Best Practices: Support Your DSP Students

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Best Practices: Support Your DSP Students

Below are some best practices that you can follow when making accommodations in bCourses and working with DSP students in your remote instruction course.

University Requirement

A student's disability can take different forms and may cause challenges at different points in the semester, even right before a major assignment or the final exam. If a student needs updated accommodations, they must contact DSP, and DSP will send you an updated LOA. You are legally required to make a good faith effort to meet the stated accommodations at any point you receive them during the term. If you are unsure of how to best meet an accommodation, you can always reach out to a DSP Specialist.  

Leave your assignments open

bCourses makes a distinction between an assignment's due date and its availability dates. You can set a due date for an assignment without closing it for submissions by leaving the "Until" field empty. (Review the materials in Module 4 if those terms are not clear to you.) This means students can continue to submit the assignment after the due date. In the Gradebook, you will see any assignments submitted after the due date flagged as "Late," and if a student submits more than once, you will see both versions and the submission dates in SpeedGrader. 

Leaving an assignment open so that students can submit past the due date allows for flexibility when making LOA accommodations. You will not need to set separate submission dates for LOA students and if an accommodation comes in close to or after an assignment's due date, you will not need to make any adjustments. The student's GSI would just need to be aware of the accommodation and know that even though bCourses flags the assignment as "Late" it is not actually late since the student received an extension. 

Notify students when you've made accommodations

Though not required, it is recommended that you notify students when you've made their specific accommodations in bCourses. Since many of the accommodations will be made via adjusting settings in bCourses, students may not be aware of how to check that those accommodations have been made, which can lead to many emails back and forth. If you notify the student once you've made the standard adjustments, it will not only ease the student's concern, but also will help to establish a line of communication related to their accommodations, which can be useful throughout the semester. 

For GSIs, include the instructor on all communication to students related to accommodations

This has already been stated earlier in the module, but it bears repeating; the instructor should be included on all communication to students related to their accommodations. Ultimately, the instructor is responsible for ensuring the accommodations have been met, so while the GSI may be the student's main contact, and may also be the person actually making the accommodations, it's essential that the instructor be kept abreast of what has transpired. 

Reach out to DSP specialists

If you are ever unsure of how to implement an accommodation or are struggling to work with a DSP student, contact that student's DSP Specialist. You can find the student's DSP Specialist's name and contact information at the bottom of the student's LOA. The DSP Specialist is your best resource for answering any questions about accommodations.