Catherine Gorman

Something as simple as using color to convey meaning can cause severe accessibility issues for students that are visually impaired, color blind, etc. So, making sure our material is truly accessible and using various techniques to make this happen is critical to student learning. I also learned about the vast number of resources available to students with various disabilities.

We already provide close captioning in our lectures and record them for later reference by all of our students, but I learned about the legal acts and laws passed that make these actions so important.

I learned that disabilities are many times hidden and health conditions, like diabetes -- which I'm very familiar with because of family members -- are also considered disabilities. Never would I have considered things like diabetes to be disabilities, especially in a school setting, as it seemed like a separate health condition to be managed as best as possible by those affected.

This section heightened my awareness of the intricacies involved with documenting international students and how other laws -- such as Soloman's Act and additional financial restrictions put in place by the FTC. 

FERPA is about the student's rights and ultimately protecting both the student and their private information, along with protecting the institution by keeping records secure.

We always err on the side of caution when dealing with student information, and I didn't realize that parents could access information if they could prove that the student was a dependent. We have always used the rule that as long as the student isn't a minor (under 18) then their permission would be needed to contact/ discuss their progress, etc with a parent.

FERPA honestly affects something as simple as contacting a student via phone if it's not a personal mobile number, because you could have a spouse unaware of the fact that their significant other is taking classes. Perhaps, there are valid reasons for that individual to want to keep their education private. So you can't just spout off information about the institution and reason for your call if leaving a message. Your working relationship with the student is essentially private information and should be treated as such -- whether that's calling at risk students about progress or refusing to discuss grades/… >>>

I learned about this important resource since I work for a for profit institution: "Request assistance from an independent, third party copyright permissions provider such as the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to verify the need for copyright permissions and to simplify the ongoing permissions process. They have a specific pay-per-use licensing service for the instructor to utilize (http://www.copyright.com/);"

Modeling proper citation methods is something I already do in my courses (I teach writing/ research/ humanities courses), but it goes beyond that to truly teach them how to be good digital citizens.