City College Southampton's Technology Support Policy for Students During Covid-19, Study notes of Technology

Download City College Southampton's Technology Support Policy for Students During Covid-19 and more Study notes Technology in PDF only on Docsity! City College Southampton Technology Support for Students Issue number: 1.0 Issue date: Month YYYY Page 1 of 8 Technology support for students 1. Introduction City College Southampton is fully committed to delivering a full and engaging curriculum offer throughout 2020/21 that has been deigned to meet the needs and interests of its communities. The College recognises that during this academic year, and indeed for the life cycle of this pandemic (Covid 19), student opportunities for face-to-face teaching, learning and assessment might be disrupted on one or more occasion throughout the year. The College also recognises that the disruption, at any time, may be to individuals, groups or bubbles or to the whole college community. In order to ensure that students continue to make the required progress in order to achieve their qualification and progress into higher education, further education and/in to work, City College Southampton commits to: a) Contacting individual students at the beginning of each timetabled day, when they are isolating due to a confirmed/suspected infection in their household. Their teacher will identify where they can find work on Citybit and to confirm what activities are to be completed that day including for both their main programme and for English and maths where appropriate. b) Delivering a full programme of on-line timetabled activity when a group or bubble is isolating due to a confirmed/suspected case within the College or when a teacher(s) is isolating due to a confirmed/suspected infection from within their household. c) Directing students to on-line activities when their teacher is ill and no cover is available. These students will be registered at the beginning of each timetabled day via a zoom tutorial. d) Delivering a full programme of on-line timetabled activity in the event of the College being advised to stop face to face teaching and to amend, as appropriate, assessment plans and methods as appropriate. The College fully understands that the implementation of these commitments is predicated on all students having sufficient access to a computer and the internet at home. To ensure that the College fully understands where access to a computer at home is limited or restricted, a survey of all students will be completed by the end of October half-term. And, for young people and some adult students, a computer (lap-top) loan scheme will be available for students who are isolating or who are studying from home as a result of their teacher being ill or isolating. City College Southampton Technology Support for Students Issue number: 1.0 Issue date: Month YYYY Page 2 of 8 This policy, therefore, outlines what technological support is on offer; how that support will be prioritised; and, how the support will be distributed. 2. Scope of this policy This remit of this policy applies to young people aged 16-18 on Study Programmes and those who are aged 16-24 in receipt of an Education Health and Care Plan. However, these is a discretionary Category 4 that relates to adult students. 3. Principles Technological support will be supplied in the event of: • An individual student who is isolating for up to 14 days due to someone in their household being infected; • A group or curriculum bubble isolating at the request of the College; • A group(s) being asked to work away from the College due to the prolonged absence of a teacher; or, • The College, in part or in full, being asked or required to stop face-to-face delivery as a result of a local or national lockdown. 4. What technological support will be available City College Southampton have procured c550 laptops, 49 of which were allocated to the College as part of the government’s support to help vulnerable and disadvantaged students engage with learning whilst away from the College campus. Each laptop will be configured to allow students to access a study package which will include word, excel, PowerPoint and the internet. Each computer will also be installed with Barracuda web-filtering agent Kaspersky Antivirus software to allow the College to safeguard students and monitor search criteria which may/may not fall under the Prevent Duty. 5. How will the allocation of technical support be prioritised? The allocation of technological support will be on a needs basis. The first group of students who will be prioritised for support will fall into one (or more) of the identified cohorts listed in Category 1. However, in order to meet the criteria for technological support, each student will be surveyed in order to assess their current City College Southampton Technology Support for Students Issue number: 1.0 Issue date: Month YYYY Page 5 of 8 Appendix A: Procedure for distributing technological support 1) All study programme students will complete an access to technology questionnaire on Citybit using the following questions by Friday 6 November 2020 • How many people live at home with you or how many people live in the place where you are staying (include yourself in the number) • How many of the people you live or are staying with are still in education (school, college or university)? • How many computers are there at home? (computers = fixed PC, iPad, Tablet but not phone) • Do you have sole use of any of the computers at home or the place where you are staying that nobody else uses? • Do you have Wifi at home or the place where you are staying? 2) The results of the survey will be recorded against each individual student. If a student declares that they have sole use of a computer where they live or are staying, they will be deemed as not requiring technological support. 3) If a student declares that they are living at home or in others forms of accommodation and that they do not have sole access to a computer and that there are others living with them who are in school, college or university, they will be deemed as needing technological support. Or, if a student declares that they are living at home or in other forms of accommodation and the ratio between computer is greater than 1:2, they will be deemed as needing technological support. 4) Once the need for technical support has been triggered (in any of the events listed under Section 1b or 1c) or any other event as agreed by the Vice Principal, Curriculum and Quality, the following process should be followed: I. Each student will be texted and emailed and informed about what technological support is available to them for the period of isolation/working away from the College. For students aged 18 or under, the email will be sent to the parent/guardian. II. In the email to students (and parent/guardian where appropriate) will be a copy of the IT Loan Agreement. For students aged 16-18, the agreement will need to be signed by the parent/guardian and emailed back to the College. No lap-top will be distributed until the agreement has been signed and returned. III. Once the agreement has been returned, the student will be contacted to identify the best way of delivering/collecting the lap-top from the College. City College Southampton Technology Support for Students Issue number: 1.0 Issue date: Month YYYY Page 6 of 8 5) Once the period of isolation is over or if students are returning from a period away from the College, they will be given a date and time when they are to return their Lap-tops to IT Support for cleaning – in readiness for future distribution. City College Southampton Technology Support for Students Issue number: 1.0 Issue date: Month YYYY Page 7 of 8 Appendix B: Student Laptop Loan Agreement Student Laptop Loan Agreement The item(s) listed below are supplied by Southampton City College IT Department to assist with completing your course online electronically within and outside of the College. Description: Asset number: Serial number: Accessories: Upon accepting the equipment (hardware) and signing this agreement the delegated person accepts full responsibility of the hardware provided and will abide, in full, with the terms and conditions in the document ‘City College Southampton Student Acceptable IT Use Agreement for Loaned Laptops’. The items listed above remain the property of the College and the College reserves the right to request the property to be returned with due notice at any time and no later than the end date of your course. The College will charge you for loss or damage to the hardware covered by the agreement. If you experience any problems with the hardware supplied, please contact the IT Helpdesk as soon as possible (telephone 023 8057 7391). I accept the terms and conditions above. Signed: ____________________________________________________ Print Name: Curriculum area/Department: