-on experiences in their chosen fields.
Current students can log in to utilize key features, including job listings, a resume builder, and a personal portfolio builder. Additionally, practicum management is streamlined through this system, making it an essential resource for career development.
Symplicity is readily available to current MSBMI students (no registration required) and faculty and alumni, supporting career success at every stage.
Grammarly is a cloud-based utility software that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes in English texts, detects plagiarism, and suggests replacements for the identified errors. All students, faculty and staff have access to Grammarly through the UTHealth license. Click on the link below to activate your account:
→ Login to Grammarly (Use your UTHealth Houston username and password)
After activating your UTHealth Grammarly account, you can use the shortened URL https://go.uth.edu/grammarly for easier access. Your license may be deactivated if not used for 90 days, but can be reactivated by clicking on the login link above.
Grammarly can be installed and used on common computer platforms and mobile devices. It also works as an extension for popular browsers such as Chrome, Safari and Microsoft Edge. Its interface and features are self-explanatory.
→ First Time Login to Activate Grammarly Account
→ Shortened URL for easy access: https://go.uth.edu/grammarly
→ Grammarly Support Documents
UTHealth students, faculty, and staff can use Zoom free of charge, to schedule interactive online meetings. Users needing a new Zoom account can simply log into Zoom using this link, https://uthealth.zoom.us and will be instantly provisioned a license. UTHealth Faculty and Staff will receive upgraded licenses with no time limit for meetings and students will receive a basic license that has a 40-minute time limit for meetings.
Recordings of Zoom meetings will save to the Cloud as a default with the ability to download the meeting afterward. Zoom recordings will only be available to 15 days, after which the recordings will be purged. Please note the student license does not come with the recording function, however students can access recordings that are shared with them with a link and passcode.
→ UTHealth Zoom Login
→ Contact support
→ Additional Help Information
Panopto is an online platform for sharing lectures, classroom recordings and narrated presentations. It allows both instructors and students to record, manage and share video content in Canvas courses. Panopto is available to all UTHealth students and faculty.
→ Log into Panopto (Sign in Using "UTHealth login" or "UTHealth Canvas Server")
Students can also access Panopto through the "Panopto Recordings" link in a Canvas course. Please refer to Panopto documentation in both the New Student Orientation and the introduction modules of your Canvas courses for more information.
Office 365 Education is a cloud-based service which provides access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and additional productivity tools. Students and teachers at UTH can download Microsoft Office 365 Education for personal use on no more than 5 personal, non-UTHealth devices.
Using your Office 365 account, you can also access OneDrive which is managed by UTHealth and accessible via most browsers. With OneDrive, you can log in and access Office documents from any computer at any location.
→ Office 365 Login
→ UTH IT Office 365 Service Description and FAQ
→ For help contact [Office 365 Support] or refer to [Microsoft Office Support Site]
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Virtual Campus in Second Life, a virtual environment for teaching and learning, contains the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Virtual Health Clinic, a virtual linear accelerator simulation, classrooms, breakout spaces, information about our school and plenty of other spaces to explore.
Second Life may be used in some courses for virtual class sessions, office hours and assignments.
→ McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Students can Join Second Life for Free
→ Click Here to Visit the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Virtual Campus in Second Life.
UTHealth students, faculty, and staff now have free access to QuestionPro, the web-based survey software, that allows users to create customizable online surveys with unlimited responses, and generate reports without programming knowledge.
To get an account, go to go.uth.edu/qp and log in using UTHealth Houston credentials.
For questions or more information, please contact the IT Solution Center at [email protected] or 713-486-4848.
Online training is available:
DE Team assembled the following quick reference page for data analysis software. Several of these software titles are free and others may be purchased directly from the software publisher by students.
→ List of Data Analysis Software for McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics instructors
DE also recommends the following free online tools that may be helpful to McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics students for their coursework.
→ List of Free Online Tools Compiled by DE
Even when using third party tools, please continue to comply with the best practices and IT policies issued by UTHealth.
UTHealth offers students two options for file sharing and storage:
UTHealth SecureStor is a cloud based storage system that makes it possible to store, access and share files and folders from a computer desktop, web browser and mobile device. UTHealth students, faculty and staff can log into to SecureStor with their UTHealth ID and password. UTHealth SecureStor can store all data classifications including HIPAA.
→ More information about SecureStor
→ Login to UTHealth SecureStor
UTH Share is UTHealth’s implementation of Google Apps for Education, excluding Gmail. HIPAA data is not allowed on UTH Share!
→ Learn More about the Google Tools - UTH Share - UTHealth
→ Login to UTH Share
Lucidchart, the cloud-based application for creating flowcharts and visualizations, is now fully integrated with Canvas. UTHealth students, faculty and staff can access LucidChart in any Canvas course by following the instructions on the following page:
→ https://uth.instructure.com/courses/14252/pages/lucid-canvas-integration
Please note that for MSBMI users, free access to LucidChart currently is only available through a Canvas course.
UTHealth Houston users now have free access to Coursera's Career Academy, featuring career-focused courses such as:
→ Login at https://www.uth.edu/coursera/
→ For support, contact [email protected]
A generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) is a large language model (LLM) and a prominent framework for generative artificial intelligence. It is an artificial neural network used by machines to process natural language. GPT models are based on the transformer deep learning architecture and are pre-trained on large datasets of unlabeled text, enabling them to generate novel human-like content. The first GPT was introduced by OpenAI in 2018, and subsequent models have been released with increasing capabilities, such as GPT-4, which is currently in use. These models are widely used in various applications, including chatbots, content creation, and more.
Warning: All GPTs owned and operated by organizations other than UTHealth should be considered unsuitable for inputting Intellectual Property(IP) or copyrighted information such as dissertations, research data/findings, or other IP owned by UTHealth. There is no way to extract/recall data input into a GPT owned and operated by entities other than UTHealth.
Please refer to UTHealth IT’s GPT Comparison Matrix before using GPTs for coursework and research at UTHealth.
The free version of MS Copliot is available to UTHealth students and provides essential document assistance with grammar, spelling, and formatting. UTHealth faculty and staff can purchase a full license version through UTHealth. Students can pay to obtain their licenses. Only licenses purchased by UTHealth for staff and faculty are FERPA and HIPAA compliant.
ChatGPT is designed to generate human-like text in response to user questions or prompts. Specifically, ChatGPT operates as a chatbot or conversational system, trained on a large dataset primarily up to 2021. This AI tool currently utilizes GPT-4, similar to other AI tools that employ one of these language models. Only licenses purchased by UTHealth for staff and faculty are FERPA and HIPAA compliant.
Installed on UTHealth hardware, Meta’s Llama 3.2 GPT is available for academic and research purposes for MSMBI students, faculty, and staff. FERPA and HIPAA compliant and locally hosted at UTHealth. Your information and data do not leave UTHealth premises. Meta Llama is only available to MSBMI students, faculty, and staff. MSBMI AIChat is owned and operated by UTHealth IT and, therefore is a safe resource to use for IP sensitive information. Please note: users must use VPN while accessing the MSBMI AIChat off-campus.
Students can find software programs such as Microsoft Office and Adobe products at discount prices at the UTHealth Bookstores.
This presentation introduces all of TMC Library's services and resources, including information about where to find research databases and how to locate full text articles. All McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics students with a TMC Library card can use the free InterLibrary Loan Service to request photocopies and materials from another library for free.
→ A Complete List of UTHealth Library Resources
UpToDate is available to all staff, faculty, and students at UTHealth Houston at: http://www.uptodate.com/contents/search
Users may access the system via any internal computer as well through phone/tablet app or from home computer. Once logged in to the UTHealth Houston domain, users will be able to register with UpToDate, receive their UN/PW from UpToDate and activate the mobile app with it. While in the UTHealth Houston domain, UTHealth Houston employees and students can just click on the login/register button to set up UpToDate.
Register for a username and password to get mobile app for iOS, Android or Windows 8 devices. To register an account, visit: https://www.uptodate.com/login-register
To access from the web, visit : http://www.uptodate.com/contents/search
For iPhone App, visit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/uptodate/id334265345?mt=8
For Android App, Visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.uptodate.android&hl=en
Many McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics classes culminate with a poster presentation at the end of the semester. Every semester, the poster session gives students the opportunity to present their projects with both their fellow colleagues and McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics learning and research community. Posters with the best content and presentation are awarded a prize.
→ Information on McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Poster Sessions
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics offers free plotter printing services to our students presenting in McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics poster sessions. Additional posters for other occasions may be printed for a fee.
Posters are 40 inches wide on a heavyweight matte poster paper or a semi-gloss poster paper. Large-format posters will be created with the poster template rather than separate PowerPoint slides. To schedule a print, contact [email protected].
Please allow 24 hours to print your poster.
To discuss poster dimensions and for template questions, email [email protected]. For consultations or special print jobs, students must schedule a time with media lab staff the week before the scheduled poster session. Posters are printed on a first come, first serve basis.
→ Poster Template (horizontal)
→ Poster Template (vertical)
→ Plotter Cost Calculator
Updated: 6/28/2024