For Faculty

Universal Design, Places to Start, Jay Dolmage

Promising Practices, edited by Sheryl E. Burgstahler

Moodle-based Assessments 

The Quiz module in Moodle has a number of options which can reduce the need for proctoring. The quiz module can enforce a time limit, and individual students can be given extended time overrides as necessary. Students can also be given different windows in which to take the exam, if accommodations need to be made regarding the exam period.

There are a number of options within Moodle which can be used to reduce the ease and utility of cheating. The most effective approach would be the use of randomly selected questions, drawn from a larger test bank. Moodle can also shuffle the order of questions in the exam, and the order of answers within a multiple choice question. Each of these reduces the chance that any student has received the exact same exam as any other student.

Alternate Assessments

The CIP hosted a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) consultant for the University of Kentucky, Jennifer Pusateri, in spring 2020 to discuss course design. Many faculty at Kenyon incorporate a number of these types of assessments in their classes. Types of assessment include:

• Essays and papers

• Recorded or live oral reports

• Open book exams

• Portfolios that cover the course material

• Create a product exam

• Cognitive map

• Presentations

One of the principles of UDL is that students can often demonstrate learning more successfully when they have agency to choose the nature of their assessment. Allowing students to choose between a couple of options for final projects or exams can enhance learning while also reducing the need for proctoring.

The CIP is an excellent resource for faculty wanting to explore course assessment options. The University of Georgia discusses several of these options on their website.  

Accommodate how to's like the one listed below are available with detailed screenshots to help look up information about:

Accommodations, Tests, and Notes

Would you like to know who is approved to use accommodations in your course(s)?

Log into Accommodate.

Select "Courses" from the menu on the left.

Select a specific course.

Select "Enrolled Students."

Do you post PDFs on Moodle? Would you like help to convert these PDFs from scanned images to customizable text?

You can convert PDFs in SensusAccess.

Testing Guidelines

Students can request note-taking accommodations in the Accommodate system.  

Please see the related Recorded Lecture Policy

The Student Accessibility and Support Services Office engages in an interactive process with each student and reviews requests for accommodations on an individualized, case-by-case basis. Depending on the nature and functional limitations of a student’s documented disability, the student may be eligible for note-taking assistance.

Notes and/or recordings are for a student’s personal study use only and are not to be shared with other individuals unless this is provided to all class participants.

Providing note-taking accommodations is not one size fits all or about one tech solution but about providing access to lecture content in as independent a manner as possible. 

Peer notes can be available in Accommodate and are accessible to note recipients anonymously and are generally available 24 hours after class. Peer notes require dependence on someone else. Independent options include glean or One Note which can create an audio recording that syncs with a student’s own notes. 

It can be helpful to attend a couple of class sessions to determine which class notes option would work best.

Please see the options below:

glean

glean faculty guide

Glean is an independent skill-building note-taking platform that requires the student to take notes that sync with the recorded lecture. Students can generate a transcript, listen back to key moments, and add text notes, images, slides, and tasks to create a personalized learning resource.

OneNote

(This option allows students to type their notes and organize them electronically.) Microsoft OneNote is a free tool that works across platforms (Windows, Mac, and mobile devices/tablets). Students can type their notes, keep them organized like a traditional notebook, and import other files like handouts or PowerPoints. One Note also has a recording feature that simultaneously syncs lecture audio with typed notes like a smart pen. 

How to Install OneNote

How to Install Google Drive for Desktop

Access to Class Materials

Instructors provide PowerPoint slides, outlines, notes, and other supplemental materials in advance of the lecture if available.

Peer notes

A fellow student shares their class notes within 24 hours of the class by uploading them in Accommodate.

Suggestions for Securing Peer Notes:

1. Please ask at the beginning of the next class if any student would be willing to provide peer notes.

2. Please review the notes of the volunteer student note taker to ensure that they are legible and have captured the main points of the lecture/ discussion.

3. If the notes are acceptable, please email sass@kenyon.edu as soon as possible with the name of the selected peer note taker.

4. Please note that the note recipient's identity should not be shared with the note taker. The transfer of notes will occur through an electronic portal.

5. Please note that peer note providers will be paid 1hr/week for provision and tracking of peer notes.

How to Request Note-Taking Accommodations

Student registers with the Student Accessibility and Support Services Office. You can register with SASS by completing the Intake Survey (link) from the Accommodate system. If you are already registered you will want to either renew or add a supplemental request in the accommodate system.

If note-taking is approved as a reasonable accommodation, SASS will review the options with the student in a student-initiated meeting.

For peer notes, faculty can recommend a note taker to SASS or ask SASS to locate a note taker. If a note-taker has not been recommended in five business days, SASS will solicit the class for a note-taker.

Access to class notes is not designed to replace your own notes, as taking handwritten notes (for those who are able to take notes) is scientifically linked to better retention of information.  Class notes and audio recordings are designed to serve as a set of comparison notes.  Actively comparing your own notes with written or audio notes within 24-36 hours can be a very effective learning strategy. 

Important information to consider:

Increasingly, instructors provide PowerPoint slides, outlines, notes, and other supplemental materials to all students, which may eliminate the need for an individual class notes accommodation. Class notes accommodations may not be useful in Seminar or other discussion-based courses.

Recording lectures may not be a reasonable accommodation in classes where open discussion is part of the course design. In this case, peer notes may be a reasonable alternative. 

If you are not certain about which of the above class notes options will work best for your course(s) and want to discuss the options please contact Ruthann Daniel-Harteis (danielharteis1@kenyon.edu).

SASS promotes use of facial coverings to support the health and safety of all campus members. Under some circumstances, students may need to be exempted from facial covering requirements due to disability-related and medical reasons. For example, a student’s disability may include breathing difficulty that is exacerbated by use of a facial covering.

In these instances, students may request a facial covering exception or alternate clear face shield accommodation. SASS will verify the medical necessity for this exception and this information will be shared with faculty. We encourage you to include the following statement in your course syllabi:

Sample Facial Covering Syllabus Statement

Facial coverings are required during all class meetings to promote the health and safety of all campus members. There may be college approved exceptions or alternatives to this requirement. Students who cannot wear a facial covering due to medical or disability-related reasons should contact Student Accessibility and Support Services at sass@kenyon.edu.

Physical distancing should be maintained whenever possible for all students, including those with a facial covering exception.

Student Accessibility and Support Services (SASS) engages in an interactive process with each student and reviews requests for accommodations on an individualized, case-by-case basis. Depending on the nature and functional limitations of a student’s documented disability, they may be eligible for use of:

SASS Responsibilities:

Meet with students to discuss the need for accommodations related to a hearing impairment.

Assist faculty in identifying to provide video captioning for all related course materials.

Arrange sign language interpreting or CART services for students approved for these accommodations.

Provide support and assistance to students and faculty regarding these accommodations.

Faculty Responsibilities:

Inform SASS of course materials requiring captioning in advance of the start of the semester if contacted about a student with a hearing impairment to allow adequate time to prepare materials.

Respond to SASS staff if contacted about captioning material (e.g., video clips, movies) used within the context of the course.

Recognize that any material added during the course of the semester needs to be accessible to students with hearing impairments.

Upon receipt of an approved accommodation letter from a student or SASS, discuss the accommodation with them and provide support as needed.

Consider the following additional best practices when interacting in learning environments with students who have hearing impairments:

Face the student as often as possible when speaking

Avoid standing with your back to a window or other light source.

Avoid blocking areas of your mouth with hand or objects

Repeat questions or comments made by other people in the room.

Real-time captions, or Computer Assisted Real-time Translation (CART), are created as an event takes place. Remote real-time captions are produced at a remote location and then transmitted to the site where the program is taking place. For example, in a lecture hall an instructor can talk into a microphone that is connected via telephone lines to a captioner in a different city. From that location, the captioner, using similar equipment as described above, transmits the captioned text via the internet, using special software, to a laptop in the lecture hall — or to a laptop in a student's home, if they are unable to attend the lecture in person. A fully edited transcript will be available within 24-36 hours for professors from Access Resources to share with designated or all students.

Real-time captioning will be arranged for both in-person and online classes to accommodate students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Tips for Working with Remote CART or C-Print® Captioning

• Using the microphone provided, speak clearly during the class/meeting so that the captionist can hear you easily.

• Face the student as often as possible when speaking

• Avoid standing with your back to a window or other light source

• Repeat and/or summarize questions or comments from meeting/classroom participants so that the captionist can transcribe these as well. (The rule of thumb is that if comments are hard for you to hear, or seem somewhat disorganized, it will be helpful to repeat and/or summarize what you heard).

In some cases, students may request an alternative to in-person instruction due to an underlying medical condition. Dean Hawks will contact you and your department chair to explore and coordinate these requests. Remote instruction should be provided when reasonable and appropriate provided it does not fundamentally alter essential course requirements. Consider the following questions when evaluating these requests:

• Is physical presence necessary to meet essential course or degree requirements?

• Has this course been previously taught in a remote format?

• Does the course include clinical or field experience components?