Module 6
Module 6: Support Your DSP Students
Providing legally required accommodations for students in the Disabled Students' Program (DSP) is a crucial component of any course. In this module, we'll look at the technical features available in bCourses to provide accommodations and provide some basic guidelines.
It's important to keep in mind that each student with a Letter of Accommodation (LOA) will require personal consideration, so we can't recommend a "one-size fits all" approach. However, you are not on your own. The experts in the DSP office are happy to talk through options for how to meet the requirements of a student's LOA and serve as a liaison between you and the student. Whenever you have a question about how to make an accommodation, reach out to them for support.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this module, you'll be able to:
- Access LOAs for students in your class
- Make your GSIs proxies in the AIM portal to access LOAs
- Moderate quizzes for individual DSP students
- Change assignment deadlines for individual DSP students
- Ensure all instructional materials are fully accessible to all students
- Apply best practices for supporting DSP students
All of these learning objectives will help you to achieve the overall course objective: Meet the accommodations required for students who have Letters of Accommodation (LOAs) from the Disability Students' Program (DSP).
How To Do It
Access LOAs for students in your class
We are going to start this module by looking at the Accessible Information Management (AIM) Instructor Portal Links to an external site.. You will get access to student LOAs via this site. The articles below from DSP explain how to login to AIM to access your LOAs and how to address them.
Make your GSIs proxies in the AIM portal to access LOAs
Many instructors will delegate the responsibility of retrieving and addressing LOAs to their GSIs. In order to facilitate this process, you'll need to make your GSI a proxy for you in the AIM Instructor Portal Links to an external site.. The following guide created by DSP explains how to complete that step.
Remember that even if you do delegate the LOAs to your GSIs, if you are the Instructor of Record you are the one ultimately responsible for ensuring that the accommodations are implemented. For that reason, DSP recommends that your GSI include you on any communication to a student in reference to their accommodations.
Moderate quizzes for individual DSP students
Once you know what accommodations a student needs, you can make many of those adjustments to quizzes, exams, and assignments easily via bCourses.
One of the most common accommodations is extra time on quizzes and exams, usually described as getting "double time" or "time and a half." In bCourses, you can adjust the time on a quiz by "moderating" it. The following article from the Canvas Guides explains how to moderate a quiz to give extra time.
Change assignment deadlines for individual DSP students
Another common accommodation is extended due dates on assignments. These accommodations are not standardized and it is the responsibility of the instructor and GSIs to work with the student to determine an appropriate extension window. The extension length will vary by student and assignment, but the following articles from the Canvas Guides explain how you can adjust an assignment due date for specific students or choose to leave an assignment open so any student can submit after the due date.
- What's the difference between assignment due dates and availability dates? Links to an external site. —Relevant section is Working with Due and Availability Dates
- How do I assign an assignment to an individual student? Links to an external site.
Ensure all instructional materials are fully accessible to all students
DSP will assist you in making sure all your course materials are fully accessible for students who have an LOA on file. However, it is a good practice to make your instructional materials accessible as you are creating them because there may be students in your class who use a screenreader or need captions on videos, but don't have an LOA on file. The following resources provide guidance on ways you can make your instructional materials accessible as you develop them and where to get help on campus.
Best Practices
The DSP website has many resources available for faculty and we recommend you review these materials first if you have any questions.
You can also review the best practices page that focuses on the technical components of providing accommodations.