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Educator's Guide
First steps for educators
Before you start using MATCHA in a course, you should go through the following steps, ideally well ahead of the start of the course.
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Start by
installing MATCHA
to get a feel for what it can do. Try a demo instructor-led activity:
Activity code: 01-01-01-01-01
Instructor: MATCHA
- Decide in what settings you will use MATCHA: in class , at home , or in supervised writing labs . This page overviews how MATCHA can help in each setting. Of course, a hybrid approach involving some at-home work and some in-person or in-lab work can make sense for many courses.
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Check your institution's policies on technology adoption and risk assessment to see what process is
required. Most universities have a formal process for vetting and reviewing new technology for use in
courses. This is often called a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA), Data Protection Impact Assessment
(DPIA), or Technology Risk Assessment. Normally, the process starts with a request to an educational
technology team, which might use a dedicated PIA or DPIA form.
Is it too late for you to do the paperwork to require MATCHA in your course? Chances are you can still suggest (without requiring) that students use it, as students are normally free to write their essays with the word processor of their choice. In our experience, many will prefer it over pencil-and-paper for exams, and many students want to be in a position to prove their work for at-home assignments. You can also require students to prove their work using MATCHA or other means , leaving it open to them to find another solution (if any exists). - Decide which MATCHA features you wish to use and select a Privacy Level that is consistent with these features. If you are the first to use MATCHA at your institution, we recommend aiming to use Privacy Level 2 or above. At that level, no personally identifiable information (PII) will be shared with us, MATCHA Technologies, or our subprocessors. At some universities, this can make the difference between a fast-tracked or review-free adoption process and an in-depth evaluation that takes months.
- If you need help completing your PIA/DPIA form, get in touch with us at dpo@matchatech.io . We can pre-fill the key technical information for you. Also, we can provide a HECVAT package with extensive documentation (this is a standard information package educational technology specialists might ask for).
- Once you are cleared to use MATCHA at your institution, plan your activities as described in the rest of the Educator's Guide . If you will be requiring students to use MATCHA, you should say so on your syllabus. You can use our syllabus generator to draft student-facing language for your course.