How to Master Essential Tech and Fall Teaching Resources

Important Information: New Course Content Accessibility Manager, Moving, and Fall Planning

We’re moving! As of June 3rd, our team is back in our newly-ventilated and air-conditioned headquarters in Beardsley Hall. Stop by to say hello!
New faces & roles: Welcome Caroline Larsen, our new Course Content Accessibility Manager! If you are in the Arts & Humanities, Jen Moore is now your dedicated go-to for Academic Technology, while Caroline will handle course material accessibility.
Fall support: Whether you want to coordinate an AI pedagogy workshop for your department, structure accessible course shells and materials, or pilot a digital scholarship project, our Academic Technologists are available for consultation to support you all summer long.

Welcome to a comprehensive guide on How to Master Essential Tech and Fall Teaching Resources. Bookmark this page to come back to it regularly for any summer or fall planning reminders and assists.

Summer is a vital time for reflection, rest, and preparation. As you recharge for the upcoming academic year, the Academic Technology team has compiled a curated suite of tools, upcoming systemic changes, and foundational resources designed to support your teaching, research, and learning.

Team Updates: Who to Contact

We are thrilled to announce some exciting staffing updates to help streamline your support this coming academic year:

Caroline Larsen has joined our team as the new Course Content Accessibility Manager. You will be hearing from Caroline directly if you have students enrolled in your fall courses who require accessible materials.
Jen Moore is your primary point of contact for all core Academic Technology questions if you are in the Arts and Humanities.
Ashley Turner is now the Director of Learning Spaces Innovation. Some of you may have given feedback to Ashley about classroom podiums, for instance. Continue to reach out to Ashley about your learning spaces.
For any questions, consultations, or concerns regarding making your course materials fully accessible, you will now go directly to Caroline Larsen.

Campus Technology Landscapes are Shifting

The horizon: Workday implementation begins

The College is embarking on a multi-phase transition to Workday, a modern enterprise platform that will completely replace Banner and an array of interconnected legacy applications. Over the coming implementation cycle, systems you regularly interact with—including Faculty Services, the Major/Minor Portal, mySwarthmore, JobX, and BenefitFocus—will migrate entirely to Workday. To stay up to date on timelines, look out for the recent communications from Jason Parkhill:

subj:“May 2026 Workday project updates”;
subj:”Workday project: what to expect from administrative offices this summer and fall”.

Critical & cautionary approaches to Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to reshape educational environments. At the institutional level, Swarthmore is engaging with AI through a lens of critical, cautionary resistance. In partnership with the TLC and the College Libraries, we have established two operational blueprints: the Guidance for Faculty on AI and the Guidance for Students on AI.

From an enforcement perspective, ITS views automated text-detection tools (such as TurnItIn) as unreliable due to false positives. Instead, we advocate for structural and strategic pedagogical shifts, such as:

random audits. A recent Tea for Teaching podcast episode “Random Audits to Deter Cheating” discussed Random Audits as a Scalable Deterrent to Cheating: Using Game Theory to Design Fair and Effective Academic Integrity Systems for the AI Era with the author, David Wiley, which details how David has utilized random audits as a scalable, fair deterrent to academic dishonesty.
continuous engagement. We have been actively supporting faculty members utilizing things like Perusall, which is a social e-reader allowing instructors to observe how students analyze text and think critically over an extended period.

We know people have questions and concerns about AI. We want to hear your unique disciplinary perspective. Please contact us to schedule a dedicated discussion tailored specifically to your department or program.

Crafting Accessible Learning Environments

Ensuring that educational content is fully accessible from day one reduces barriers and optimizes the learning experience for all students.

Monitor the TLC shared drive for the upcoming release of the newly refreshed Accessible Syllabus Template.

Providing a comprehensive list of required and recommended readings to the Campus + Community Store does triple duty! It

allows librarians to seamlessly coordinate course reserves;

allows students to use TAP funds to purchase the materials;

and it grants the College ample lead time to acquire alternate format materials for students with documented accommodations.

Clear document architecture matters. If you, your AA/AC, or a student assistant will be scanning physical texts this summer,

read the University of Washington’s guide on high-quality scans to ensure screen reader compatibility,

and review Adapting Educational Materials For All Learners for foundational concepts.

Check out the specialized, discipline-specific accessibility courses available online through Teach Access—including a highly rated module on game and media design.

Skill-Building & Professional Development

If you are looking to refresh your technical skills or find resources to help students build foundational competencies, consider the following self-paced opportunities:

Direct your students to the SSQL’s tutorials on How to Efficiently Organize Google Docs and Word Documents alongside the broader College Computer Skills Tutorials.
View our updated Moodle video training playlist—now including Gradebook.
Simplify your schedule by adopting Google Appointments for seamless student calendar booking.
Step into your assigned fall spaces early to practice configuring and then teaching with technology and media. Simply email avbox@swarthmore.edu to coordinate a run-through.
The AALAC conference on Liberal Arts Labs Across the Curriculum will take place at Mount Holyoke College on July 22-23.
Direct your students to LinkedIn Learning for trainings for programs we support, such as Rhino and ArcGIS Pro, or review things like Google Workspace.

Amplifying Research & Digital Scholarship

Summer research student ‘Lunch & Learns’

Are you hosting or mentoring student researchers on campus this summer? A cross-campus coalition is hosting an interdisciplinary presentation series for summer research students every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00 PM. Complimentary lunch is provided! We strongly encourage you to invite your students, and faculty mentors are completely welcome to attend.

Collaborative Digital Scholarship for fall

Looking ahead to the fall semester, Dr. Amanda Licastro and Liz Hogrefe are inviting instructional staff and faculty to partner with them to weave dynamic digital components directly into course curriculums. To begin exploring options tailored to your course goals, please complete their Digital Scholarship Interest Form.

Get inspired by reviewing these exceptional digital artifacts built by Swarthmore students in recent semesters:

Digital exhibition of Swarthmore’s Classics Collection, built with the program MetaSteps (Patricia Reilly’s History of Museums course);
The Struggle to Preserve Philadelphia’s Chinatown, built with ArcGIS StoryMaps (Vivian Truong’s First Year Seminar: Chinatowns: Then and Now);
and a Collection website featuring student-made 3D models (Susan Eberhard’s Object, Media, Matter course).

Ready to Get Started?

Ultimately, learning How to Master Essential Tech and Fall Teaching Resources is a collaborative process, and you don’t have to navigate it alone. Whether you have an experimental pedagogical idea or a unique troubleshooting need, our Academic Technologists are available for consultation all summer long.

You can schedule an individual appointment with your Academic Technologist at your convenience.
For immediate technical support or troubleshooting, please log a request at support.swarthmore.edu or drop by the Help Desk.