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[changinggears]

If there's a thread on this farther back than I had time to scan, a link is greatly appreciated.

In case there's not, here's my question:

What effective and time/headache-saving techniques have you developed for dealing with students' technical difficulties?

Obviously, I've planned a bootcamp on how to use the technology that will be required for the course (it's a hybrid, so I will actually be able to do this in a f2f session).  And I've prepared a directory of online help resources for the various technologies.  But I've found with trad courses that I'm usually the first responder when it comes to tech issues (even when I've made specific help resources available) and rarely do they ever give me the kind of info that will allow me to actually help them.

So, any tried and true methods for make students self-reliant when it comes to solving tech issues and/or for encouraging them to provide adequate information when and if they do contact me?

How about methods for making my expectations that they be self-reliant clear?  And the fact that tech issues will not be a legitimate excuse for not completing an assignment on time? (other than the syllabus because, as we all know, putting info in the syllabus does not equal making the info available in a place that students will access it)

[infopri]

I teach my course entirely online, so tech issues will sink a student.  Even so, I provide very little tech support.  Here's what I do do:

- I post a "how to navigate this course" document in an obvious, can't-miss-it-place on the CMS.

- I provide pointers to some tutorials.

- For a non-CMS tool we use, I do provide detailed step-by-step directions, along with links to tutorials and additional information, as well as the contact information for the university's tech guy responsible for this tool.

- I post a message reminding students of some frequent CMS issues on (like, you have to click on "submit" after uploading an assignment, or I won't receive it).

For just about everything else, I refer students to our CMS system administrator.  But I'm fortunate in that (a) we have an excellent tech team, including the CMS administrator and the fellow responsible for the other tool, and (b) these folks welcome the referrals and are happy to help students in distress.  I know folks at some other schools are not as fortunate.

[zharkov]

Generally speaking, you should not get involved with student technical problems at all.  Provide the phone number and emails for the CMS administrator, and such, and tell them to call the help desk, not you.

Once upon a time, when teaching hybrids, I would reserve the last half hour of the first class for an overview of how to login, post in a discussion thread, download a document, and submit a document.  Maybe a half or third of the students would stay, the rest were free to go.  But I have not had to run that little intro to CMS session for a good three or four years, since they all have learned how to do that stuff in other classes.

PS:  In case they call or email you with technical problems, your response should be:  What did the help desk say?