A cool breeze is rustling through the bushes of North Campus, students are relaxing into the rhythm of the semester and the veil between the seen and unseen worlds seems
I was working at my desk the other day when I turned to look at my girlfriend Caitlin. Sitting across our 430-square-foot apartment, she was visibly and audibly frustrated and muttered, Shit.
She just started an online course required for graduation at the University of Georgia. I asked her whatâs wrong.
She told me she needed to put on pants before taking a practice test.Â
Her course, like many required courses for students, uses Respondusâ LockDown Browser, one of many course monitoring and test proctoring software that have become all too familiar through the COVID-19 pandemic.
It just asked her to pivot her webcam to show her immediate surroundings, so as to limit her ability to cheat. In addition to preventing her from opening extraneous tabs on her internet browser, LockDown Browser keeps her webcam on when she is accessing course materials.
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Over the past year, remote learning has been a struggle for many University of Georgia students. As classes moved online, students were forced to readjust their daily lives and with it, their sense of normalcy.
For students with disabilities, pandemic learning has been especially challenging. It upended the accommodations and routines that have assisted them throughout their academic careers and pushed them to find new solutions to an unprecedented set of problems.
Making the transition
Simin Savani, a computer science major who graduated in December, is no stranger to accessibility challenges. Savani, who has a hearing impairment, relied on captions to follow her classes. During a normal semester, a captioner would be present in her classes to type out what was going on. When classes went online, so did her captioner.
Over the past year, remote learning has been a struggle for many University of Georgia students. As classes moved online, students were forced to readjust their daily lives and with it, their sense of normalcy.
For students with disabilities, pandemic learning has been especially challenging. It upended the accommodations and routines that have assisted them throughout their academic careers and pushed them to find new solutions to an unprecedented set of problems.
Making the transition
Simin Savani, a computer science major who graduated in December, is no stranger to accessibility challenges. Savani, who has a hearing impairment, relied on captions to follow her classes. During a normal semester, a captioner would be present in her classes to type out what was going on. When classes went online, so did her captioner.