Tech Academy Introduction

Welcome to Tech Academy!

This “mini-course” is designed to be an introduction to the basic technology skills incoming students will need to succeed at Penn State University. Housed in Canvas, Penn State’s learning management system, it is easy to incorporate into New Student Orientation, First-Year Seminar, or other courses and programs designed for first-year students.

If you have questions about Tech Academy, or would like more information on how you may incorporate the mini-course at your location, please email the Tech Academy Working Group at L-TECHACADEMY@LISTS.PSU.EDU

Summer 2024 Update

It’s that time of year again – Tech Academy has gone through another major revision process! Thanks to feedback from faculty, students, and our awesome facilitators, we are happy to present new content that will hopefully be even more useful to incoming students. New content in Tech Academy includes:

  • Introduction to Top Hat
  • Data Privacy and AI recommendation information
  • Instructions for creating custom folders in OneDrive
  • Adobe Acrobat Pro information, and instructions on creating a PDF

In addition modules were reorganized and content was updated to create a better flow for students. You can see the full content outline on the About Tech Academy page.

This summer, we are also able to offer completion incentives thanks to the establishment of a Tech Academy Endowment. Students at campuses who are implementing Tech Academy during NSO, and complete ALL of Tech Academy and receive full credit, will be entered into a giveaway for Penn State themed technology items.

Interested in learning more about Tech Academy or using it you courses? You can email L-techacademy@lists.psu.edu or fill out the Tech Academy adoption form to receive the most up-to-date version of Tech Academy to use at your campus!

Fall 2023 Tech Academy Update

Fall semester will quickly be upon us, and with that the way that Tech Academy is utilized will shift slightly. Instead of part of New Student Orientation, or Summer Start program, many faculty incorporate Tech Academy as part of First-Year Seminar, or other introductory courses typically taken by First-Year students.

To help faculty ensure that they are using the most up-to-date version of Tech Academy we’ve made a few updates, including adding the prefix “FA 23 TA” to the updated pages and assignments to help faculty find the updated Tech Academy content once its imported into their Canvas Course. Unsure of how to import content from one Canvas course to another? You can find the instructions here.

We’ve also developed some instructions to help faculty who may want to copy content from last year’s Canvas course, into this year’s.

You can gain access to the most up-to-date version of Tech Academy by filling our the Tech Academy adoption form.

Summer 2023 Update

Each year, the Working Group reviews feedback from facilitators and students, and makes changes to Tech Academy’s content. We also add any updates to the apps and technologies covered. This year we updated a number of the sections in order to make the content more streamline for students. This changes included:

  • Updated videos for Outlook and PSU Sites
  • Added more content on navigating Canvas and viewing grades
  • Adjusted the order of the sections for better flow
  • Redesigned surveys to better collection students’ previous experience with technology

Remember to fill out the Tech Academy adoption form to receive the most up-to-date version of Tech Academy to use at your campus!

You must sign in with your PSU ID to access the Adoption Form.