NameCoach: It's a Matter of Dignity

CCC CVC-OEI

Greg Beyrer, a faculty member at Cosumnes River College, recognizes that NameCoach helps faculty and staff treat students with dignity. When his college adopted NameCoach, Greg wrote an email to his peers about the value that NameCoach brings to students. That letter is shared below with Greg's permission. Greg would love to see you adapt the letter and share it with your peers too!

Subject: Namecoach helps us treat students with dignity

Greetings:

I am very excited to share with you the good news that we now have access to NameCoach, a tool designed to bring dignity to our interactions with students by empowering *them* to tell us how to pronounce their names. NameCoach is a service provided to us because we are part of the 2018 Equity Cohort for the California Virtual Campus - Online Education Initiative.

Inside each Canvas course there is a NameCoach Roster link in Course Navigation. Select this link to see a list of people enrolled in the class who have recorded their names and to record your own. Your NameCoach recording is attached to your Canvas user profile, so the same recording is linked to the NameCoach Roster in each of your courses.

Recordings can be made directly on the NameCoach Roster page (if your computer has a microphone attached), or you can have NameCoach call you and record your name over the phone. You can edit your recording at any time. The same tool is linked from each user’s Profile page, so anyone can log in to Canvas and record how to pronounce their name.

While I like that my students will more easily be able to pronounce my name, the main benefit of this is for me and the rest of the class to hear how each student pronounces their own name. For those students who choose to make a recording, I will be able to give them the dignity of saying their name the way they prefer. I hope you agree and will encourage your students to use this service.

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