Online classes have been difficult for everybody involved, but teachers and students alike can agree the technical issues are by far the most challenging part of online learning yet. Whether it’s forgetting a password or disconnecting during a test, these issues can be a real problem.
(Nick Bougher) “We had never used it before and on the first test, Examity didn’t work so for about 20 minutes people were sending emails to I guess technically the TA saying that Examity wasn’t working, and the TA responded said hey yeah sorry guys we’ll update the due date for the test and the test was submitted over Canvas and they did not update the due date over Canvas.”
Luckily, JCCC students need not worry, as they currently offer multiple tech support services service for email, instant messaging and call ins. You can get to the most homepages by going through the JCCC website, or just simply googling “JCCC tech support” I spoke with Ed Lovitt, the director of educational technology for further details.
(Lovitt) “The area that I manage is the educational technology center, basically we handle faculty technical questions we support faculty use of canvas we also support products like Yuja and Zoom for faculty. We have a zoom room basically that’s open 7am to 5pm Monday through Friday, so faculty can come in just like what we’re doing right now, and they can ask questions we can do desktop sharing and they can resolve issues.”
Ed also gave some great advice for students that may be struggling with general issues like canvas and connection.
(Lovitt) “I would say be patient, just as we talked about just now, not all faculty are as technically savvy with that, reaching out to the instructor to ask questions to get clarification. Also, kind of doing an inventory of what resources you have do you have a strong internet connection? Equipment? We talked about these things right here [phones] they do a good job of maybe monitoring a class and checking on the status of things, but I would not be taking exams on these things ok? I probably would try to find a laptop or a place where I have a robust internet connection to do some of those high stake’s exams. I would not be going down the road and trying to do something like that.”
Not only that, but the JCCC offers much more assistance than just the generic tech support hotline. They offer faculty assistance, computer resources and study spaces to accommodate for students that might not have them. CoLab tech tutoring for students that aren’t as technically inclined and much more. JCCC even offers canvas tutorials for students and teachers that might not fully understand it.
The biggest problem almost any online classroom faces can be solved pretty easily thanks to JCCC’s robust tech support system. They’ve made these confusing times a little more understandable. Next time you’ve got a tech problem and it seems unsolvable, give any of the tech support branches a call and I’m sure they’d be happy to help. Reporting for the campus ledger, I’m Leo Fotovich.