Hi everybody, welcome. Thanks for joining us. We're excited to kick off the College of Applied Health Sciences Fall Lecture Series. This is, Disability Resources and Educational Services. We're commonly known on campus, or if you're familiar with us as DRES. My name's Kim Collins, I'm Interim Director. I've been at DRES for over 20 years now. My background is a, licensed psychologist, so when I first was hired, I was hired to do programming and start the different pieces for students with more non-visible disabilities, and it's been really cool to see that grow over the last twenty years. To just give you a little bit of a background about DRES , hopefully we have some current and former students,

some U of I alums. Also, just some people in the community who can find this information helpful.

Just to let you know we're federally mandated. Under that AD AAA and the ADA and the rehab act, to provide those academic adjustments, services, and supports to students with disabilities.

Our goal is to maintain that confidential documentation and determine what reasonable accommodations are, and overall, you know, we go above and beyond just reasonable accommodations with a lot of support programs and services. And our goal really is to allow equal access or to level the playing field for students with disabilities here at Illinois.

Also just to brag a little bit, we were the first in the world. So we started in 1948 way before the laws were, were out there and have a strong history, of DRES providing those supports and then the University of Illinois really providing those supports for students with disabilities. If you haven't been around campus for a little bit, or if you think about it, we've really grown at DRES. So, even over the last six years, the number of our students have surged and increased 74%. So, from 2014 we had about 1,492, to 2020, 2,603.

And right now we're about ready to break 3000 students that are registered with us. We serve, undergraduate campus enrollment and that number has gone up over the years. So from 3% up to 5.95, and we support undergraduate, graduate, professional students, in every college within the university. Our top colleges that we provide

student support for are LAS, they have about 30% of the students registered with us. The grad college about 15% and engineering about 14%. We also serve underrepresented groups and those make up about 33.5% of the students that we support. Our graduation rates are 91% at the six year mark. And, while we're known for physical disabilities, because that's what we started with in 1948/1949,

now about 74% of the students registered with us have non-visible disabilities. So, now I'm going to turn it over to our DRES staff, who are going to talk a little bit about how DRES has shifted into virtual accommodations. Our building is quieter since March, but we still continue to provide all the services that we did

prior. Most of all our services are virtual now, but that doesn't mean there's any less work, especially for our access specialists. Brian, and maybe you were going to talk about things, and for Ann Fredrickson, who does our captioning, and then Lucas is going to give a student experience.

So we're going to start off right now with Ann Fredrickson. Ann is Coordinator of Accessible Media Services. And, she's gonna, really, hoene in, and really talk about all the accommodations and things that she's done to help our students who are deaf and hard of hearing, with captions.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ann Fredrickson and I am the Coordinator of Accessible Media Services, and my main role at DRES has been to make sure that videos are captioned. So next slide please. And so I wanted to break it up into two different pieces and talk to you about best practices and also video accommodations.

And so as you're making videos for your classes and for your students, or even for the department, if you're presenting like we are today, you've noticed that we turned on Zoom captions. And so these are created by Otter AI, which is a company and they will scroll through and you can save them and you can edit them later on.

But that helps people who don't necessarily have a documented disability, but we have a large, foreign population on campus. And so this is really helpful for those students. It's also helpful for students who are having technology problems, maybe they're sick or in a distracted area. If there are children in the background and they can't really hear well, this is something that can help them focus.

If you are presenting, you should use a microphone on a webcam, maybe you have one on your earbuds, but try not to just use the on-board microphone on your computer and you'll get a better quality video. If you're presenting and you're in a class and you show an image, if you take the time to describe that image, that any student who was blind, low vision, or your video cuts out, then they'll actually know what

that image is of and what you think is important and that they should get out of that. And then asynchronous versus synchronous video. I know that there's been a lot of questions about this and I'm going to go out and say that I prefer asynchronous video, even though it causes my office more work. So asynchronous video is videos that students can watch anytime.

So if they're having technology problem at 10 in the morning, and that's when your class meets, well, then they can still watch the video at the same time as their students, because they get to choose that time. So you don't have to worry about the internet. They can fit it into their schedule. And with COVID going on, everyone's schedule is up in the air day to day.

And so synchronous just causes technology problems. And then with asynchronous, we can make sure that captions are there before it is released to your class. Whereas with live class, you have to have live captioning. So, and that brings me to video accommodations. So yes, we're using auto-generated captions right now, but if there's an accommodation request, you really need to have a live professional doing those captions.

Once again, you still want to use the microphone. For speakers, you want to turn on the camera. And I know that there's a little bit of question as to whether that's appropriate or not, but if you have a student who is deaf hard of hearing in your class, they're usually lip readers. And so if your students or you are not willing to turn on the camera, then it makes it harder for them to participate and follow along in class.

I'm going to pick on Brian here because I see that he's backlit. So no backlighting and that's really hard to do when you have windows in, in your office. But I actually have a window behind me, but I turned on my virtual backgrounds, so that way it's, it's hiding the window and then I have a light on me.

And so that's one of the ways I get around it. Sorry Brian. That once again, his face was in shadows and so it's hard for those students to lip read. When accommodations are in place, we want to make sure that we have 99% plus accurate and that they're synced. So that way the students are getting this information the same time as their peers.

Once again, describe those images because you never know when there's a blind/ low vision student, or if your video cuts out. And like I said, I prefer asynchronous over synchronous, even though it causes my office more work. Normally we do about 125 hours of captioning per semester for students.

This semester so far, we've already done 400 hours of work. So that's a little bit of an increase and we anticipate at least another hundred hours to come in before the semester ends. And so not only do we do video captioning, but we also do text conversion. And so print material is also important for our students who have disabilities. And so right now I know that the, the registration has been pushed off into the beginning of December. So normally we would be registering now. But if you can go ahead and choose your books for this coming semester and send them to IUB.

I know some departments have one person who submits that and some departments have all their faculty submit that. So go ahead and choose your book and send it to IUB. So that way they're all ready to go for the spring semester. If you go to the DRES website, disability.illinois.edu. We have a online platform called census access.

So if you have a website, you have texts or you have like a journal article, you can go up, throw your article, your file into census access and ask for an MP3. You can ask for a word document. If you had a student who used braille, you could ask for braille file. And so that's something that anyone with an @illinois.edu

email can actually go on and use. And I know that when I was getting my master's degree, I would always throw articles up there and turn them into MP3s, and then while I was doing my errands or tours or whatever, I could be listening to my readings. And so that's something that anyone can use and it's a nice universal design feature that DRES has provided.

If you're creating documents to hand out to class, or you're creating your websites, your course documents, the important thing to do is follow these four general topics. So use headings. So if you're in Word, go up to styles and use heading one, heading two, don't just bold things, because this allows your students who are blind/low vision to easily navigate through the different document structure.

If you add any images to websites or to your documents, describe what those images are. That's exactly what we did for videos, but now we're in text form. I already mentioned, styles. And so it's so important that I mentioned it twice. And then when you're producing PDFs, if you're wondering if those PDFs are accessible, the main thing, make sure your text is searchable.

So if you hit control F on most computers or command F and then type in a word that, you know, you should find there, like the, you know, it's going to come up 500 times, but then you know, that that document is searchable and that will allow screen readers and also most texts to speech engines to actually read that document for your students.

And so that's what I have about accessible material. And if you have any questions you can get in contact with me. Awesome. Thank you Ann, that was great information. And Ann and her staff have been doing such an awesome job working with everyone across campus, and with staff within DRES, to make sure that our students are getting equal access to classes, especially when everything shifted to remote so quickly.

Next we have Brian Siemann. Brian's an access specialist and his specialty is working with, students who have learning disabilities and ADHD. And, i'll let Brian share his information now.

Hi everyone, my name is Brian Siemann. I am the learning disabilities and ADHD access specialist at DRES. Now that I kind of moved over in my office, I'd like to sort of, you know, just talk a little bit about, the online sort of learning environment that we're in and sort of ways that we can make content accessible.

So, on the next slide that I talk about, just some general ideas. So, over the summer, once it was officially, confirmed that there would be different learning environments, whether it was traditional classes in the limited cases that there are hybrid, you know, half and half are just fully online courses,

DRES wanted to make sure that instructors and faculty felt like they had the tools and sort of ideas of how to make their content accessible. And so we, all of the access specialists, we kinda got together and took our sort of the populations of students that we work with and we focused on them together and kind of created this online guide,

that was initially written really to emphasize sort of the, the learning needs of students with disabilities. But, it really is, applicable to all students, not just students with disabilities. This is a really sort of, I'm sure as many of you are aware, it's a very kind of challenging and weird semester.

And so, any student, regardless of disability or not, are you know, trying to learn an entirely, you know, new sort of set of, materials and in different environments. And so we wanted to make sure that it was clear that these, these tips and suggestions are not just, you know, really for students with disabilities, but it really can be applied across the board in our best practice and really help all students, which ultimately is what we want to do.

And so, in an online kind of environment, probably the one biggest takeaway that I think, we sort of noticed with, from, feedback from students was that. To be as explicit as possible. And I think that, you know, there are, and I'll talk a little bit about this today in one second, but there are, you know, instructors and, and teachers really should be making sure that they are explicitly telling students where they need to be checking for updates, what websites they're using, when things are due and how to turn them in.

So I know that's generally what you're supposed to do, but, everything is now being sent over email or is on a course page and. I think a lot of people can probably relate to the fact that it's hard enough to get students, to check their email when we're not in the midst of a global pandemic and all forms of communication are sent via email.

and then when everything gets sent that way, it sometimes is incredibly overwhelming. And so trying to be as clear and concise as possible and very, explicit as to sort of what your expectations are, really does foster sort of a better learning environment because the students aren't confused, which then means they're able to complete the work in, in a timely manner and to get it done.

So on the next slide, we talk a little bit about, I wanted to touch base on ways that we can make instructional delivery more accessible for students. And, these are just some of the things that we talk about. I only have, you know, 10 ish minutes or so to talk. So I kind of pooled some of the things that I thought were most important from learning disabilities and like, ADHD perspective of working with those students and trying to, decrease the amount of friction that students have to go through in order to, to complete work.

And so, I mentioned it previously, but, i n so many instances, I work with students and, and I think Lucas will probably touch on us a little bit, but there are like 12,000 different course learning management systems for students. And that's really hard for students. It was hard enough for students to navigate before and now everything is being shifted online into Compass, Moodle, Piazza, Lon Capa Gradescope.

I don't, honestly, there are so many at this point that I can't even keep track of it. And I work with students that are using all of these platforms. And so when different classes are using so many different things, like, okay, well, we're going to put assignments on Compass, but I like the grade book for Moodle better.

So your grades are going to be on Moodle, but then all of a sudden it says on Compass that there are grades and there are no grades there. Students get very confused. And so, when possible use only one online platform so that students know directly where to go. We want to make sure that we also have, lecture videos or slides posted before class.

This allows for students to process the information. Online learning is very different in terms of, screen fatigue and making sure that, you know, it's hard sometimes for students to process information in a visual format, over screen rather than like in class. And so having these videos or slides posted beforehand gives students the opportunity to, to look at material beforehand.

And so they can really know what to expect and, and to plan for that. Allowing for content to be accessed multiple times is, is, is really significant. and this includes videos, homework, and quiz questions. when we think sort of about the, You know, the ideas of what we want students to learn and understand, and how they demonstrate that, giving them multiple opportunities to show that knowledge and to demonstrate that learning is happening rather than just one sort of, time to, you know, take a quiz or to submit a homework question.

I think that this sort of relieves some of the, the stress and pressures that a lot of students are feeling, In this, in this semester. And so that, that kind of helps, making sure that you have images and diagrams with any text. And so, if you can find images that actually correlate to the text, what, you know, the text that you're supporting, that helps students make a visual connection as well as a textual option as well.

And Anne talked a little bit about this already. But making sure that there are both, text and audio options available for students to watch and follow along with, during the lectures. the zoom auto captions are, have been a game changer for a lot of my students. we as, access specialists, we usually provide students with, some kind of note taking software, that we have, which in a traditional learning environment works really well.

but in online learning has, you know, it's. Not that it's not really needed because students can, in most instances go back and re watch a lecture again, but having something like captions as well, really gives them, text and gives them something to follow along with. And so if they miss something or they're listening and following along, they can better process that information.

And, as Ann said it, you know, Literally just, you hit a button and it turns on the auto captions, which is fantastic. we've also done some, some work with, I've had some students use the Microsoft transcribe feature through the, 365, platform that the university students have access to.

and so that runs in the background of zoom sessions and can also do a transcription as well. again, it's just trying to provide. Options for students so that they, have as much sort of support, in adjusting to, Understanding and processing the information as it's delivered in an online format.

and so for the next side, I think we, kind of want, I wanted to talk a little bit sort about accommodations and exams, and what that sort of looks like. in some ways online learning has actually, made the implementation of some accommodations. a little bit easier in that, given the shift to online learning management systems for exams and quizzes.

it's pretty easy for, professors to provide some of these accommodations, like extended time for students. A lot of the students who are registered here have some extended time accommodation for quizzes, exams, and final exams. And in an online setting, it actually makes it really easy. The professors can just go in and adjust that time.

And so it allows for people to have more access and students can take exams on a time. You know, if there isn't a set time schedule, they're able to schedule the exams with when Works for them rather than having to try and schedule it necessarily, at our testing center. And so in some ways it's actually a little bit better.

however, it's also really important to make sure that you discuss any kind of proctoring software, before the exams with students, some proctoring software is not ideal for, For students with certain kinds of disabilities in the way that they manage those disabilities, if it's, you know, tracking eye movement or things like that.

And so, letting students be aware of, what proctoring software, if any, you're using, well in advance of the exam is, is really critical. It helps keeps the students, you know, on top of what they need to, to do, and their responsibilities are to make sure that they, You know, feel comfortable taking an exam and have access to their accommodations.

some classes have started using lockdown browsers for exams, that. You know, is really designed to try and, mitigate things like cheating, things like that. But, it actually sort of, sometimes hinders with student's ability to access, assistive technology. And so, things like, text to speech software, like Kurzweil might not be able to be used by a student if you're using a lockdown browser.

And so always checking. you can always check with, our office to make sure, like, you know, we can help walk you through any kind of, you know, troubleshooting issues to make sure that the students have access to any assistive tech. and then lastly, this is kind of big and it's sort of, it's, it's gotten a little bit better.

This, as the semester has progressed, but, allowing for the printing of exams, students process information very differently on a screen rather than, for a paper based exam. And so, there is sort of, some visual processing issues that can, be effected by online learning and online exams.

And so sometimes letting students be able to print out the exam and then answer it on the exam sheet and then they still will answer it, on the computer screen. But having that sort of paper copy to then transfer over to. a computer screen is really, really helpful, in helping students process that information.

And so, so yeah, so, that's sort of my, my general kind of, spiel I have about a minute left, I think, I want to, you know, there are so many ways that we can make sure that we. Create, equal access and create, make, to make sure that our content is more accessible and that's what we're here to help you do.

So if there are any sort of unique kind or you have questions or whatever, that's what we're here to do, we're here to help. So, don't ever hesitate to reach out to us. and yeah, I will now, Give up my time. Yield your tim. Give you the rest of my time. Right. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. now we're going to switch over to Amanda Carey. Amanda's an access specialist here at DRES. her focus is on, students with, with mental health disabilities, and also ADHD, autism, things like that. And so, Mandi take it away.

Hi everyone. Thanks, Kim.

I'm just going to quickly talk about accommodations and virtual learning. So, like Kim mentioned at the very beginning of this, accommodations have. Really mostly remained the same.DRES has remained open and working with students and making sure that those exams or those accommodations have been switched to a virtual format if needed, but for a lot of them, they're really kind of executed in the same manner.

There's just been a lot of changes in environment. And that's what I'm noticing. My students are having the most difficulty with. so like a change in environment would be, you know, virtual exam proctoring. So Brian went into that. So I don't really need to get into all of that, but, my students are also really struggling with not being able to stay after class to ask the professor just a simple question or things like that.

Like they're really missing that interaction. I have some students who are studying remotely from, like a family home and that environment can sometimes be stressful, or even students who may be here on campus or, you know, who. Are finding that they're having to stay in with roommates or housemates or, or whatnot more while they're also doing classes and taking exams and things like that.

So, lots of environmental changes have been adding layers of extra stress, for my students. but there are, some students who have really taken to liking the virtual learning, I'd say that. With the students I speak to, it's probably about half and half. Some are, the type that are like, I would never, ever register for an online class.

And now I'm forced to, or maybe different accommodations now. because there's new barriers that I just never had cause I never took online classes. And then I have some. Who are maybe like really excited that this might be the best semester they ever had. It's virtual learning is taking away a lot of barriers.

so I'm seeing kind of a lot of polarity on my caseload and maybe not so much in the middle, but a lot on either end of that spectrum. So, another thing that I think is interesting to note, a lot of my students are finding it easier. To communicate about their accommodations and use them and get them set up with professors due to this change in attitude with, with COVID going on, a lot of professors are, are offering lots of flexibility, and being open to working with students, to make sure that, you know, they're engaged in their learning and their assignments are getting completed and whatnot.

And so in a way it's. sad. I think sometimes for me that it took a pandemic, to change some of these attitudes and be open to flexibility. But, it's kind of a benefit from that, I guess. So,

so then just some general mental health trends that I've seen definitely increased feelings of isolation. So. Like I mentioned, I have a lot of students who are away from the campus area, maybe even in a different country. and so they're feeling kind of isolated where they're at, away from their, their normal community here.

but you know, I also have students who are here, and struggling with, with feelings of isolation. you know, they're feeling really disconnected from campus. their RSOs have moved virtually. a lot of our services here at DRES have moved, virtually a lot of their support system, is connecting in different ways and it's still a struggle even now.

you know, in November we're just still not used to it. the number of students engaging in our therapy services at DRES has remained about close to the same as it was before. I don't know if possibly more are accessing therapy services maybe in their, their hometowns or their home states or home countries.

but here at DRES it's remained about the same. I would say that there's been an increased use of our coaching services or academic coaching, and our support group that has seen a huge increase in participation, since years before COVID so, so that's good. Students are connecting and using their resources, especially their ones here at DRES.

So, like I said, a lot of my students with, with mental health disabilities, the virtual learning is alleviating a lot of those barriers. and some are really excited to have some of like the best attendance they've ever had and really being, You know, able to fit things into their set schedule.

I think it goes a lot to what Ann said about the differences between synchronous and asynchronous learning. and. How asynchronous can also alleviate a lot of stress and a lot of barriers that my students have due to their disability. but for others, again, the virtual learning has, has seemed to exacerbated their symptoms or increased use of accommodations.

So, those students I've been working most with, and they've been in contact with me. So, That's about all I had for just what I'm seeing with working with my students, but happy to answer any questions that anyone might have, but I'm curious to see what Lucas now has to say after we all went about his perspective.

Thanks. Thanks Mandi. Brian and Mandi are two of our, our seven access specialists, here at DRES. And, again, during the pandemic, they've been just doing awesome work with our students. I mean, they shifted quickly on the fly and they've been trying to support our students in so many different ways, as opposed to just having students drop in and come in the office.

So they've had additional, you know, emails and calls and zoom calls and, they've just been doing a great job. Next we really appreciate Lucas, to come and talk to us about the student experience, Lucas is a junior in engineering, here at University of Illinois.

Lucas, take it away. I'm a third year, a systems engineering and design major from the ISE department. I'm an LA with the ISE department or a learning or lab assistant. Nobody's actually made clear what the role is actually called, but I work for a TA.

and I hold office hours and I have lab sessions. but it's a predominantly freshmen engineering class. I have about 40 something students, any given semester. And then I'll see probably about 60/70 of those, of the students in the course over the course of my office hours throughout the semester.

I've been registered with DRES since before I was a freshmen. When I was a senior in high school, me and my dad flew out and we met with Brian. Brian is my access specialist. I realized after I had submitted my slides that pointing in a specific direction would not actually have made sense on zoom, but pretty much weekly with him since I came to, came to UIUC.

And that's been a big help. And then I've used resources like the TAC or which is the testing accommodation center, and the Sonocent software, which is for note-taking throughout my entire time at UIUC. And this is where we kind of see some of that impact. so for me, the biggest challenge I've had is a loss of my established and stable routines. you know, I'm, I'm somebody who can wake up every day at the same time and do whatever I need to do that day and be productive, get work done, and cope with, with how I deal with.

My disability and how I navigate the world to be able to achieve what I need to achieve. I think there's been, a lack of regular engagement between not just between like faculty and students, but between students and students. And I'm not saying that in a social sense, but it's a. Doing a class over zoom, doesn't connect you in a way that helps promote learning the way that you would have if you were in person.

and then for me, there was a loss of the tools and the coping techniques that I have spent two years learning how to use and put together and integrate into my life. I mean, like I'm not able to use Sonocent right now because. The lectures are all online. If they're live or if they're prerecorded, Sonocent doesn't interact with that kind of stuff.

and then there's a feeling of isolation and I'm not meaning like isolation again, as a social sense, but there's an isolation as a student feeling like. It's hard to reach out to other students to get that kind of social feedback that you would get, like if you're in class and if you see other people raising their hand to ask questions, when you're confused, it sort of validates the fact that you don't then feel like you are completely lost.

and I know, especially in engineering, that is, that is very important that, Oh, you're not the only one who feels stupid right now. But that those are some of the really big impacts, next slide. And then some, there are some positives, but I mean, again, this is where I kind of build onto some more of the negatives, but I mean, having the recorded lectures, I, before the pandemic, I think I had three classes where we had recorded lectures.

A lot of them had slides that would just get put up on a course website. But as Brian had mentioned earlier, where were those slides? What platforms were they on? Could you access said slides? And were they always in the same place throughout the semester? And a lot of the time, the answer to one of those questions was no, who knows, or nobody can figure it out.

And then, I mean, it is more flexible, right? The, the being asynchronous does help. I know for at least some of my engineering classes that I do have the ability to go back and deal with the problems that I'm facing, on a timeframe that makes, makes better sense for me, I'm not in Champaign, I'm back home.

so I'm in a different time zone. So that, that flexibility does help. And then building off that it's better quote unquote out of class since we aren't in class. but access to those course materials, right? The having fully recorded lectures, having the full slides, having full access to online resources that were used in a lecture, Having that whenever we need them, that that is a benefit.

And again, like only the ECE department was pretty good with that. because they have a big, expensive building that has high-end cameras throughout all of their lecture halls. And so it automatically records and sends it to a server. But, you know, implementing stuff like that, even if it's not to the same level throughout the university would be helpful.

Not just now, but long-term because, I mean, I know for me there are moments where like some, like if somebody drops a pencil during the class, That's it we've lost the next 60 seconds. 60/120 seconds of my attention is where did the pencil come from? Who dropped the pencil, where's the pencil going to go after it's been picked up.

and so being able to go back and get access to stuff that you wouldn't have had traditionally is, is a positive thing. A big negative for me, then hard shift back to a beating on remote learning, but getting into in gear mentally is a lot harder. I live in an apartment in campus. technically I still do live there right now, but I haven't been there since March.

But there was a process. There was a mental process of getting in gear and moving to class and starting the day. And I think you can probably see it, but my bed's right there about six feet behind me. And so getting in gear is, can you do that? can you move that six feet and mentally shift? What, for me, as part of my routine was, Dedicated spaces for dedicated tasks.

And so, even though some of the libraries on campus, we're pretty far from where most of my classes were, the main library was where I did a lot of book studying, Grainger library on the engineering quad is where I did a lot of homework. because for me, it's, it's hard to work where I live because where I live is where I stop working.

And I take a break. So that compartmentalization is, is huge. And then it's hard to make that shift when the one space you're in is the entire space. Moving from that distance again, distance because we're all online. Literal distance is different for everybody, but there is a distance from instructors that I've seen as a student, but also as an LA during my office hours during the labs, I hold where it was easier when it was in-person and there was like 30, 40 students in the room was loud for a student to be able to flag down an instructor and ask a quick question without the entire room, focusing on them.

And now, especially during my office hours, and we teach different types of CAD technology and drafting for engineering. the only way that we can help a student is if they share their screen and they turn on their microphone and they start sharing everything that's going on in their, in their, process.

And that isn't great for some students who are going to feel self-conscious about not only themselves, but like. That attention, especially if somebody who's anxious or nervous about the way that they articulate themselves or, that if, if they feel that they've done something wrong with their work, that they don't want that highlighted in front of the entire class.

and I see this because in my labs, I get very little questions, maybe, maybe a handful. And it's a two hour lab and these students are going to be working on what are six to eight hour assignments depending on their skill level. And then they come to office hours. And when there's only three instructors in the office hours, we're going to say, see, traditionally the ratio would have been three, to four students per instructor when we were in person, except for a handful of weeks during the semester, when a certain assignments would come up.

Now I'm seeing. 10 to 12 students per instructor, and that alone, when students come to you to try to ask, ask for help, and then there's so many people that it's hard for them to either fight for your attention. And it's hard to when students are fighting for your attention to be able to fairly roll that out to them.

But then again they're afraid to show any mistakes that they've made. Cause engineering is super competitive. I mean, there are lots of majors at the university that are super competitive, but engineering is the one where, where the thought of, Oh, your mistake is going to beat you out of the program.

and people are afraid to show that because they don't want to mark themselves out. And, and I feel the same way. I mean, when I'm in classes or I'm not understanding certain stuff, I feel self-conscious asking a question. you know in my physics discussions for physics 213, which is, thermal physics, That has 20 something students.

And I know my TA, he was my TA when I was a freshmen and I took intro physics, when I arrived at UIUC but there are lots of times when I feel like I just don't know what's happening and that everybody else is getting it. And so opening yourself up to that. It's a realization because even though other students won't ridicule you because.

Most people aren't, aren't terrible people, but there's a, it's an internal mental thing where you're going to think, Oh, well maybe, maybe they are going to do that. And you start to beat on yourself. Then you pushed down the feelings that, that you need to ask for help. And so then it makes it harder to reach out to people.

And so that does build the distance between the people who have the help. And can't offer that to you. And. The student or my case myself. and then again, building off that each, each of these little things kind of builds off the previous one. but the expectations, and I'm not saying like great expectations.

I'm saying, expectations that students and faculty in the university have of each other in this situation. when we all had to go home or go remote in March, there were no expectations. And because nobody knew what was happening, nobody knew what they were doing and things that should have been held a little tighter, we're held too loose and stuff that was held too tight.

Should've been held a lot looser. I'm not somebody who's adverse to studying. Right. I don't have a problem putting in the work that I need to put in to be able to achieve, but we don't have access and not just students with DRES, but all students just don't have access to the tools and the systems that we have learned to be able to use to succeed.

but the expectations of what we're going to be able to achieve is the same. At least in competitive majors, I can only speak for the departments that I interact with. but those expectations haven't changed and

it causes problems for students and in our expectations of faculty and what they're going to be able to do. I'm a technologist by training. my other, side gigs is that I was the technical director for the university's film festival and I'm the director of engineering for the Illini media company.

So I understand from, interacting with user and technology, that it is hard for people to learn a new technology, especially quickly on the fly and in ways that are best practices. But there's an expectation from students that it's going to be sorted out. And I think expecting that it's going to be sorted out is, is good because tuition is expensive.

I'm from out of state. So tuition is not cheap. but I feel like everyone is not on the same page about what we're expecting from each other in this situation. And that leads to. Places where students can fall into a trap or it can, they can fall off the tight rope. Right? Cause all students are trying to balance their mental health and their emotional health and their workload and their ability to deal with everything that's happening in their time.

but so how has this DRES helped? you know, I continue to get staff support. I continue to see Brian, every week, and he's helped with learning new tools and techniques to cope and overcome those challenges. And then, the continued staff to students, DRES, staff to student support has been important and great. And for me, at least the student to student support systems that I've been introduced to because I'm now part of a group. And I'm assuming off of what Amanda said that the group has already existed previous to this semester.

but at least for me that the establishing of the student to student support network that I now have,has been big. I'm in a support group, where we meet, weekly, we have a Slack channel we are talking to each other and it's good .

So I have people who I can talk to about stuff where it's not, I don't have to explain and introduce outsiders into those challenges. It's nice to be able to say, Oh, when you wake up and you're like, Oh, I'm not going to do anything today, but you know that you have six other things you have to do.

And it's still going to be hard to get in gear and do that. that challenge is understood, right? Cause there's just, there's, it's not just a literal challenge, but there's different layers from the mental and emotional and. Self-evaluating perspectives that, that influence that.

And it's hard to get outsiders with it, to give them that perspective. And so having the student to student support networks where we all understand each other to a certain degree already because we've had similar experiences. And so when somebody says, well, this is what happened to me today, they don't have to elaborate and relive mentally the situation that they just went through, because everybody already knows it. And so that everybody can then support them and give them the, the empathy that, that they need to be able to push through. that's been huge during this.

Okay. And then, yeah. So what needs to get better? again, expectations building off of what I said earlier, and then engagement. I don't think there's enough engagement between students in classes together and then between faculty and students. I mean, yes, I'm on all of the group meets and piazzas and slacks and everything that I have for all, all of my classes, but, My Tam class has 500 students in it.

I'm not going to ask a question. That's going to make me look really dumb in a class of 500 people. And I know 50 of them for my department. and so better ways to engage students without feeling like there's a pressure both academically and socially on them, I think is huge. And then continuing to support and expanding on the support for students, not just grad students, but all of the students at the university.

From outside of DRES because DRES gives us great support. but there's only so far that that support, no matter how good it is can go when it's going up against the, monolith of university's policy. and so improving that, that would make it better. but yeah, I think there's Q and A at the end or something.

So I think that's my time. Yeah. Great. And thank you so much, Lucas. I mean, those, those are some great insights and we really appreciate you sharing your, your experiences as a student. That's really helpful. we do have, it looks like a few minutes at the end for questions. So if anybody has any questions for us, please feel free to share those.

there's a question I think, to, to Lucas. do you feel like you're learning as well online or feel that you're lacking, to some degree on the online? it depends on the class. I feel like there is a lot lacking. For me, it's easy to get distracted and just have it being on a computer, watching something it's easy to fall off that tight rope and be like, Oh, well here's Google here's the whole rest of the internet.

and that's why I had so many coping mechanisms that were built on where I am at a given time. Because when I know that I'm in the library or I'm in a lecture hall, I'm not going to open up a, a game or start playing something. I mean, since the pandemic started on Microsoft solitaire, I have increased about 200 levels of skills and I'm not doing that on free time.

So that is, that is hard to, to, cope. I'm level like 316 right now. So like in two years I had only gone like a hundred levels. And then now less than one, I've gone 200. So. I think, yeah, there is a lack of, learning that you're getting, but again, having the recorded lectures helps because then you can go back.

That's what Sonocent did for us when we were in in-person classes. And so controlling tendencies and urges. Can cause a lot of, of difficulty in learning, but there are some tools. If you have the discipline to be able to use them properly, that you can't cope with that. Great. Thanks. And we have another one in the chat box.

It says, when we talked about student to student support networks, Are these monitored. I don't know if you want to share a little bit, Mandi, just about the support groups, inviting the support groups that you're doing here at DRES about how those work.

Yeah, definitely. So in terms of, our therapy services here at DRES, we've always been very in-person and Kim can talk about this too and attest to this. And so we had to move to virtual telehealth, this summer and then this semester. And so that was, I'd say a learning curve for a lot of our staff here.

And so right now, we're not running any of our therapy groups over telehealth. we needed some more training and stuff like that to do that. but Brian and I do run a support group for students with ADHD and similar symptoms. and so that's what Lucas was kind of talking about that he gets to go to every week, and chat with, people.

Who just like he said, you can just go straight there for the support. Cause you don't have to do this whole level of like explaining when you get there. But Lucas, maybe you could talk more about kind of like, you know, you said that you're in other groups, like your, your other Piazza groups and Slack groups and you know, you throw around all these names.

I don't think you talked about discord, but you know, maybe you can talk a little bit about that. Like how you all are, are virtually grouping together.

yeah, I mean, Piazza is like the traditional one for class support with instructors and staff. but there's also a group meet that I have in for my Tam class, but whoever started the group meet put the link to the group, meet in the zoom chat. And so now our professors also in our group meet.

That's so then somebody created a discord for that class and they put the link to join in the group meet and we, we think that one of the instructors is also in the discord now. So, but yeah, I mean, there are different levels of it. so I've been in smaller groups last semester, for my physics, 212 class.

our discussion had our own group meet, and that worked better because it wasn't 500 people. It was 20. And so it brings the pressure down. but I think that specific student to student like interaction over those channels. Isn't as effective because it is all under the, the microscope of how many people are there.

And nobody really knows who is who and what they're dealing with. And so, People might say something that can, can hurt somebody else, not in a, in a distinctly offensive way, but say like, Oh, how, how can they struggle with that? That's so easy.

and that, and that is hard. and I know, I feel, I feel bad when I read that somebody was like, Oh, it's so easy. And so I think the right channels are super helpful in the right setting, but just unfiltered communication builds engagement, but it's a slippery slope.

I mean, like. I don't know, WPGU 107.1, the radio station I work for, our mobile app had an open listener chat for about 30 minutes and it went terribly and we closed that. And, I mean, that's just an example that like open, unfiltered unfocused communication. Doesn't always help. but yeah, I mean, it's a situation to situation person to person basis.

Okay.

Great. Thank you. We also had in the chat, any suggested links for people to use for additional information for some of the topics that have been, presented today? you know, I think there's, there's a lot of great resources out there. DRES has put together several different resources. We have one for, for kind of, accommodations and best practices for virtual online learning.

Anne's put together. and Brian and Mandi helped put that together with the other access specialists Anne's put together, best practices for, accommodations for captioning and for getting things set up and she has more details than what she presented also. so, we can either put those in the chat or those are available on the DRES website.

there's lots of resources on, on campus, where you can click on those best practices pages. Also, if you want to email us directly, for some detailed information, we're happy to do that. too, we've been, you know, all the DRES staff, it's been really important for us to just be, a great resource for, faculty, staff and students during this time, when they have, accessibility or accommodation questions or how to make things more accessible, we really do want to be there and be that resource for our campus.

Are there other questions? Has the University considered enforcing the same platform for distance virtual learning for all instruction. Hmm. Yes, I think they, they have, and they've talked about it and initially I think they said what everyone was supposed to kind of, the main thing was supposed to be through Compass.

Was that, am I correct in saying that? but I think they kind of started out with that and then immediately just branched off to other things. And it is a lot for students to keep, to keep track of. yes. So that, that those are suggestions that we still, We're still pushing and make as a recommendation.

thank you everybody for joining us today. I think we posted some different Ann posted a link in the chat on the media space information. And then Brian also posted in the chat. the link for, best practices for like accommodations and in a virtual mode. So those are there if, if you would like them, also, our website is www.disability. Illinois.edu.

We have lots of great resources there for everyone. and, you can also call our main line, which is, 217-333-1970. And if you have questions and then they can direct you to where you need to go also.

Yep, help us create an inclusive campus environment. So, be a disability ally. So there's our, there's our website link at the end there. So thank you everyone for joining us. Have a good rest of your day and good weekend. Bye.