When students find themselves in crisis, the ITS Office of Digital Learning and Academic Technologies (ODL) offers services to help students navigate their academic journey. Working with faculty, advisors and partners across campus, ODL helps identify students in crisis and connects them with critical resources and support. Whether experiencing an emergency or struggling to keep up with coursework, students can count on ODL to leverage academic data, technology and communication to help them feel supported and cared for during times of stress and uncertainty.

Responding to Emergencies

Natural disasters and severe weather pose challenges for FSU students, from campus shutdowns and missed class time to the stress of navigating emergencies. For FSU distance learners, who can be affected by severe weather even when physical FSU campuses are not, events like hurricanes, floods or wildfires add another layer of complication. ODL regularly monitors national emergencies to determine if any FSU distance learning students are in affected areas. While Tallahassee remained relatively unaffected by the September 11 landfall of Hurricane Francine, distance learners in Louisiana parishes faced the threat of severe weather, flooding, property damage and the challenge of making up missed schoolwork. The September 26 landfall of Hurricane Helene had a similar outcome, with the Tallahassee campus quickly returning to full operation while distance learners throughout the southeast experienced severe weather threats and challenges.

By cross-referencing impacted counties with student location data, ODL identifies distance-learning students who may be impacted by events like hurricanes or other natural disasters. ODL notifies instructors when one of their students resides in an affected area and may be experiencing impacts such as loss of power, Wi-Fi, cellphone service or, in the case of an evacuation, may not have access to textbooks and course materials. In the days following an emergency, ODL regularly monitors Canvas login activity for these students, notifying Case Management Services when additional support is indicated.

The FSU Emergency Module is another way ODL supports students and their instructors before, during and after an emergency. When imported into a Canvas course site, the FSU Emergency Module provides access to emergency resources, pre- and post-emergency surveys and asynchronous activities to help students make up missed class time.

 

We developed the FSU Emergency Module as a way of helping instructors proactively prepare their courses for hurricanes and other natural disasters.

“Much of our post-hurricane response system developed out of Hurricane Michael’s devastation of Panama City in 2018,” says Robert Fuselier, senior director of digital learning and academic technologies. “We were able serve our Panama City campus partners by helping with communications and distributing surveys to determine where students and faculty had relocated and who had access to power, internet and course materials. We were able to provide faculty with resources for making up missed class time and connect students in need with case managers. It was after Hurricane Michael that we developed the FSU Emergency Module as a way of helping instructors proactively prepare their courses for hurricanes and other natural disasters.”

Monitoring Academic Performance

The ODL Early Alert Tool enables instructors to refer struggling students to the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE). Through the Early Alert referral system, ACE can connect students with one of their study skills tutors or an ACE faculty member to customize a plan that addresses the student’s challenges and needs.

Through a partnership with Student Athlete Academic Services, ODL supports student athletes by providing advisors with academic insights on how athletes are performing in the classroom. These insights, which are provided through the ODL-developed Athletic Observer Tool, enable advisors to monitor student progress, grades, upcoming due dates and important policies and procedures from the course syllabus. Advisors access data directly from Athletic Observer, avoiding the need to enroll advisors in course sites.

Case Management Services, an office within the Division of Student Affairs, is responsible for making sure students in distress receive care and support. ODL often partners with Case Management Services when a student is facing a mental health, personal, financial or academic crisis. Canvas activity data helps case managers customize support to best serve the needs and situation of a particular student.

An IT Team that Cares

Whether facing a natural disaster or simply in need of additional academic resources, FSU students can rest assured ITS cares and is working behind the scenes to support them.