VoiceThread: Accessibility Improvements

Today, I shared a brief presentation about VoiceThread with 150+ faculty from the California State University system at the CSU Course Redesign with Technology retreat, sponsored by the CSU Chancellor's Office.  Here is a resource page I created for my presentation on which you'll find lots of goodies, including a VoiceThread to try out for yourself, and links to details about what I will discuss below.

Accessibility is an important part of evaluating new technologies for education. Both the interface of a digital environment and the content it presents needs to be accessible to all learners. In my teaching experiences, VoiceThread has supported the needs of my students with cognitive disorders in ways the traditional Learning Management System environment (text-dominant) has not.  Cognitive disabilities (like dyslexia and dysgraphia) are the most prevalent forms of disabilities (or learning differences) in higher education. Each brain is wired differently. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework designed with these differences in mind. Using VoiceThread in the design of a learning ecosystem supports the principles of UDL:

1. Provide multiple means of representation
2. Provide multiple means of expression
3. Provide multiple means of engagement

I often wonder how college completion rates would change if students' learning environments were more supportive of the different needs of our learners. You can read more about my perspectives on this topic here.

In recent years, VoiceThread incorporate some valuable features in support of inclusivity for all users. These include the development of VoiceThread Universal, an html VoiceThread interface that supports screen readers (like a back door) through which any VoiceThread can be accessed and the ability for a user to add closed captions to central media videos shared on a VoiceThread slide. This month, several more features were released to improve the overall accessibility of VoiceThread for all users:

1. A VoiceThread viewed on VoiceThread.com can now be navigated using a mouse. Click here for a list of keyboard shortcuts (I've started using many of these already and find them very useful).
2. Audio and video comments can now be closed captioned. Essentially, VoiceThread now provides a "CC" icon that appears within the comment bubble, as the comment plays. Just click that icon and you will be prompted to upload a caption file (accepted types include: DFXP, SRT, SAMI, SCC, SBV). That's the easy part. The tricky part is creating the caption file! Click here to view the process I used to caption the audio comments in this VoiceThread.  If you have a streamlined process/better option, please share!
3. I don't think this one is new, but it was new to me! I learned how to create a share link that would open a VT directly in VoiceThread Universal (the screen reader accessible version VoiceThread).  The process involves located the share link for the VoiceThread and tweaking the URL a bit.  The key is locating the numeric identifier in your VoiceThread's URL and adapting the structure of the URL. The structure for a VoiceThread.com link is: http://voicethread.com/share/#####.  The structure for a VoiceThread Universal link is: http://voicethread.com/universal/thread/#####

•   Here is an example:

• Click here to open the VoiceThread in VoiceThread.com (flash site): http://voicethread.com/new/share/6391565/
• Click here to open the same VoiceThread in VoiceThread Universal (html site): http://voicethread.com/universal/thread/6391565

I understand more captioning features are in the works at VoiceThread, but I don't have details about this yet. This feature is a big step forward and I look forward to more steps!

While I'm at it, I should also share that an updated (and much improved) version of VoiceThread was also released for iOS and a new Android app is also available.

I hope this helps!

For more information about VoiceThread and accessibility, click here.

The Liquid Syllabus: Are You Ready?

by mcdarius CC-BY-NC

Liquid content refers to web content that is highly shared - where the desire for sharing is driven by contagious or 'viral ideas' within the content. OK, ok. Maybe a college course syllabus won't become viral (for good reasons) but what if a course syllabus could transform into a content experience that students really wanted to look at and engage with, as opposed to resource we dictated they "must read." Are we at the tipping point for this to happen?

Back in 2011, I wrote a post titled "Time for an Extreme Syllabus Make-Over?" In that post I explore the importance and value of the course syllabus to both instructors and students, ideas I still support. I also explored the value of communicating with students more visually than faculty generally do in higher education. This argument was contextualized in a brief reference to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and mentioned the general shift toward the visual digital media context our students toggle in and out of as they move between their formal (i.e. in Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, Canvas, etc.) and informal (in the open web -- YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc.) environments. That dichotomy remains -- if anything, visual content has become more central to an individual's informal learning as the ownership of smartphones has accelerated in recent years.

I've been reflecting a lot lately on this notion of the 21st century syllabus (and chuckling to myself that I would even use such a phrase). Three years ago, I found a visually compelling PDF to be cutting edge. Today, with so many students accessing content from smartphones, is a PDF the best format for a syllabus? I think not.  The syllabus should be a resource that could be easily accessed and bookmarked on a phone, not locked inside an LMS, and a resource that does not need to be downloaded.

I receive a notification in my email each time someone downloads the "Educator's Guide to a 21st Century Syllabus" that I shared back in 2011. And each time I receive one of those notifications, I am torn -- part of me wants to take that resource down, as I think it needs some serious updating, but I also feel it is helpful to faculty who may not be ready to leave the PDF format all together.

This is where digital media can really become transformative for a resource like a syllabus.
  
Here is my grand vision. Imagine with me. What if your syllabi were beautiful? What if they were a pleasure for students to engage with? What if they provided opportunities to not only understand and access policies, expectations, schedules and such, but for our students to meet us?  What if the syllabus became a site where former students could share voices (stories, feedback, words of encouragement) with future students? Isn't THIS what our goal should be as we move into this amazing landscape of mobile, digital media?

What if these syllabi were all open websites, as opposed to documents secured inside a Learning Management System, as so many are? Thiw would encourage sharing of ideas amongst faculty and students could bookmark them on their smartphones and refer to them frequently, on the go.

But beyond that, they could be linked to pre-registration experiences for learners. Why do students need to wait until after they register for a class to review a course syllabus? This has always made me scratch my head. Imagine if the registration process was truly student-centered and students could not only review the course syllabus but also experience a video from each instructor and any other creative resources designed into that syllabus.

Now we're talking.

Now you may be thinking, "I don't know how to make a syllabus like that" or "faculty at my institution aren't that tech savvy."  Well, you are wrong -- and I hope you take that as a challenge.

In the past year, many micro-publishing tools have emerged that facilitate simple creation of beautiful, captivating single-page websites.  They are perfect for making a liquid syllabus.  In past blog posts, I've referenced Populr, Smore, and Tackk -- and all three of them make great tools for creating beautiful, mobile-friendly course syllabi (or digital flyers that link to course syllabi)!

Below are a few examples of syllabi for you to explore that have been created with these micro-publishing tools.  I encourage you to view them on both a web browser and your mobile device, an important experiment for testing the value of new tools in our mobile learning society.

Populr.me

• Offers a robust ad-free account for educators, although you would never know it based upon the design and organization of their site. Populr.me offers institutional accounts too, which could be incredible transformational for faculty across the board, as the upgraded options included blocks of content that can be customized and updated from single point and pushed out into templates across the institution. While I have not used this type of account, I imagine this being a pathway towards supporting faculty syllabus creation by establishing a template with institutional policies plugged in, saving the faculty time and creating more consistency in the student experience overall.  Of course there are many other uses too like faculty pages, faculty training offerings, events, committee meeting notes, and more.
• How are you using Populr.me?

       Populr.me Syllabus Examples:

• History of Still Photography by me, Mt. San Jacinto College. I am happy to share the clone link for this syllabus with anyone who contacts me directly through my blog. :)  You'll notice that I, personally, choose to include a PDF at the bottom of my Populr.me syllabus so students who prefer the option to also print the resource have that option.
• English 102: Stretch Composition I - created by Stacey Anderson of CSU Channel Islands
• How to Humanize Your Online Class - created by me for CSU Channel Islands
• How to Design Your Online Course - created by me for CSU Channel Islands
• Designing Engaging Online Activities - created by me for CSU Channel Islands

Tackk

• Tackk is my newest find and we are becoming very happy together. I'm using Tack to create Unit Overviews for my online class (which I write about here and plan to blog more about soon).  Tackk does not have options for creating multiple columns but the user experience is lovely -- very simple and the content is beautiful. Each Tackk also has the option to include a stream at the bottom to which viewers may comment. Tackks can be embedded (adjust the height and width provided to make it larger and fit well in your LMS) and even when embedded, the videos play great on my iPhone and iPad (which I can't say about the same YouTube videos I embed directly into Blackboard...sigh). Customizable URLs are also built right in, which is nice!

       Tackk Syllabus Example:

• English 116: Critical Thinking & Composition by Tracy Schaelen of Southwestern College.

Smore

• I have not actively used Smore so it's tough for me to comment on its features. Smore offers educator accounts for $59/year and details are available here.
• In the limited use I have with it, it seems to have fewer layout options than Populr.me (which can be limiting for syllabus creation). Smore is marketed as a tool for creating digital"flyers." It is simple to use and the content you create is beautiful. Analytics are also included.
• How are you using Smore?

        Smore Syllabus Example:

•  Disabilities in Society by Jill Leafstedt at CSU Channel Islands. (I should note that this is an old syllabus of Jill's. After learning about Populr.me she made the move and started using it for her syllabus.

Archive of Inclusive Learning: Lightbulb Moments

Here is the archive of Inclusive Learning: Lightbulb Moments, a Hangout on Air from The Center. In this Hangout, +Deborah Lemon and I share and reflect on our own growth and development as online educators and discuss how the integration of social tools into our online learning environment has fostered community-oriented learning that nourishes our students' learning differences and creates personal, relevant learning. Deborah showcases her online Spanish class which is taught in Facebook and I share my online ice breaker designed in VoiceThread and examine how the option to express oneself in voice or text is impacting my students' learning. What are your two takeaways? I'd love to hear them! #CCCLEARN

    Thanks for sharing with me today, Deborah! I always learn so much from you. 

Inclusive Learning: Lightbulb Moments from 2 Online Instructors

Inclusive Learning: Lightbulb Moments from 2 Online Faculty

Thursday, April 3rd

4:00-5:00pm Pacific

LIVE - Google+ Hangout on Air!

Click for Google Event

View on YouTube --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJkREZ-eYqo&feature=share

Join The Center's Community for follow-up discussions --> tiny.cc/TheCenter 

Follow The Center on Twitter --> @Center_Ed

Join me, Michelle Pacansky-Brock, and +Deborah Lemon  as we engage in a reflective conversation about their growth and development as online educators. Deborah and I will share how we have come to value the rich, community-oriented learning environment in our online classes that supports our students' learning differences and encourages them to make relevant connections with the curriculum. We will share tips and strategies, show examples of our own VoiceThread and Facebook learning activities, and take questions from the live audience.

• The Q&A feature will be enabled during the live Hangout on Air to allow viewers with a Google+ account to submit questions through a web browser.
• The Hangout on Air will also be archived and and shared with a Creative Commons license on The Center Hangout Archive playlist at: http://tiny.cc/CenterArchives

This Hangout on Air will feature:

• Michelle Pacansky-Brock - Community Coordinator of The Center; Associate Faculty, Mt. San Jacinto College; Instructional Technologist, CSU Channel Islands, Author of Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies and How to Humanize Your Online Class with VoiceThread
• +Deborah Lemon  - Professor at Ohlone College, Instructor of Building Online Community with Social Media at @ONE

All Center events are brought to you by @ONE.

How to Doodle in VoiceThread Mobile & Why it Matters

VT Mobile. Bridge image by Glam.

I'm currently teaching my Building Online Social Media class and I'm seeing a big increase in the number of faculty using iPads.  In the class, faculty are introduced to a number of tools, one of them being VoiceThread.  VoiceThread provides users with the option to access content created with the tool via a regular web browser or through a free mobile app (to accommodate the flash "gap" experienced by iPhone and iPad users -- although an Android app is in development too).  For users who are blind or have cognitive disorders that are supported by a more linear flow of content, VoiceThread Universal provides yet another alternative to the content (note: a VoiceThread must first be "Shared" with a user directly before it is available to him/her through VoiceThread Universal but that's the only necessary step).

For those of you who read my blog, you are familiar with the fact that I am a passionate advocate for emerging technologies that support non-traditional learners.  I get very excited when I envision a future of inclusive learning environments in which all of our students can learn together in community and feel good about what they bring to the table, rather than feeling poorly for about how they don't measure up to the status quo.  You can read more about my views on this topic in my new book, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies.  I believe mobile learning and emerging technologies in general are pathways to mainstreaming the adoption of Universal Design for Learning.

In my current class, I have a few students who had some hiccups understanding how to locate the Doodle function in the VoiceThread mobile app.  Rather than sharing those instructions just with them, I thought I'd post them here so everyone could learn from them. 

Why is Doodling on a Mobile Device important to educators?  

Using the raw gesture of the human hand to control the actions on a mobile device is proving to open a world of new dazzling cognitive leaps for individuals with particular learning differences.  Beyond that, however, giving students the option to Doodle on slide while they are responding to a discussion prompt or having them demonstrate how to work through the rest of a problem set are ways to engage the psychomotor cognitive domain in an online learning environment that nearly always left dormant.  

What is the Doodle feature?

The Doodle feature gives users the ability to draw on a slide while leaving a voice or video comment on an iPhone or iPad (if you are using VoiceThread on a full web browser, the Doodle feature also works with text commenting). 

Step 1:

Click the "Plus Sign" to comment.

Step 2:

Select the microphone or webcam icon to leave a voice or video comment.  The Doodle feature is not included with text commenting on VoiceThread mobile.

Step 3:

The red flashing light indicates that you are now recording!  Click on the white dot to the right to activate the Doodle feature.

Step 4:

A vertical palette of colors will expand.  Tap a color in the palette to select it.

Step 5:

Doodle away with your finger! The marks will begin to fade after a few seconds.

Step 5:

Click Save.

For More Help

For more help with VoiceThread mobile, please explore the great resources in the VoiceThread Mobile Support Site.

How Are You Using It?

Are you using VoiceThread mobile with your students?  If so, drop us a comment here and let us know how!