5 Leverage Existing Resources
Adopting educational technology for the first time — or integrating a brand new tool into your course — takes a lot of thought and a lot of work. That being the case, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel on resources to support your students. Whatever tool you’re using, it almost certainly comes with brief and extended onboarding and usage instructions, as well as a number of video tutorials. Check to see what’s already available before you spend time pulling together your own instructions. Even if you decide to edit or adjust what the company provides, you can save yourself a great deal of effort.
If you know of a colleague who has used the technology before, be sure to reach out to find out how successful they found the provided onboarding materials and what worked well for them. If you are the first person you know to be implementing the tool, try a quick online search to see if other instructors have posted feedback or videos to YouTube or another platform. If you were a part of the decision-making process for adopting the technology, you have likely already come across this material as part of your research into the product. If you were not, or it did not come up previously, it’s worth it to find out what’s already available that you can leverage.