Misconception: Students have trouble understanding the overall flow of a Ruby on Rails application when they access an individual page.
Create assignments that are isomorphic to in-class examples so students have to put more thought into writing their homework code.
Misconception: Students may not realize that websites need and use servers to store, process, and deliver content to users’ browsers, causing struggles with the distinction between Server side vs. Client side.
Motivate unpaid teaching assistants (TAs) by creating a TA community, recognizing excellent TAs, and offering TAs a letter of recommendation.
Have teaching assistant candidates do a mock teaching and debugging session in the interview process to begin their training assess their ability to scaffold students’ learning.
Consult with students who are visually impaired to determine what software and hardware tools can be provided to make your class more accessible to them.
Accompany PDFs with documents that are formatted for universal accessibility, like HTML, to ensure that class materials are accessible to all of your students.
Provide captions for videos used in your class to ensure that students with hearing-impairments get a fuller experience when watching course materials.
Provide text descriptions of images and transcripts of videos in your course to ensure that all students can access class materials.
Make sure your course website uses consistent formatting and is not cluttered so that students with low vision can access the website.
Be thoughtful when choosing colors for course materials, especially websites, because certain color combinations cause difficulties for students who are color blind.
Avoid content that flashes on your website to eliminate risk for students who are susceptible to seizures.
Provide transcripts or text captioning of multimedia materials that have audio output (such as videos) to ensure these materials are accessible to students with hearing impairments.
Select and distribute printed materials before the course begins so students can read materials and arrange for alternate formats if needed.
Learn campus protocols regarding arranging accommodations for students with disabilities so that you can provide these accommodations in a timely manner.
Allow students who have trouble handwriting to type up assignments and assessments on word processing tools so they can focus on communicating their understanding of the material.
Provide regular feedback and opportunities turning in corrected work so that students with learning disabilities don’t feel overwhelmed by assignments and projects.
Avoid drawing undue attention to differences between students, such as pointing out a student’s disability, to ensure all students feel comfortable in your classroom.
Use LightBot, Picobot, and Manufactoria as introductory exercises to figure out what types of problems might arise in the classroom.
Provide multiple examples of specific CS concepts to make them relevant to individuals with diverse characteristics.