Section: Support/IT

Teaching fully-online courses can be a daunting task, especially for instructors new to the forum.  The resources on this page are meant to provide guidance and support during your online teaching experience.

Creating Online Courses at Vermont Tech: Best Practices: This manual covers the basics of teaching online at Vermont Tech.

Quality Matters Rubric for Course Assessment: Covering eight facets of an effective online course, this rubric will help you build and assess your online classroom.

8 Considerations for Online Text: This article discusses the importance of online text presentation and offers strategies for effective design.

6 Ways To Be a Better Online Teacher: Great tips for teaching in the online forum.

Motivate and Engage Online Learners All Semester Long: This article provides tips for keeping students active in your online course for the long run.

Copyright and Fair Use:  A great edublog post that covers the ins and outs of copyright and fair use issues when using online content. Thanks to Rachel Repstad for finding this. 

Hartness Library Resources for Online Faculty: Librarians work with teaching faculty to support the Vermont Tech curriculum through book purchases, course consultations, creation of tutorials, and in-class instruction to support information literacy and research skills.

Accessibility:  Great resources full of documents and tutorials for making your courses Accessible:

CANnect

National Center on Disability and Access to Education

Making Math Classes Accessible

The following video from Educause provides 8 tips for online instruction:

8 Lessons Learned from Teaching Online from EDUCAUSE on Vimeo.

How to know if school is canceled

If VTC has canceled school for the day, there will be a red banner on the website homepage. Alternate ways of checking the status are:

1. Set Up Your Emergency Notification.

You will receive a text, call, or email depending on your preference.

2. Check Your Portal at portal.vsc.edu.

Enter in your credentials and log in. Once there you, you can locate announcements in the middle top of the page. All announcements, including school cancellations, will be listed there.

3. Call the Class Cancellation line at (802) 728-1346.

 

 

It is a wise idea to set up your Emergency Notification so that if there are any school cancellations, they will be able to contact you.

Open up your web browser and go to the Portal at portal.vsc.edu

Once there, log in with your credentials.

At the top of the page, you will see a few tabs. Click on the My Vermont Tech tab.

After you are at that page, you will see a category called Campus Life in the bottom left of the page.

Click on Emergency Notification Management.

Click on the “Register” link at the top right of the page to set up your account. This will walk you through adding a cell phone number to your account, which will be used for all emergency communications.

If you have any issues, please contact VTC IT department by phone at 802-728-1721, by email at vtcit@vtc.edu, or by submitting a service desk ticket.

Your FERPA form can be located on the Portal site

1. Open up a browser and to go portal.vsc.edu.

On the right side of the page, you will see a list of tabs. Select Student Academic Profile.

2. Under Student Academic Profile you will see FERPA Authorization Form.

This form is there so that you may give access to family members or persons of interest who you want to have access to your academic, financial, and personal information at Vermont Technical College. Parents and/or guardians may request that their student add them to the list so that they may have access to do billing online.

The form has M-Mother, F-Father, S-Spouse, E-Employer, and O-Other as categories in which to add them. You can create an access code for extra security; it is an added measure for persons on the list. They will have to give their name and the access code to be able to get access.

If you have any issues, please contact IT by calling 802-728-1721, emailing us at vtcit@vtc.edu or by submitting a service desk ticket.

Access class cancellations through the Portal site

1. Open a web browser and go to portal.vsc.edu.

Once there, log in with your credentials.

2. On the menu bar located at the top of the page, click the tab that says My Vermont Tech.

It will bring you to your My Vermont Tech page.

3. You can locate Class Cancellations on the left hand side under Discussions.

Once you’ve selected your choice, it will bring you to a forum like page that will have your class listed if cancelled.

If for some reason your teacher didn’t post it there, you can call the Class Cancellation Line for Randolph at (802) 728-1346. Williston’s Class Cancellation line is (802) 879-2375.

You can access your email through our Portal site

1. Open a web browser and go to portal.vsc.edu

Log in with your VTC credentials.

2. In the top, left corner of the page, you should see a link that tells you how many unread emails you have in your inbox.

If you do not see this, but instead see a link that is asking for your credentials, click that and enter your VTC credentials again. This will link your Portal home to your VTC email.

As an alternative, if you wish to go to your email directly, go to www.vtc.edu/mail

If you are a new or transfer student who has recently activated your account or changed your password, please allow up to 24 hours for your mailbox to be set up.

If you have any issues, please contact VTC IT department by phone at 802-728-1721, by email at vtcit@vtc.edu, or by submitting a service desk ticket.

• Go to password.vsc.edu and sign in.
• Click the “MY ACCOUNTS” tab at the top.
• Set your new password.

If you are having issues signing in:

• Go to password.vsc.edu
• Underneath the “Password” field, click “Forgot my username/password” link.
• Complete this form. If you do not know your college ID or if you no longer have access to your personal email or mobile phone on record, please contact the appropriate department for assistance:
  • For Applicants, please contact the Admissions department by phone at 802-728-1444, by email at admissions@vtc.edu, or by visiting the Admissions department in the Allen house on the Randolph campus.
  • For Students, please contact the Registrar’s office by phone at 802-728-1302, by email at registrar@vtc.edu, or by visiting the Registrar’s office in Admin 111 on the Randolph campus.
  • For Staff and Faculty, please contact the Payroll office by phone at 802-728-1763 or 802-728-1211.

 

Updating all your devices with the new password: 

If you only use a school-owned desktop computer, you do not have to read any further.

If you do have your Vermont Tech account setup on any other device, you must continue reading.

 

After changing your password, you need to update all your devices (phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) with the new password or your account will continuously get locked out. We can manually unlock your account for you but it will continue to happen until you update all your devices with the new password.

 

The password needs to be updated in all the areas that you have connected to your Vermont Tech account, including:

• Wireless networks
• Email
• Network drives
• Printers

Every device has a different way to update the password. Here are some examples:

 

Wireless:

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch:

1. Go to Settings and then to “Wireless”
2. Select the “i” button next to the network you are connected to and then choose “Forget this network.”
3. On the main “Wireless” screen, select the network and then enter your credentials.

We have instructions here for reconnecting: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

 

Android Phones and Tablets (will vary based on brand):

1. Go to “Settings” and then to “Wireless”
2. Push and hold down on the network and select “Forget this network”
3. On the main “Wireless” screen, select the network and then enter your credentials.

We have instructions here for reconnecting: Android Phones and Tablets

 

Laptops:

Most Windows or Mac laptops should prompt you to update your password, if not, you can remove and re-add the network. We have guides on how to get to the wireless network settings in case you are not prompted to change it automatically: Laptops

 

Email:

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch:

1. Go to Settings and then to “Mail”
2. Select the Vermont Tech email account and then choose “Email: <email address>” at the top
3. Select the password field to update it.

 

Android (will vary based on brand):

1. Go to “Settings” and then to “Accounts”
2. Select the Vermont Tech email account and then enter the new password.

 

Laptops:

Most email clients will prompt you to update your password without the need to go into the account settings.

 

Network Drives:

You should be prompted to update your password automatically. In some cases, you might need to remove/disconnect the drive and re-add it. We have instructions here on how to re-add: Network Drives

 

Printers:

You will need to remove and re-add any networked printers you have added. To remove a printer, go to “Devices and Printers” and then right-click on the printer and choose “Delete Printer.” To re-add, please see these instructions: Printers

If you have a school-owned laptop, please see the instructions below.

School-owned Laptops:

If you have a Vermont Tech owned laptop, you will need to plug it into our network and then logon to the computer to update the password for Windows, Outlook, wireless, network drives and printers. If you do not have an available cable or port to do this, you can always stop into IT in Morrill 131 in Randolph Center or room 208 in Williston.

 

If you run into any issues, please contact us at 802-728-1721.

• Go to password.vsc.edu
• Underneath the log in box, click “New users: Activate your account here”
  • Step 1: Fill in your full first name, last name, birth date, and your College ID (7 digit number). Select the checkbox and then click the Submit button.
  • Step 2: Select either your email address or mobile phone number to receive a validation PIN. If you do not know your college ID or if you no longer have access to your personal email or mobile phone on record, please contact the appropriate department for assistance.
    • For Applicants, please contact the Admissions department by phone at 802-728-1444, by email at admissions@vtc.edu, or by visiting the Admissions department in the Allen house on the Randolph campus.
    • For Students, please contact the Registrar’s office by phone at 802-728-1302, by email at registrar@vtc.edu, or by visiting the Registrar’s office in Admin 111 on the Randolph campus.
    • For Staff and Faculty, please contact the Payroll office by phone at 802-728-1763 or 802-728-1211.
  • Step 3: Enter the PIN you received via email or mobile phone.
  • Step 4: Create your password. Follow the password guidelines to meet the requirements.
  • After creating your password, you will be asked to set your security questions.
  • Your account is now activated. You can sign out of password.vsc.edu and sign in to Portal, Canvas, Email, etc.

Don’t know your username?

If you do not know your username you can recover it here: https://password.vsc.edu/identity/self-service/vsc/forgotuserid.jsf

If you run into any issues activating your account, please contact us at 802-728-1721.