23 Additional Annotations

Considerations to Help Best Support Course Tools:

• Suggest alternatives for students with technology impediments or challenges; and provide clear pathways for students to get assistance with commonly required technologies.

• Be proactive by sharing links to free resources in your syllabus. This is especially helpful for first-generation students--students who are from the first generation in their family to go to college. If students email you with concerns about access to a computer or stable Internet connection, provide links to information about computer labs on your campus and suggest using computers at public libraries near their homes. If they have a device, Internet cafes are another option. If a student does not have access to a computer but has a smartphone, he or she could submit essays via Office 365 Online or Google docs as an alternative to using a word processing application like Microsoft Word.

• If you teach a hybrid class, one classroom strategy is to put students in small groups or pairs and assign one student per group to be a "tech scribe"—a student with a device who looks up information and/or submits the group's answers, ideas or work. Assign roles (e.g., facilitator, reporter, timekeeper) to the other students in the group as well, to create an equitable workload and to show the value of skills required for effective teamwork.

Provide

• links to download optional and/or required software

• explanations of the software and its use in the class (including costs)

• links to tutorials about how to use each application

• links to technology support where appropriate especially within individual assignments or activities

• alternative pathways for students who do not have adequate access to a specific technology

• privacy policies for course technologies

Encourage

• Check in with students periodically about how the coursework is going for them and ask if they are having any technology issues.

• Reach out and send tutorials and additional instructions if students aren't submitting work using tech tools.

• Check the Canvas analytics to see which students have been logging in and when. For any student who hasn't logged in, reach out and ask if everything is going ok with their technology access.

• Tell students you care about them completing the work and gaining the necessary technology skills.

• Give them a reason for using the specific technology or tech tool. How will this help them in their personal, professional and academic lives?