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Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks

7 Things You Can Do to Make Hybrid Meetings Better

Hybrid meetings (with some people participating in person, others online) seems like the best of both worlds, right…? If you’re on campus, you can meet in-person with your colleagues in the conference room or classroom! If you’re not, you can just “Zoom in” to the meeting! We have good A/V technology in our conference spaces and classrooms! We are all really experienced with using Zoom now! We can do this!!! 

And we can…but it’s not easy. Meetings with in-person and online participants can quickly become unsatisfying to both populations. The online participants often slip into a passive observer role because those in the meeting room are engaged primarily with one another, and/or because they cannot hear or understand what is happening in the room. And the in-room participants can’t always see the names and faces of all online attendees and so they don’t even know who is attending the meeting remotely or who is speaking at any given time. 

A good hybrid meeting experience requires the meeting facilitator to purposefully optimize environments for both the “Zoomies” as well as the “Roomies.” Here are 7 things you can do to make hybrid meetings better for both groups:

  1. Include both the physical and Zoom meeting locations in the meeting request
    Someone who says they may attend in person may need to attend via Zoom unexpectedly, or vice versa. Provide the room number and the Zoom link to everyone invited to the meeting.
     
  2. Make sure all can hear, and be heard
    Make sure everyone can hear what’s being said regardless of their location. Ask Zoomies to give a thumbs up or thumbs down about the sound quality they are experiencing remotely. Ask the Roomies about the audio level in the room and change the volume. Make sure Roomies get close to the mic when they speak…and if they can’t, repeat what was said so the Zoomies can hear.  Set your Zoom meeting defaults so that online participants are automatically muted upon entry in the online meeting room, to minimize background noise, and so you don’t have to mute attendees one by one as they arrive.
     
  3. Actively facilitate the meeting for both populations
    Greet the Zoomies as well as the Roomies when they arrive in the meeting, and make sure everyone is included in the pre-meeting small talk (it’s really easy for the facilitator to just chat with the people who are in the room…those online folks want to be included, too). Set some meeting norms; ask anyone who wants to speak during the meeting to raise their hand, either in-person or virtually, before they speak, in order to democratize the meeting and make sure all are included and heard. Also ask anyone who speaks to state their name, as voices aren’t always recognized by all. Provide documents related to the meeting in a shared digital space that can be accessed by everyone.
     
  4. Engage the online folks purposefully, and frequently
    Focus questions to the group by formally addressing the Zoomies on regular occasion. Look into the camera as you do, if possible. Check the chat and call out comments posted there (or assign someone to be the Zoom moderator on your behalf, asking them to make sure comments and questions are summarized verbally periodically to the larger grop). Display the names and faces of Zoomies in the meeting room, either on a digital display or projector. Use tools that all can see (if you write on a whiteboard in the room, ensure the remote folks can see what you’ve written…and if they can’t, use a digital whiteboard or a document camera to display content remotely). Think through how you will manage small group discussions and reporting out (i.e., have Zoom participants in a group together, or ask in-room participants with laptops to join the Zoom breakout with an online colleague). Encourage Zoomies to speak up anytime they are struggling to hear what is being said in the room so that you can repeat it if you have a soft-spoken person in the meeting.
     
  5. Move side conversations someplace else
    When we’re all in a physical room together and two people start whispering to each other while someone else is speaking, it’s typically easy enough to keep focused on the primary speaker. When you are online, that is impossible. The side conversation becomes this buzz that makes it really difficult to hear the primary speaker.  So, ask people to take their side conversations someplace else…or provide a backchannel chat for those private side convos (more on that below).
     
  6. Provide a backchannel chat for everyone to engage in from their computer or phone
    The way that Zoom allows for comments and questions to be shared via chat when all are in a Zoom meeting is a feature that many of us appreciate; anyone and everyone can add commentary and pose questions without disrupting the presenter, and the presenter can ask questions to check for understanding or to engage all participants, and there’s often lots of encouragement and thanks shared through chat. It’s still possible to have everyone use Zoom chat – including the Roomies – to support “backchannel” conversation for the whole group, though in-room participants should ensure that they have turned off their audio on their devices so that there isn’t feedback in the room. Microsoft Teams also offers a chat feature, as does Canvas, and there are other tools like Slack or Discord that are being used for this.
     
  7. Make sure you’re meeting in a place that is optimized for a good hybrid meeting experience
    Not all of our conference rooms and classrooms are the same. Find a space that is optimized for hybrid meetings, with a good camera and mic, and presentation technology. Test equipment and rehearse in advance of any really important meetings with all of your speakers and presenters, and assign someone to monitor the Zoomies as well as the Roomies so that they have a contact to reach out to if they experience problems, and feel supported and engaged during that meeting. 

As is true with all technology, the technology used to support hybrid meetings will continue to change and improve over time. That said, the most effective hybrid meetings are ones that add in a layer of overt facilitation, ensuring remote participants are engaged and equally included.

Lisa Burke is the Director of the St. Thomas E-learning and Research Team, and has experienced both effective and ineffective hybrid meetings, classes, and conferences. She also likes long distance cycling, which is somewhat irrelevant but explains the photo that is mysteriously published with this post.

Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks

PLANNING FOR POST-2020 FLEXIBILITY

A few weeks ago, many people believed that we were emerging from the pandemic. We prepared for a return to the office, the classroom, and in-person gatherings. However, as the guidance and recommendations shift, why should our course planning be any different?

There are a myriad of reasons to plan for classroom flexibility this year:

Below are recommendations to help you build-in and plan for flexibility in your courses, whether they are online, in-person, or blended.

Course Design

Good course design and the principles of Universal Design for Learning require that a course be well-organized so that students can quickly find information and resources to support their learning. If you haven’t already, consider:

  • Including a Getting Started module for student support. Import this pre-made module from Canvas Commons. This module includes a wealth of information and student support resources, such as links to Tommie Tech Services, Zoom Support, and other Academic and Student Support Services. This module also includes a course Q & A forum where students can post questions for you or their peers to answer.
  • Adding more to your course syllabus, such as a checklist for student attendance and communication expectations. For example, if a student cannot attend class in-person, they should email you as soon as possible. When hosting classes on Zoom, you should include your Zoom expectations (cameras on, breakout room participation, etc.)
  • Providing a course cadence statement to your syllabus or the Canvas course, if applicable. For example, “Each module for the following week will be published on Friday. By Wednesday of each week, you should plan to have the reading completed and submit your initial discussion post. On Thursday, come to class prepared to discuss the reading. All Reflection Essay assignments will be due on Fridays at 11:59 pm CST.”
  • Recording your lectures. If possible, having your lectures pre-recorded allows for more flexibility in your classes. It is best practice to record lectures in segments of 10 minutes or less for ease of editing and student engagement. If you suddenly need to pivot online, your material is ready to be deployed to students. Additionally, students can pause or re-watch lectures as needed. You can also add interactive elements to your video lectures (such as quick quiz questions to check understanding) and view analytics. In addition, it’s useful to have your lectures pre-recorded for absent students so they don’t fall behind.
  • Creating accessible activities that serve all learners.

Course Instruction

Plan to build-in flexibility during your live, in-person or Zoom course sessions and be sure to plan for technology to fail at the most inopportune moment. If you haven’t done so yet, consider:

  • Practicing on Zoom. Before the class session, practice on Zoom using your planned technology. Practice sharing your screen, calling up any documents or presentations, initiating breakout rooms, posting in the chat, any transitions, etc.
  • Creating a collaborative document. By creating and sharing a collaborative document before class, you and your students can have a place to post links, catch notes, record questions or comments, and communicate if there is a last-minute change.
  • Planning for intentional social interaction. Establishing a classroom community early can pay dividends later if you need to suddenly pivot to a different modality.
  • Communicating on Canvas by making frequent use of announcements and posting lectures, notes, or resources in the appropriate module.
  • Trying a new tool to facilitate asynchronous time outside of class. There are numerous tools to drive student asynchronous engagement such as video interactives, online posters or white boards (Padlet, Miro, Mural, Google Suite).
  • Technology failures. Technology can and will fail in the classroom. Have an action plan to overcome technology issues. Some actions could be:
    1. Try turning it off and on again
    2. Try a different web browser
    3. Use Canvas to post an announcement or upload an activity or discussion post
    4. Get help – Tommie Tech Services (Services.stthomas.edu) includes Innovation and Technology Services (ITS) team help via phone, drop in, remote, and email support.

Overall, the best laid course plans can go awry and planning for flexibility will offer you and your students more options for learning and lead to a more seamless experience.

This post was written by Kathryn Russell, Instructional Designer with the St. Thomas E-Learning and Research (STELAR) Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. To learn more about what STELAR can do for you, please visit STELAR’s website or email us at stelar@stthomas.edu.

Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks

Designing and Teaching Short Courses

This post originated as a presentation given to faculty on November 13, 2020.  You can view the recording of that session here

In this post, we will present some considerations and strategies to help you design and implement an effective short online or hybrid course. For the purposes of this post, a “short course” is one that is equivalent to a semester-long course in terms of credit hours but is condensed into a shorter amount of time (for instance, a course that would normally be 15-weeks long is instead 5-weeks long).  Sometimes called “compressed”, “intensive”, or “accelerated” courses, they present unique challenges to both students and teachers, especially when all or part of the course takes place in an online environment.

Don’t Merely Condense

For instructors accustomed to teaching semester-length courses, particularly those converting a course they have taught during a whole semester into the short-course format, the first temptation to guard against is expecting to be able to just condense the longer course into the smaller one.  This is often inadvisable for several reasons, and it’s important to reflect on these reasons so you can make wise choices about what to include or leave out. 

Stamina

First, for many students, some activities cannot be sustained for the long periods of time that would be required to complete them in the shorter time frame required in a short course. Examples may include reading a challenging text, doing complex mathematical exercises, or listening to a lecture. Suppose, for instance, you assign students a challenging article or book chapter.  The average student may be able to spend a half hour or an hour at a time on the reading before their concentration drifts and they start to lose the focus required for deep comprehension.  With several days to complete the reading, this may not be much of a problem, but what if they only had a day to do it, or had to complete several such readings over a few days?  Students with less capacity for long periods of sustained concentration may not be able to complete the readings, or may only be able to do so with diminished benefit. 

RunnerWe can liken this to endurance athletics training.  If a running coach has her athletes run 5 miles a day over 6 days, can she just have them instead run 15 miles a day over 2 days and expect the same kind of performance and benefits?  Obviously not.  Something similar holds for many academic activities, which likewise require a kind of endurance and stamina. 

Processing and Internalizing

Secondly, and relatedly, it’s important to consider the time needed to not merely “get through” material, but to process and internalize it. A rapid-fire encounter with a bevy of topics, ideas, information, arguments, and the like, may allow a student to check off a requirement if she’s clever enough to perform well on exams, but she will be likely to forget them as quickly as she learned them.  And courses that involve critical thinking need to give students the chance to think critically, which requires time to ruminate and digest material. 

Instructor Overload

Third, consider yourself, the instructor, here.  Short courses are not just time-intensive for students but for the instructors as well. As a general rule, to ensure that students complete the activities assigned to them there needs to be an associated assessment (a quiz, grade, etc.), and as we will discuss later in the post, a crucial component of short courses is timely feedback. Are you prepared to provide a meaningful assessment – and feedback – for (nearly) everything you assign?  Are you going to be engaged in all of the online discussions you assign?  Teaching short courses online is frequently much more work than instructors realize, and so you want to avoid overloading yourself. This isn’t about laziness or making things as easy on yourself as possible; it’s being realistic about the fact that good teaching takes time, and you want to be thinking carefully about where you want to be putting in your time so that it’s being used most effectively. 

Clarify Course Goals

Having discussed why you usually shouldn’t just condense semester-length courses into short courses without encountering significant problems, the question now is how to make decisions about the material, activities, and organization of a short course. 

The first task is to think carefully and be explicit about the course goals. Those of you who’ve participated in our course design workshops or who’ve worked with instructional designers in building out a course will know all about the importance of setting out the course goals or outcomes right at the beginning, or at least as early as possible in the process.  As important as that is in designing a normal course, it’s especially important for a short course given that a lot of decisions will have to be made about what material and activities are essential and what are not. 

Similarly, if you have tended to focus on content delivery, you want to think about how to translate that into outcomes.  Why is it important for students to read a particular text?  Can the outcome of that be achieved by substituting a different, shorter text, a combo of text and lectures, etc.?  If you’re working from an existing course but haven’t spent the time to carefully articulate the outcomes or goals, this would be a good time to do that, and the instructional designers at STELAR would be more than happy to help as it can often be challenging to pin that down. 

Next, you want to think about how you would prioritize those goals or objectives, because that’s going to help when it comes time to deciding what content and activities may need to be cut or pared down.  This can be quite challenging in cases where an instructor may have a range of goals or content that she would like to include yet would be too much to fit into the course.  But bear in mind that what seems indispensable to a content expert with command of the subject, years of experience and study, etc., may not, in fact, be as necessary for the student to know.  There’s a temptation among academics to design courses as if they’re training up other academics.  It’s how they were trained up, at least those who went through graduate school, earned advanced degrees, and so forth. So they’re accustomed to teach as if they were training up people like them, thinking about the major theories, arguments, etc., that one needs to know to be an expert in the field. 

Short courses force one out of that mentality, and in doing so it’s helpful to think less in terms of comprehensiveness or breadth and more in terms of depth or “meatiness”.  A soup metaphor may be apt (Kops, 2009).  If you’re transferring soup from a larger container to a smaller one, some will inevitably spill over, but you will want to ensure that it’s only the broth that spills rather than the heartier bits.  One commentator has suggested, as an exercise to help make those distinctions, to consider what you would do if you had to teach a course in only 3 hours versus several weeks (Lee, 2002).

Along those same lines, you may consider refocusing your course a bit more radically, making a more minor or secondary goal into one of the primary ones.  For example, if a semester course aims to provide a wide survey of a particular topic, such that a subtopic is comparatively minor, you may decide to focus the short course on that subtopic; in other words, to make the course much narrower. Students may not get the survey you would normally provide, and there may be many gaps in their understanding of the subject, but they may come away having given quite a bit of thought, attention, and discussion to a few subtopics in a way that has shaped their capacity for skillful and critical reasoning far better than a cursory examination of a wide range of issues would. 

Course Design

When you’ve done the work of articulating the course goals and prioritizing the aims and content, it’s time to think about how to design the course.  Again, there are reasons to avoid automatically designing it as a shortened version of an existing course, and material may need to be rearranged.  In the next section, we will present some common challenges students face with short courses, which will then inform a series of design considerations in the section following. 

Holding the Wheel

Consider that in a high-intensity course, late-course fatigue may be more of a factor than in normal courses; even the most dedicated and determined students may find it harder to sustain their concentration or think creatively.  Moreover, students may have a more difficult time catching up if they fall behind, and because of that there’s a greater danger that they will fall behind more precipitously than in a longer course, or give up altogether

Sophie P., CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The endurance athletics analogy is apt again here. As to the first point, a major endurance or skills test – like a hill or a technical part of a course – is far more difficult later in a stage than earlier.  But the more interesting analogy pertains to the second point.  A phenomenon commonly-known among participants and observers of endurance events, such as marathon running or cycling, is that when an athlete in front gains a gap – even a small one – on the athlete behind, the psychological effects can be profound.  So long as the trailing athlete “holds the wheel” or “the heel” of the athlete in front, she can produce the energy required to keep up, even if it’s far more than what her body would normally produce.  But once the leading opponent opens a gap, her motivation is quickly sapped, and not only can she not sustain the pace of the person in front, the pace drops considerably more, even less than she might produce on her own due to the impact of discouragement.

Similarly, in a high-intensity environment, falling behind even by a small amount can quickly give way to complete abandonment. As the student struggles to catch up, she is aware that more and more is piling up, like game of Tetris gone bad, and this feeds a sense that no matter how much effort she puts in she’ll never be able to get back on track, so it’s better to just abandon and eat the costs. 

One more consideration needs to be kept in mind.  Students have different learning styles (viz., visual, aural, verbal, logical, social, and solitary).  While it’s important to acknowledge this in the design of any course, the fast-paced and intensive nature of a short course make it much more difficult for a student who favors one learning style to adjust or accommodate herself to a course that emphasizes a different style.  For instance, an aural learner may be able to adapt to a course with a heavy reading load if she’s given plenty of time, but that’s precisely what she’s not given in the short course. 

Design Choices

For reasons like these, a few design choices are worth considering.  Some of these are not ideal, and some may not be possible for a particular course.  That’s why they’re considerations rather than “best practices” (and that’s why we spent time discussing their grounds above, so you can determine whether they apply to your own particular course).  

  • If possible, arrange more difficult, complex material and topics to be earlier in the course so students can tackle them when they are fresher and have a bit more time. (This may not be as easy in courses where the difficult, complex material requires a solid foundation to be built first.)
  • Include shorter, more frequent assignments in lieu of longer, less frequent ones. This keeps students active and engaged, and gives them more opportunity to catch up if they miss something.  For instance, divide up an essay assignment into shorter parts that scaffold onto one another, which can help them avoid the blunder of starting too late on the assignment.  Include several quizzes comprised of questions that you would normally include together on a larger exam.  And so on.
  • Schedule the first assignments as early as you can, even if it’s just a quiz on syllabus, a survey, an initial outline or abstract for their assignment or something like that. With such a short time frame students will need to jump right in, and scheduling assignments early can help with that.
  • Vary the activities they will be engaging in throughout the day, as well as the modes of presentation and engagement: readings, video, audio; academic as well as popular pieces; individual writing assignments, group discussions, collaborative assignments, media production; quizzes and journals, etc.
    This can be important for three reasons:
    • Varying the activities and modes is a way to keep things fresh, which is important to avoid burnout.
    • It’s a way of responding to the differences in learning styles mentioned earlier, which, again, becomes much more important in this intensive format. If everything is designed for one type of learner, a student who is a different kind of learner is much more likely to fall behind or be unable to cope.
    • It can give students an “out” if they fall behind, especially when it involves alternative modes of presenting or engaging with similar kinds of themes, such as an article or book chapter as well as a short video presenting similar ideas. This doesn’t necessarily mean giving students different options for achieving the same goal (although you could do that), but it can mean the difference between a rudimentary engagement versus no engagement at all.   
  • Finally, look through your material and consider whether there is something, especially something that involves listening, that they could do while working out or jogging, doing laundry, eating lunch, etc. If they don’t need to have a text in front of them or necessarily be taking notes, but just need to listen and absorb, you build that into the course and designate it as a “listen” video or something like that.

Course Delivery

In this final section, we will consider some strategies to optimize the delivery of your course. As before, many of these are ones that are important to consider for semester-length as well as in-person short courses but become especially important when a course is delivered in a condensed online format. 

Leverage groups

Dividing students into smaller groups for discussions, activities, and assignments can have numerous benefits in the short-course format. 

  • You can have students conduct peer reviews of assignments, or early drafts of assignments, as a way to facilitate critical thinking and take some of the burden off you, the instructor, to be the sole source of feedback.
  • In the short-course format, in which students may be less inclined to read through many of their classmates’ posts and will instead choose to respond to the first post, the shortest post, the post of their friends, etc., smaller group discussions can help ensure that they’re engaging with a wider variety of perspectives (you could even require them to respond to everyone in the group).
  • Create collaborative assignments, such as group presentations, that allow them to divide up time and responsibilities.
  • Students have often reported that relationships develop better in these environments – just as they tend to do when people share intensive experiences – so you can think of groups as providing opportunities for that kind of bonding.

Communication

  • For most students, the short course will require significant adjustments to their study habits, and communicating time expectations can help quite a bit, especially in the early days. *resource.  Indicating how much time should they plan to devote to various aspects of the course can help them plan their days as well as prepare them mentally for the effort involved. 
  • You should also provide resources for time management if those are available. At St. Thomas, all students are enrolled in Tommie Tech, which includes a page on Success Routines and Time Management.  If a student contacts you because he or she is having a hard time keeping up, you can point him or her to this resource, or better yet, include a link to this page in your Canvas site. 
  • It also may be worth checking in with students a week or so into the course to ask about the pace. Are they finding it too fast, or even too slow?  This can be a way for you to adjust if necessary, and at the very least it reinforces to the students that you are concerned about pace and workload rather than just wantonly piling things on. 

Be a Resource

  • Since students are often having to traverse a large territory in a short amount of time, reading and study guides are especially important to help them know what is essential for them to know and remember. 
  • When providing instructions for assignments, discussions, and the like, be as clear and explicit as possible.  Remember that in the intensive environment, students won’t have as much time to ask you questions, get clarifications, etc., nor will they have as much time to work out details on their own. 
  • Providing regular, timely feedback helps them stay focused, motivated, reminds them that you’re present and that they’re not just taking a correspondence course or the like.

Be available

  • Hold office hours regularly. 
  • Provide a Zoom link that serves as a “office door” – if you’re available (at your computer working, for instance), you can open Zoom like you might open an office door, even outside of regular office hours, in case students may want to pop in. 
  • Check email on a regular schedule, and communicate that with students.
    • For instance, you can communicate to students something like, “I’ll check my email every day at 8am, noon, and 4pm M-F.  So if you send me an email, you can expect a reply within 30 minutes of those times.”
      This is a great way to ease their anxiety and help them budget their time. If a student only has a small amount of time to complete an assignment but needs a question answered, knowing when to expect that answer greatly reduces stress and gives the student the freedom to wait on the answer before trying to proceed. 

Be flexible, supportive, and understanding

  • As we mentioned before, we have to be attentive to different learning styles and how it’s harder to adapt to a mode of delivery that favors a different learning style in such a short time frame.
  • Be ready to accommodate contingencies and off days. Everybody has the experience in which something unexpected comes up that draws you away from your work, or you’re simply having an off day in which you can’t focus or your body woke up but your brain slept in.  In a normal course a student can usually afford that, but an intensive environment, this can be disastrous. Once they fall behind a little bit, it’s not only hard to catch up, it saps your motivation and energy as we discussed earlier.  The question we instructors have to ask ourselves is, what do we want to have happen to a student who experiences that?  Do we want them to be left in the lurch or do we want to make sure they are able to be reintegrated with the class?  Assuming everyone prefers the latter option, as we design and deliver our courses we have to keep in front of us that student who will get sick, have to contend with a family crisis, have an off day, etc., and how we will help ensure that student will be able to finish the course successfully despite that. 
  • There’s also the anxiety and pressure, some of it due to the intensity of the course but much of which is due to the students being aware of everything we’ve been discussing – the fact that she has a different learning style, that he’s at home with his family, that if she has an off day or an unexpected demand she’ll fall behind and be unable to keep up. So being aware of and sympathetic to that in the way you design and execute your course can be very consequential. 
Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks, Student Systems of Support

Tommie Tech for All: Student Success Resource

As faculty prepare and launch courses for upcoming semesters, here are reminders about the Tommie Tech technology resource for students...

All St. Thomas students are enrolled in either the undergraduate or graduate student version of the Tommie Tech technology resource introducing St. Thomas technology. Whether in an online or blended course, Tommie Tech guides students to:

  • find technology help available to St. Thomas students
  • set up your own device(s) such as testing your browser
  • use Canvas basic features
  • locate St. Thomas apps and digital tools
  • be aware of online etiquette, and
  • learn about digital security practices

All first-year undergraduate students are required to earn the Tommie Tech Certificate and upload into their First Year Experience course; other professors or programs may invite students to review or refresh themselves on St. Thomas technology.

Tommie Tech reinforces what you put into your courses, and is there for students throughout their time at St. Thomas for those who want to come back to this.

Security note: All course URLs in this article are password protected and only accessible to St. Thomas students using their username and password.

Suggestions to help students get the most out of Tommie Tech:

  • Mention the Tommie Tech Undergraduate or Tommie Tech Graduate site in an early course announcement or letter before or during the first week of class.
  • Encourage students to visit the Tommie Tech site by the end of the first week of class and spend time on what is unfamiliar. There are Tommie Tech Site Facilitators available in the discussion spaces and resources on doing a browser check, internet speed tester, tips on Canvas, free apps in the Microsoft word suite, and much more!
    • Sample Message: If you are new to St. Thomas or wanting to review some of the technology and technology support available for students, please explore the Tommie Tech site and suggested activities. <Faculty, insert in either the Undergraduate Student Tommie Tech or the Graduate Student Tommie Tech link into your communication>. New St. Thomas students find it especially helpful to complete the entire site but it is a resource for all students to keep current with St. Thomas technologies; if you have been at St. Thomas for awhile you may simply want to skim the resource. There is also an option to request a Certificate of Completion.
  • Include the student Tommie Tech course link in your course to make it easy for students to access Tommie Tech. Select the correct link here:
  • Use one of our university Canvas Course Templates (upload from the Canvas Commons) which includes a Tommie Tech site url.

Where did Tommie Tech come from?   

The Tommie Tech sites combine ideas from several previous student tech sites. The earlier sites had a lot of student, faculty, and staff input that guided us on what to include in this current site. We continue to learn from students (and you!) and make edits to further guide all of our students.

Faculty are welcome to enroll in the faculty version of the site. 

There is also a faculty version of this site so you can see what students are experiencing.

One St. Thomas, nobody left behind…Advancing the Common Good is about All of Us!  

If there are additional resources or activities you would like to see for your students especially accessing learning in the online or digital space (whether in a fully online class or other classes that access technology), please reach out to Jo Montie jkmontie@stthomas.edu to explore some ways to creatively work together on this!

This post was written by Jo Montie, Online Learning Student Success Facilitator (jkmontie@stthomas.edu) with the St. Thomas E-Learning and Research (STELAR) Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. To learn more about this topic, please visit our website at www.stthomas.edu/stelar or email us at stelar@stthomas.edu

Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks, Student Systems of Support, Uncategorized

Tommie Tech: A Technology Resource for ALL St Thomas Students!

As faculty prepare and start their upcoming courses, our academic technology team wants to remind you of a resource that you can point students to before students start your class and also during the semester if you ever hear they are having technology needs. If you like to send your students communication before class starts, consider reminding them about the Tommie Tech technology orientation site.

All St. Thomas students are enrolled in either the undergraduate or graduate student version of the Tommie Tech technology orientation. This student resource includes an introduction to St. Thomas technology that includes content and activities that will assist students in taking an online class. Tommie Tech guides students to:

  • find technology help available to St. Thomas students
  • set up your own device(s) such as testing your browser
  • use Canvas basic features
  • locate St. Thomas apps and digital tools
  • be aware of online etiquette, and
  • learn about digital security practices

There is also an option to earn a Tommie Tech Certificate; this is required for all first-year undergraduate students, and at times professors or graduate programs are also asking students to get this certificate of completion.

Security note: All course URLs are password protected and only accessible to St. Thomas students using their username and password.

If you are teaching this fall, consider these suggestions:

  • Mention the Tommie Tech Undergraduate or Tommie Tech Graduate site in an early course announcement or letter before or during the first week, and/or further call this out in your Get Started/Module 0 in your Canvas course. If you are using the Fall 2020 Course Template from STELAR (upload from the Canvas Commons), that course template includes a Module 0, mentions Tommie Tech as well. Tommie Tech complements and reinforces what you put into your courses, and is there for students throughout their time at St. Thomas for those who want to come back to this.
  • Include the student Tommie Tech course link in your fall course to make it easy for students to access Tommie Tech. Select the correct link here:
  • Encourage students to visit the Tommie Tech site by the end of the first week of class and spend time on what is unfamiliar. There are Tommie Tech Site Facilitators available in the discussion spaces and weekly Zoom drop in sessions for students needing to test Zoom, and lots of resources in Tommie Tech (browser check, internet speed tester, tips on Canvas, free apps in the Microsoft word suite, and much more!).
    • Sample Message: If you are new to St. Thomas or wanting to review some of the technology and technology support available for students, please explore the Tommie Tech site and suggested activities. <Faculty, insert in either the Undergraduate Student Tommie Tech or the Graduate Student Tommie Tech link into your communication>. New St. Thomas students find it especially helpful to complete the entire site but it is a resource for all students to keep current with St. Thomas technologies; if you have been at St. Thomas for awhile you may simply want to skim the resource. There is also an option to request a Certificate of Completion. 

Where did Tommie Tech come from?   

The current Tommie Tech sites combine ideas from both the Orientation to Online Learning site (in operation since Summer 2018) and the fall 2019 Tommie Tech sites. The earlier versions of both sites had a lot of student, faculty, and staff input that guided us on what to include in this current site. We continue to learn from students (and you!) and make edits to further guide all of our students.

Faculty are welcome to enroll in the faculty version of the site. 

There is also a faculty version of this site. Here are those links only for faculty/staff:

One St. Thomas, nobody left behind…Advancing the Common Good is about All of Us!  

If there are additional resources or activities you would like to see for your students especially accessing learning in the online or digital space (whether in a fully online class or other classes that access technology), please reach out to Jo Montie jkmontie@stthomas.edu to explore some ways to creatively work together on this!

This post was written by Jo Montie, Online Learning Student Success Facilitator (jkmontie@stthomas.edu) with the St. Thomas E-Learning and Research (STELAR) Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. To learn more about this topic, please visit our website at www.stthomas.edu/stelar or email us at stelar@stthomas.edu