City College is making it more efficient for students with learning disabilities to manage their classes by adopting a new online program.
The Disabled Students Programs and Services, or DSPS, is going to start using the program, Clockwork, to combine their management system with pipeline. This will begin summer, 2016, and be completely implemented in the fall. Students will no longer need to waste time filling out paperwork to register for accommodations with their classes.
“They can do all these new things online at home in their pajamas,” said DSPS counselor Clark Hochstetler. “It just makes everything so easy, the students are loving it, and the faculty is loving it and we are saving so much time and effort.”
The program will allow students to request and submit what they need online, instead of going into the office.
It will provide students with an online account that holds all of their personal information, such as their disability and the accommodations available to them. The faculty will have a similar portal that allows them to communicate with their students individually.
In October through December of last year, DSPS began the lengthy process of moving online. All student files were saved digitally and the paper files were shredded.
“Student files are in the best shape they have ever been in,” Hochstetler said.
There are about 1,000 students who have a learning disability at City College, according to DSPS Director Jana Garnett.
“It’s exciting that this is changing over the summer,” she said. “Students can book their tests online, and that’s huge.”
Using this system, students can apply online for DSPS, upload documentation and request accommodations while faculty can receive, review and confirm those requests online.
In the past, it was sometimes difficult for students to get their accommodations. Students had to fill out a form for each accommodation in each class and the instructors had to sign off on every one of them. A student could walk out of the office with 12 or more papers to be approved by their instructors.
With the new program, students will be able to schedule tests and fill out accommodation forms through pipeline. Students can fill them out and get approved without the student ever having to leave their home.
In summer students will have online access to schedule tests with instructors, and in fall they will be able to request alternative media, such as audio recordings of textbooks.
“We wanted to make it better for students who need these accommodations to be able to access them,” said Hochstetler. “Now we have more time to talk to and see students because we are spending less time doing paperwork.”
