Tommie Tech Canvas Site: Getting Started for Students

Tommie Tech is an online resource that helps students find and use St. Thomas technologies and online learning resources.  

What is the Tommie Tech Canvas site?  

All St. Thomas students are enrolled in a Tommie Tech Canvas site, an online resource that helps students find and use St. Thomas technologies. There is both an undergraduate and graduate student version. Whether you are taking an in-person, online, or some mixture of online and in-person, Tommie Tech is here for you!

Tommie Tech guides you to:

• Explore key tech systems such as Canvas, Zoom, Murphy, Office 365, Tommie Link, and OneStThomas
• set up your own device(s) including free apps to download and test your browser
• review online etiquette
• learn about digital security practices.
• practice with Canvas, the online platform that is used for all your courses.

All current and upcoming students are automatically enrolled in the respective site (graduate or undergraduate).

Logging into the Tommie Tech Canvas site

You can access Tommie Tech at any time (24/7) from your Canvas dashboard.  

To visit Tommie Tech right from this article:

• Undergraduate students: Tommie Tech Undergraduate Site link.
• Graduate students: Tommie Tech Graduate Site link.

All course URLs are password protected and only accessible to St. Thomas students using your username and password. 

If you have trouble finding this site, please contact the Tech Desk.

What Students Find Helpful

Many students report finding value in using Tommie Tech, especially early on in their program. 

Here are a few examples of impact from this resource:  

• “I loved having the screenshots that walked me through how to access the platforms step-by-step!”
• "I think the best thing is the canvas app because you are able to see and get notifications on your phone.”
• “I thought it was cool that we get 1 terabyte of free cloud file storage in OneDrive.”
• “That's awesome there is 24 hour help available for students, it makes me more confident that if any tech problems arise, I'll have help to solve them.”

Tommie Tech is especially pertinent for newer students, students who have had less access to or comfort with technology or academics, and/or students unfamiliar with St. Thomas technologies.

Some more experienced students also use the site. Here are quotes from experienced students who completed Tommie Tech:

• “The in-depth tour of Canvas helped me get the hang of how classes will be organized. The ‘preparing your devices’ section helped me catch and address a few potentially-frustrating tech shortcomings.”
• “I have a strong background in technology and have taken many online classes. Combine that with this very thorough orientation and I feel ready.”

All first-year freshmen undergraduate students are required to complete Tommie Tech before their first semester and submit a certification of completion into their First-Year Experience FYEX 100 course. Some graduate programs or individual instructors may also ask you to complete the site or explore certain features in Tommie Tech. 

Equitable Access

All students are enrolled in Tommie Tech to ensure equitable access to technology resources, and make sure everyone has the same opportunities to information and support in using technology and learning about your systems of support. You will be enrolled in Tommie Tech throughout your program since periodically there will be new technology resources introduced in Tommie Tech. However, if you do not want to be on the site, you can request being removed at any point (see the home page for the unenroll option).