Academic Innovation Blog

Make Smart Videos With Your Smart Phone

If social distancing and stay at home orders have you feeling like a COVID Castaway, you’re not alone. As producers, being told that we can’t open the studio to shoot welcome videos and micro lectures, well it’s like being on a deserted island.

But fear not! As necessity is the mother of invention, the instructional resources team has created a process to help you craft engaging videos for your online course. We have produced two step-by-step videos detailing how to shoot high-quality videos with your mobile phone that you can share with us, via OneDrive, to edit and polish.

Connecting with your students during these days of great change is important. And video is still a great way to make personal connections. Our mission is to help you achieve that goal and we believe this process can help you do that. Please reach out to any member of the Instructional Resources team if you have any questions or would like more information. Good Shooting!

COVID Castaway? You Can Make Great Videos With Your Mobile Phone

COVID Castaway? You Can Make Great Videos With Your Mobile Phone video link

Sharing Videos From Your Phone With OneDrive

Sharing Videos From Your Phone With OneDrive video link

If you have any questions regarding this blog or any video related questions, please reach out to me, April Brunning (386) 506-3041 april_brunning@daytonastate.edu or any member of the Instructional Resources team listed below. If you have any course-related questions, the great folks in the FIC are always here to help.

April.Brunning@daytonastate.edu
Kevin.Lorden@Daytonastate.edu
Tiffany.Todd@daytonastate.edu
Erin.Arthur@daytonastate.edu

Friday Funnies

It's hard to believe it's been a month since many of us have stepped onto one of Daytona State's campuses. We miss seeing you all at the Faculty Innovation Center and are looking forward to returning to business as usual when it is safe to do so. In the meantime, have a laugh or two on us.

Like sands through the hourglass...

At least our dogs are happy we're home.

Pam Ortiz
Administrative Specialist, Division of Online Studies
pamela.ortiz@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3638
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/

In these times of uncertainty and social distancing, we at Daytona State College want to help you access all the tools you need to design and deliver fully online courses. Video is a great way to engage and connect with your students, and Instructional Resources is available to assist you in creating high-quality media content from home. Additionally, we have curated an online repository of high-quality video content that can assist you in providing engaging instructional content to enhance your courses. This collection includes videos from a wide range of disciplines including:

• English
• Nursing
• Education
• Math
• Psychology
• Fire Science

Included in the video repository catalog are the category, titles, and descriptions of each video. 

Instructional Video Repository

If you are searching for video content not listed in the repository or you would like to create engaging content of your own, please contact any member of the Instructional Resources team. We stand together with you, our dedicated faculty, helping deliver high-quality online courses for our students. 

April.Brunning@daytonastate.edu
Kevin.Lorden@Daytonastate.edu
Tiffany.Todd@daytonastate.edu
Erin.Arthur@daytonastate.edu

We are all looking for something to celebrate this summer and Desire 2 Learn (D2L) has delivered.  The D2L Fusion 2020 conference is going to be online and free to all registrants.  The virtual conference is a great opportunity to participate in workshops led by faculty from around the world and D2L staff alike.  You can pick up ideas in online instruction from your colleagues in higher education, discover trends, and have some fun with professional development. 

D2L has not announced the dates for Fusion 2020 but they encourage you to register to reserve your spot.  Please visit the D2L Fusion 2020 website to learn more about the conference and to register for the event.    

Aaron Sunday
Instructional Designer, Division of Online Studies
aaron.sunday@daytonastate.edu | 386-506-3209 
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/

Friday Funnies

It's time for Friday Funnies, where we take a few minutes to laugh, relate, celebrate our humanity, and sing (virtually) together! Below are memes and a video that you all shared with us. Have a restful and safe weekend! 

Librarians have such a sense of humor. Read closely (pun intended)!

For all the parents out there...we see you...and we get it.

And now for some Good News, get ready to sing along!

Research projects can be a daunting task for students. From choosing a topic, to properly citing sources, to putting all the information together cohesively, students can feel overwhelmed by all that's entailed. The DSC Library has created a series of videos to help walk your students through the research process via short tutorials for the most popular databases. These videos highlight basic search functions and the unique features each database provides. They also answer specific and unique questions such as how to create an account with EBSCOHost in order to download an eBook from their eBook Collection or viewing a tutorial in their PrepSTEP for colleges database. The videos are all less than 4 minutes long with most being less than 2 minutes. You can embed an individual video or the playlist of all the database tutorials into your Falcon Online course shell. We have also created tutorials for common questions such as logging into the DSC library database system and doing a basic search from the main page.

If you have an idea for a tutorial video that would help your class, please don't hesitate to ask!

Max Hackman
Instruction and Outreach Librarian
maxwell.hackman@daytonastate.edu
386.506.3521
DB - Bldg. 115, Room 316
 

One of the keys to remote instruction is to be present and to be in touch with our students. If students are unable to come to class, they will have questions. Yes, email is one way to reach out and connect; not everyone looks at email, their phone is always in their hands. Being able to communicate by phone goes a long way and can help reduce some of the anxieties and concerns students have.

Instead of giving out my personal cell phone number to students, I have been using a Google Voice Phone number for over a year now. Google Voice is a free service from Google; it allows you to have a Google phone number that forwards calls and texts to your cell phone. It can also be used on your computer. I make calls to students on my computer all the time. The service is super easy to get started (see link below). All you need is to have a Gmail account.

I can call and more importantly text my students, which is a great feature. I have found students are more likely to respond to a text than an email or a phone call voice message. Here are some benefits that I found:

1. Google Voice is flexible. It can ring all your numbers if you wish to list them all. I just listed my cell phone number, but you can also list your Gmail account via Google Chat. You can change the settings. You can set to do not disturb so you do not have students calling you in the wee hours in the morning or at night. You have control on where and when you want to be contacted.
2. Through Google Voice, you have a record of all your phone calls and text messages that you sent and received. They all can be archived.
3. Your Google Voice number always stays the same even if you get a new phone and cell phone number

How to create a Google Voice Number is a document I found online, which gives instructions on how to create a Google Voice number. You can also review the official Google Support page for setting up Voice or watch this tutorial video on how to get started.

Email me if you have any questions gabi.booth@daytonastate.edu

Gabi Booth
Professor, School of Mathematics
gabi.booth@daytonastate.edu
386-423-6306
 

Friday Funnies

It's time for Friday Funnies, where we take a few minutes out of the day for a laugh. We certainly have earned it! Below are memes and a video that you all shared with us, thank you! They spoke to our "new normal" of balancing working from home, schooling online, homeschooling, and the many uses of our now most valued commodity - toilet paper!
 

Online Class is in Session!

Attempting to Work and Homeschool at the Same Time.

By "Funny" We Actually Mean "Awesome" for this One!

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#springtraining #TP #FridayFeeling ⚽️ spring training for the DSC Falcons is a little different this year...practicing remote passes. #GoFalcons

A post shared by Daytona State College (@daytonastate) on Apr 3, 2020 at 8:57am PDT

Pam Ortiz
Administrative Specialist, Division of Online Studies
pamela.ortiz@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3638
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/

Good News! We have updated the Virtual Classroom and Video Assignment tools to the premium version. As a reminder, you can access both tools from the Tools menu on the course navbar and then select the magenta plus button  in the lower right to create an item. Additional features now available are listed below.

Virtual Classroom

View this comparison chart of the free vs. premium version of Virtual Classroom opens in new window. Updates include:

• Maximum meeting duration is now 240 minutes
• Maximum meeting participants is now 150
• Breakout rooms opens in new window are now available.
• Meeting moderators can now access meetings 10 minutes early before participants are allowed in to the meeting
• Recordings are now maintained indefinitely (as long as we maintain our license)
• Attendance logs opens in new window are now available for recorded meetings. Captured information includes participant’s name, role (or anonymous if they joined via an external link), minutes of the session they attended, and number of chat messages they submitted.

Video Assignments

View this comparison chart of the free vs. premium version of Video Assignments opens in new window. The free version allowed for Individual assignment projects opens in new window, but our upgrade adds some additional features for that assignment type as you can see in the comparison chart opens in new window, as well as three new assignment types listed below. How students complete an individual assignment opens in new window.

• Question and Answer opens in new window - students are put on the spot to answer questions asynchronously with only a limited amount of time to respond. This “hot seat experience” helps individuals improve their communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills within a real-world environment. 
  • How students complete a Q&A assignment opens in new window
• Group project opens in new window - students collaborate synchronously or asynchronously to complete a group activity. After you create the assignment, you then set up the desired groups opens in new window. Students can create collaboration rooms, upload individual videos, and combine into one video, etc.
  • How students complete a group project opens in new window.
• Interactive video opens in new window - students watch a video and respond to related prompts.
  • How students complete an interactive video assignment opens in new window.

For more information visit the Virtual Classroom and Video Assignments knowledgebase opens in new window. 

Bill Harrison
Senior Instructional Technologist/Instructional Designer
Instructional Resources
bill.harrison@daytonastate.edu | 386.506.4306

Keeping A Secure Network As We Increase Our Virtual Campus

As you are working on your "keep teaching" workflows, we want to make sure that you're keeping cybersecurity awareness at the forefront. One of the  recent, primary cybersecurity threats going on during this crisis relates to the use of virtual meeting tools. The main vendor that has been called out on cybersecurity vulnerabilities is virtual meeting product known as "Zoom." We realize that you're doing everything to keep teaching and keep your students engaged, but the Zoom product has shown some major vulnerabilities. What makes Zoom great is that it's free, easy to access and easy to use. While this is true for faculty and students, this is also true for hackers.

They can easily access the system, and IT has been tracking multiple vulnerabilities. We currently don't have any licensing for Zoom at the college. Because of these two factors, we are recommending that all faculty and staff stop utilizing personal licenses of Zoom immediately and transition into the virtual tools that we are providing. These tools include Skype for Business and the Virtual Classroom (Bongo) built into Falcon Online. Please review the resources below on how to utilize these virtual meeting tools. 

Resources Available to Connect with Our Learners and Each Other

• 3/17/2020 Keep Teaching Webinar Recording - Instructional Resources goes over how to utilize Virtual Classroom and Skype for Business.
• Skype for Business User Guide - Variety of resources on how to use this tool with students to connect virtually.
• Virtual Classroom User Guide and InfoGuide page - Documentation that walks you through setting up and using Virtual Classroom in Falcon Online.

Lack of Network Safely with Using Zoom Documentation

• FBI Releases Guidance on Defending Against VTC Hijacking and Zoom Bombing (Source: CISA)
• A Must For Millions, Zoom Has A Dark Side — And An FBI Warning (Source: NPR)
• Zoom Rushes Patches for Zero-Day Vulnerabilities (GovInfo Security)
• Two Zoom Zero-Day Flaws Uncovered (Source: ThreatPost)
• Zoom privacy and security issues: Here's everything that's wrong (so far) (Source: Tom's Guide)

Thanks for all of your hard work! We appreciate your efforts to stay connected, as well as staying vigilant!

Socially Distant But Still In This Together

We are living in strange and uncertain times. The COVID-19 pandemic has made telecommuting our new, albeit temporary, normal. Teams and Skype have replaced face-to-face meetings, which can create an interpersonal disconnect. Many of us miss that in-person connection we have with one another on our campuses. This is a stressful period for all of us, but knowing we are all in this together certainly helps.

"Laughter is poison to fear." - George R.R. Martin

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." - Victor Borge

The staff of the Division of Online Studies and a number of staff and faculty have made a point of bringing laughter into one another's day exchanging funny videos, GIFs and memes appropriate for the current situation. We would like to share some of those with you to inject some light-hearted tomfoolery into your day and weekend. Enjoy!

Learning The Ways of the Force, via Virtual Classroom

A Conference Call in Real Life - Tripp and Tyler

Ha Ha Ha Ha Stayin' Alive - Corona Virus Bee Gees Parody 

Pam Ortiz
Administrative Specialist, Division of Online Studies
pamela.ortiz@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3638
http://www.daytonastate.edu/onlinestudies/