Student support squad provides faculty assistance

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about great change in the daily life for every member of the Tulane community and has made it necessary to implement innovative new practices and programs on campus. Tulane’s increased need for on-campus and online technology support has resulted in the formation of the Student Squad for Academic Support.

The Student Support Squad is a partnership between Information Technology’s Innovative Learning Center and Tulane’s academic departments, created to assist with Tulane’s new technology enhanced learning environments. The goal of the program is to assist faculty with both their online and in-person courses, while simultaneously providing opportunities for student employment on campus as Tulane transitions to a new model of learning for the Fall 2020 semester.

The Student Squad consists of three new student positions: Classroom Experience Assistant, Educational Media Assistant and Zoom Producer.

The Classroom Experience Assistant is a short-term position created to assist faculty with classroom logistics during the first half of the semester and is crucial as students return to campus. IT has received 87 applications and hired 43 students so far, almost recaching their goal of 45 students. This position will expand IT’s support team, who will train the students on simple technology troubleshooting within the classroom. These students will be assigned to buildings across campus and will be easily identifiable for faculty and staff members to locate in the event a technical issue arises during class.

The Educational Media Assistant will provide faculty support with the development and editing of online course material to better align it with Universal Design for Learning and accessible course delivery standards as well as curating or producing audiovisual content. The Zoom Producer role will assist instructors with managing the administrative aspects of the Zoom classroom. Tulane’s IT team will coordinate with each department and course instructor to create tailored trainings and facilitate remote workshops. Therefore, students hired for these two positions are not required to be on campus.

All student positions for the fall will be posted on the student job portal, Handshake. The link to view the job postings can be found here.

Student Employment is also hosting a Fall 2020 Virtual on Campus Job Fair on Tuesday, Aug. 18. Students may register to attend the Job Fair on Handshake beginning Aug. 4.

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Students part of the Student Squad for Academic Support receive training in a yoga studio reutilized as a classroom. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)