Some assistive technologies are offered free of charge to all students at Red River College Polytechnic to assist them in reaching their academic goals.
Have you noticed that with online courses you experience increased eye strain or headaches? Do you find that simply reading is not enough for you to fully retain information? Are you an auditory learner who learns best by hearing rather than reading? Is English not your first language? Or do you like multi-tasking and want to listen to some of your course content while walking your dog or riding the bus? This is where Kurzweil 3000 comes in! Kurzweil 3000 is not only able to read text out loud, including content on the internet and in LEARN, but it also helps students interact with course content in a variety of ways.
Kurzweil 3000 is software available free of charge to all current Red River College Polytechnic students and staff. It was originally designed as text-to-speech software, but does so, so much more! This assistive technology is based on the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which aims to present information to learners in a way that is accessible to as many people as possible. The UDL framework aims to have information be presented, and allow learners to interact with content in a variety of ways in order to reach learners of all styles.
Have any of your students commented about needing help with time management? With staying organized and on top of all of the different due dates, assignments and exams they have across all of their courses? Or maybe even had students ask for a deferral or a re-write because they missed an important due date?
This app, free to download on both Apple and Android devices, supports students with both task and time management. The “Brightspace Pulse” app is developed by the same company that developed the LEARN platform, and is meant to easily integrate and communicate with content in LEARN. Within the app, students are able to see a visual of their important dates for the week (across all courses), receive notifications, and help themselves keep organized and aware of upcoming dates.
Click here for more information about the Brightspace Pulse App.
Students can download their LEARN (Brightspace) calendar into their main personal calendar (e.g. Outlook, Google Calendar, iPhone).
