Our Mission
We champion excellent teaching and build connected community to promote meaningful learning.
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Cameron Shirley, Title III Project Director
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On October 7th, 2019, Davidson County Community College sent out the following press release:
“Davidson County Community College received a grant of $2.25 million from the U.S. Department of Education. The college is one of 31 projected recipients of the Title III Part A grant. Funds will be delivered to the institution over a five-year period starting this month.”
As a result of this grant, important work will be done throughout the College. In focusing on the academic piece we will see funds used for faculty development including classroom enhancements. Additionally, the release goes on to say, “…a new Center for Teaching and Learning will be further established at the college. The center will offer exploration and testing of new technologies, training in current instructional technology and annual summer institutes for learning and sharing of best practices. Summer institutes will provide thematic cross-curricular professional development for faculty across all programs.”
No undertaking of this magnitude could go forward without someone being charged to work on the grant full-time. Recently, DCCC hired Cameron Shirley as the Title III Project Director.
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5 Tips for Creating Videos
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With the increased use of videos in teaching, it's helpful to keep some tips in mind. Here is a mashup of tips we thought might be helpful..
- Before recording, prepare well. This means having a written script to help maintain focus and organization. Additionally, make sure to choose a well lit area that is distraction-free, and use the microphone that delivers the clearest sound quality--whether a headset, Bluetooth or the PC's microphone.
- Chunk information into sizeable bites. The attention span of a student watching a video begins to drop off after 6 minutes, and falls off completely after 9. Information packets of 5 minutes are ideal.
- Enhance student engagement through the use of embedded quizzes or questions and slides that are clear, simple, and visually appealing. Here is a tutorial of how to embed questions in VidGrid.
- Enthusiasm begins with the instructor, and is contageous. The tone in which the information is presented matters. Students are rarely more enthusiastic than their instructors.
- Caption your recordings. This will be made easier if the instructor worked from a prepared text (see the first point). If you have used VidGrid for your recording, please use this tutorial on how to request machine captioning and use this resource to learn how to edit captions. For questions about captions, contact Christie Bundy at christie_bundy@davidsonccc.edu
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Ally Accessibility Checker
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Have you ever noticed the gauges in your courses? They may be green, orange, or red and usually appear next to your document name. These gauges compile an accessibility checker called Ally, and can tremendously help you adjust your course to be more accessible!
The green gauge means that the document/element meets Ally’s standards for accessibility. You do not need to edit for accessibility and a green gauge is your goal!
The orange and red gauges mean that Ally has detected accessibility issues with the element/document. Clicking on the gauge will provide you with instructions to edit. For example, images without alt text will be flagged by an orange or a red gauge. Once you click on the gauge, Ally will tell you the issue and allow you to edit the alt text immediately.
Thank you for all the work and attention you are putting towards the accessibility of your DCCC courses!
Questions about the Ally Accessibility Checker can be directed to your Digital Accessibility Coordinator, Kate Moss, at:
katelin_moss@davidsonccc.edu
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LightBoard is Available For Use
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Create Instructional Videos Using Our New LightBoard
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We have a new LightBoard that allows instructors to create written or visual demonstrations for instructional videos. If you are interested in utilizing the LightBoard, please reach out to any Office of Learning Design staff member or simply fill out the
Faculty Help Request Form.
The board is located in our new Creation Studio in the Gee Building. While following social distancing rules, we can get you set up to record in no time!
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Starfish Feature Spotlight
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Look to your email for a Starfish Midweek Feature Spotlight sent by Keisha Jones, Dean of Student Engagement and Completion. This particular article highlights a feature called Direct Links that will benefit faculty in interactions and/or engagement with students.
Did You Know...
- Direct Links, also known as deep links, are used to take users who click them directly to a specific area of Starfish to schedule an appointment. Once the student authenticates to Starfish, the Direct Link URL is maintained and the student is sent directly to that service or individual person's scheduling page, rather than being sent to the Starfish main landing page where they would then need to navigate to find the service or individual person's scheduling page.
- Faculty Use: Faculty Members can embed their Direct Link in a number of ways: for their calendar into emails sent to students, in their course announcement in Moodle, or in syllabi, just to a name a few.
- Staff Use: A staff person can use their link in the same way as a faculty member. The additional option for staff is if your department is listed under the services tab you could also send the student the service direct link. The service direct link will allow the student to make an appointment with anyone associated with that service
- Where is my direct link? Click on your institutional profile and you will see "link to schedule an appointment with me". Click copy to clipboard and embed the link or make it a hyperlink. We do recommend you make the link a short link if possible. A website used frequently is bitly.com
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Looking For a Place to Store Video and Other Media Files?
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You may already know that VidGrid allows you to record your own videos. However, it can also be used for video storage. You can upload videos directly to your VidGrid account. As a bonus, VidGrid has machine captioning built into the platform.
Google Drive is also an option for video or other file storage as well. DCCC faculty and staff have unlimited storage and a 750 GB upload limit per day.
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Got a great teaching idea, tip/trick or tool you use?
Please share it with us and we'll feature it in the newsletter!
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The Office of Learning Design Team pictured above (from left to right): Dori Lloyd, Christie Bundy, Nathanael Gough, Kate Moss, Chad Skudlarick
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We Want To Hear From You!!
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If you have ideas for our next issue, please contact anyone from our team.
- Suggest faculty to spotlight
- Share a favorite course design or teaching technique
- Showcase a favorite instructional strategy/tool
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Office of Learning Design, Located in Briggs 225
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