Writer
Sherry O'Neal

Photographer
Thomas Crocker

Whether leading workshops on NC State’s campus, sharing best practices via articles or presenting at conferences, the DELTA Faculty Fellows are building a stellar reputation.

Included in the DELTA Grants for the first time in the 2015-2016 cycle, the Faculty Fellows earn funding for around 40 hours of partnership activities. And according to Director of Instructional Support Services Stacy Gant, the Fellows’ enthusiasm for what they are doing leads them to contribute many more hours.

The inaugural cohort group selected as Faculty Fellows were from across three colleges: Dr. Kimberly Allen, Agricultural and Life Sciences; Dr. Ed Lindsay, Natural Resources; and Dr. Maria Gallardo-Williams, Sciences.

These three pioneers have traveled near and far to promote their research, discuss their teaching innovations and make interdisciplinary connections.

An unexpected benefit has been the sense of community that bonds the Fellows, explained Gant. The Fellows, who will be continuing for another year, expressed a desire to provide more opportunities for shared scholarship.

“This program recognizes faculty excellence in teaching effectively with technology, with the Faculty Fellows sharing their expertise via workshops, seminars and consultations, and encouraging and inspiring other faculty to explore the possibilities of leveraging technology to support their teaching,” said Associate Vice Provost for DELTA’s Instructional Technology Support Division Dr. Donna Petherbridge.

Background

Historically, many NC State faculty and staff members have been invited to share their expertise in DELTA’s Teaching and Learning with Technology workshops. For some time, our senior management team has been interested in establishing a program to both showcase our outstanding faculty and to assist with peer outreach, said Gant.

“We’ve asked for favors over the years and so many faculty have graciously donated their time to teach for us, share their experiences from the trenches. Now we have this grant available to compensate recipients for their service,” she added.

Getting different perspectives from a select set of excellent teachers has proved especially helpful to the training team at DELTA. The reciprocal relationship includes sharing expertise both ways.

The Fellows act as a mini focus group of advisors for the training staff. In fact, their input resulted in a different scheduling paradigm for the Fall 2016 workshops. The series is divided into three block schedules. The first block is for beginners, the second block is for more advanced learners and the third block will comprise special topics.

The Inaugural Cohort

Let’s meet the first cohort group!

Dr. Kimberly Allen, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist and Director of Graduate Program
Youth, Family and Community Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

One reason Allen was drawn to the Faculty Fellows opportunity was to connect with faculty who were doing similar things in the classroom. Allen has a student-centered approach and was sure other faculty members outside her department did, too. So she applied to make more diverse connections.

“Some people aren’t aware of how much online and distance education NC State does,” said Allen. “It is so much more than on-campus students having access to flexibility. It is affecting our whole state.” She wants to measure the impact of online and distance education in North Carolina.

Allen, who teaches fully online, described how very important community is to her. “I do everything I can to intentionally build a community in my classes and my goal with the Fellows is to foster a strong community among the faculty whose interests lie in online education,” she added.

Building connections with other faculty, she said, has been a rewarding part of her experience as a Faculty Fellow this year.

She doesn’t consider herself a technology person, yet she teamed with Fellow Gallardo-Williams for a lunchtime best practices workshop about integrating video into courses.

One evaluation stated about the duo’s co-teaching, “This was a fantastic workshop. It provided great ideas for getting students to create videos for our classes and great ideas for evaluating the effectiveness of the videos that we use.”

“I like to use the tools that are best for student outcomes and I firmly believe that you have to reach your audience where they are with the tools that are best for them,” explained Allen. She laughed, it may take her a while to feel completely comfortable with the technology.

According to Allen, “Faculty members have a voice and a piece of the DELTA work. DELTA has the expertise in terms of technology and distance ed and faculty are the content people. Now we are integrated and it has the greatest potential for truly making change for how students are taught here at NC State.”

She described the experience as a Venn diagram with faculty and DELTA as separate circles. “The Faculty Fellows program is that piece in the middle where we are partnering to help students have a better learning experience,” added Allen.

“As usual, DELTA has made this easy and pleasurable. It has been a wonderful opportunity.”

When the second cohort of Faculty Fellows comes, Allen will be focusing her second year on building community among the Fellows.

Dr. Maria Gallardo-Williams, Teaching Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratories
Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences

Dr. Maria Gallardo-Williams is the epitome of a satisfied DELTA partner! “The large course redesign grant experience literally changed the direction of my scholarship,” she said.

Her gratitude and desire to share outcomes of her successes sparked her interest in serving as a DELTA Faculty Fellow. Still invigorated from her collaboration with DELTA, she eagerly applied for a Faculty Fellow grant and became one of three in the cohort.

She was excited to use the stipend to travel to conferences and to present about the work she has been doing to incorporate videos in the organic chemistry labs at NC State.

“Attending the Biennial Conference for Chemical Education has always been a dream of mine. As teaching faculty, I do not receive travel money so I was looking forward to speaking at the conference about what I have been doing,” she said.

Teaching the workshops with other Fellows was a lot of fun for Gallardo-Williams. The camaraderie with other faculty and being connected through the DELTA workshops was a happy side effect.

“We all use video and technology in our classes, but it is so fun to see  different perspectives,” she added. The interdisciplinary composition of workshop attendees triggers ideas to try new approaches in her own teaching.

The biggest surprise for Gallardo-Williams is how much all the faculty care about their students. She recalled most questions in workshops she has presented were about student outcomes. “This is great for me to hear because I feel the same way! They ask, how can I use this to benefit my students. It is heartwarming that faculty at NC State care so much!”

After workshops, colleagues from all across campus ask questions and we share information. Discussing teaching techniques helps faculty foster interdisciplinary connections, which may not have happened without the workshops. “The technology is very rarely discipline-specific,” added Gallardo-Williams.

She enjoyed writing for DELTA News sharing her experiences in a non-academic environment. She hopes her words and shared knowledge will help other faculty members.

Gallardo-Williams mentioned another byproduct of becoming a Faculty Fellow; she reworked her Twitter account to be more academic. She finds it to be a really great tool for reaching a younger audience.

“It’s been a great learning experience for me and it has made me feel a lot more comfortable talking about teaching with technology. It is a two-way street, so whatever I have shared; I have learned more. It has been fun,” she said.

Dr. Edwin Lindsay, Assistant Professor
Department of Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Sport Management
College of Natural Resources

Coming into his role as a Faculty Fellow, Lindsay said he had “no idea the impact would be as big as it has been. It is having a positive impact for faculty.”

Lindsay discussed how using technology has been a great experience for him. Previously he was awarded a DELTA Grant to apply gamification to an online course.

After that experience, he believes people relate him with working on creative teaching. He has given numerous talks and has been published in EdTech and Campus Technology magazines in relation to the earlier project.

Lindsay explained the potential is there for more cross-disciplinary efforts to formalize efforts across campus. “Gamification has so many opportunities for that. The tools we are utilizing and the activities we are doing can be applied to engineering and others as well. Unless we have built-in opportunities, the collaboration may not happen,” he said.

In describing what excited Lindsay about the DELTA Faculty Fellows, he credits the program with allowing each Fellow to have their own experience. Most similar programs expect everyone to follow the same path.

“This program gives you the ability to construct your own experiences while promoting what DELTA is doing. It’s a unique opportunity to create relationships with faculty outside of your department. That’s what I have been most excited about,” said Lindsay.

Cultivating connections with other Fellows and finding out what they are doing and how they engage students is important to Lindsay.

“I am finding out so much about what is going on with other disciplines that I wouldn’t know about if I weren’t a Faculty Fellow,” he said.

In addition to enjoying the opportunity to get in front of his peers, Lindsay described adding his designation as a DELTA Faculty Fellow to his email signature. He indicated he fields inquiries from other faculty about what it means.

“Honestly, I don’t know how someone who teaches with technology on this campus doesn’t know about the faculty services offered through DELTA,” he said.

At this point in his career, Lindsay said “It is all coming together as a Faculty Fellow where I can be reflective. The campus is fertile for more collaboration at this point. Together we have greater impact and DELTA may be the place for people to reconnect and partner with others.”

Looking Forward

At the urging of the Fellows, Gant said the workshop scheduling process was redesigned to include a block schedule beginning Fall 2016.

Gant explained, “The training program now has a built-in group of advisors. Our goal is to offer workshops faculty need and want. This extra layer of input helps the training team make informed choices.”

The Faculty Fellows have received a positive response. In fact, sessions led by Fellows marked some of the highest participation of the 2015-16 offerings.

The first cohort of grant recipients will continue for another academic year. Three new Fellows were added to the mix this fall.

“We hope this trend will continue with the addition of three more fellows this cycle,” said Gant.

The new cohort of Faculty Fellows includes Dr. Michael Kanters, Natural Resources; Dr. Amanda Edwards, Humanities and Social Sciences and Carolyn Quarterman, Humanities and Social Sciences.

“I love that we are doing this program — it is recognizing faculty who have devoted a lot of time and energy in leveraging new and emerging technologies to support their teaching practices — and it is so important to recognize people for their good work,” Petherbridge said.

Petherbridge added that the program is creating “wonderful interdisciplinary collaborations for leveraging innovative technologies across disciplines.”

Related Links:

• Developing Gamification within Moodle
• Dr. Ed Lindsay Says Game On: PRT 266
• S.M.A.R.T. Ways to Teach Using YouTube
• Taming the Large Class Beast
• A Constructivist View of Teaching

Writer
Kristin Stepneski

Contributor
Cassidy Colson

Photographer
Thomas Crocker

At the end of this fiscal year, NC State Distance Education was officially renamed as NC State Online and Distance Education. The new name provided the perfect opportunity to redesign the website in compliance with the university’s brand initiative.

NC State University debuted its new brand in 2014. In 2015, Chancellor Randy Woodson issued a mandate that all university websites and social channels become brand compliant.

DELTA knew it needed a new website for its online and distance education programs since the site was outdated. Distance Education also needed a better way to recruit students. Knowing that marketing is primarily done online, Educational Marketing Group (EMG) was retained to help with this mission.

EMG was hired to create a new branded Online and Distance Education website as a way to represent itself as part of the core university brand. Prior to the name change, EMG also helped with researching a possible new name for distance education. As part of that partnership, market research was conducted on the terms “distance education” versus “online education.”  “Distance” was a more popular term when used among international searches. “Online” was more popular with national searches.

EMG conducted a survey distributed to distance education faculty, administrators and students about possible name changes for distance education at NC State. According to DELTA Vice Provost Tom Miller, there were several good suggestions considered. “Online Education” and “Online and Distance Education” were both positively received. After moving the renaming through the administrative process, Online and Distance Education was approved as the new name at NC State.

“It is important to consider that so many of our campus students are taking online courses. Calling them distance education for the campus students doesn’t really make a lot of sense,” said Miller.

When choosing the name, Miller said, “There were some like Global Online and a couple of others that resonated well with people but didn’t fit well with the core brand strategy of the university. The goal is to not have fragmented brands but to really focus on the NC State brand.”

“If we had chosen one of the catchier names, such as Global Online, it would have taken away from the NC State brand. It really is important to have the NC State brand first and foremost in people’s minds,” said Miller.

Associate Vice Provost for Distance Education Rebecca Swanson added, “We are considered a core brand of the institution. It really has helped leverage what we can do based on that very close connection to the main university brand.”

Online and Distance Education’s New Website

How do prospective students find the best online and distance education programs? By searching online!

Associate Vice Provost for DELTA Marketing and Partnership Development Kay Zimmerman said, “Eighty-nine percent of prospective online and DE students focus their research on the web when choosing an educational program. In order to reach our target audience, our new Online and Distance Education website not only needed to be user friendly, but it also had to be easily discoverable by search engine optimization (SEO) with the correct keywords for the student to find by searching on the internet.”

The new Online and Distance Education website is a high performing SEO site that was designed to maximize the reach of the site to all major search engines by using SEO best practices. SEO is now a requirement to stay relevant in the higher education student recruitment market.

The website was ready to launch at the end of the fiscal year during the summer of 2016. Miller said, “It is now fresh, more user-friendly, on brand and smart.” WordPress, the content management system used, is able to aggregate material and content. Instead of creating additional or multiple pages about registration and records or graduate school application deadlines, information now pulls directly from the source website, which eliminates the need to duplicate information and possibly have outdated information on a page.

We invite you to visit online-distance.ncsu.edu and see the highly creative, SEO optimized website and search for online or distance education programs that meet your needs.

Before the website launch, EMG trained staff and DE coordinators on the functionality of the new site. EMG showcased the ease of maintenance and updating the website. Recent research suggests accurate and updated information is key to recruiting students.

“We knew our website was outdated and we also had programs struggling to recruit students. We needed to revamp our website to make it state-of-the-art to serve as an exemplar for our programs,” Swanson said.

Most of the inquiry traffic from prospective students is directed from the distance education sub navigation on the NC State website. DELTA collaborated with University Communications to rebrand the page to include infographics and up-to-date information about the NC State Difference in its approach to online education. Style, voice and tone on the new pages match the university’s voice and tone. Content is written in a way to demonstrate the university’s brand personalities of courageous, innovative, intellectual and purposeful. 

Swanson said, “We talk about our strengths and successes of individuals as well as the university as a whole. We have unique and strong programs — for example, Engineering, Statistics, MBA, GIST — that have a global market opportunity and we wanted to build up the branding standards and communication channels that would most effectively reach the potential markets.”

Entering the Social Media World

NC State Online and Distance Education is now reflected in the social media world, as well.

A dedicated social media specialist was hired in May 2016 to create a strategic social media plan to launch four social media channels for NC State Online and Distance Education. The name @NCStateOnline is used for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Online and Distance Education’s news blog. Also, an Online and Distance Education LinkedIn page was created to recruit working professionals looking to further their education and career to learn about our programs and world-renowned faculty.

Building up enrollments with the university’s land-grant mission and giving students and prospective students the access to programs offered was a priority. Social media created a channel of communication Online and Distance Education was not a part of until the summer of 2016. Social media is an extension of how NC State Online and Distance Education wants to connect and engage with current and future students and to show them why they should choose NC State.

“It’s how our students communicate and it makes sense for us to meet them where their common ground is,” Swanson said about adding social media.

With a new name, new website and four new social channels, NC State Online and Distance Education became more recognized. There was more of a national and international presence for our online and distance education programs. The combination of the new site and the social media effort is allowing the NC State Online and Distance Education programs to reach university goals of student success and global engagement.

DELTA Revamps News and Adds Twitter

In addition to NC State Online and Distance Education’s rebranding efforts, DELTA also changed its online presence by adding a new social media channel and partnering with University Communications to create a brand-compliant news channel. The changes include a new Twitter account and the creation of DELTA News (formerly DELTAwire).

Associate Vice Provost for Instructional Technology Support and Development Donna Petherbridge said, “It’s a way to keep our networks thriving internally as well as providing external parties with information about us.”

A committee within DELTA was created to launch Twitter to reach audiences that largely already communicate through social media. In August 2015, the Twitter handle @NCStateDELTA was approved and established as an official DELTA channel to promote faculty services and news within DELTA.

DELTA Communications Specialist Sherry O’Neal said, “Connecting with faculty who we have worked with is one of the most beneficial things about Twitter.” As the manager of @NCStateDELTA, O’Neal sees the impact the social media outlet makes everyday. If a faculty member misses a workshop, they can check Twitter for live updates and still gain information from the workshop. The new Twitter account reaches a broader audience more quickly and effectively. It allows DELTA to engage its followers by retweeting interesting content, too.

Along with Twitter, the rebrand of DELTA News will allow news to be shared on campus through Newswire, University Communications’ news aggregator launching late 2016. The change will allow colleges to easily share and repurpose DELTA News stories, and vice versa. Both Twitter and DELTA News reach a large variety of people very quickly.

Related Links:

• New Name, New Look for Online and Distance Education
• NC State Online Launches Social Media
• Online and Distance Education News
• DELTA News

Writer
Cassidy Colson

Photographer
Thomas Crocker

“I would not want to teach distance without the proctoring services provided by the Testing Center,” said John Russ, undergraduate coordinator in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department. Russ is just one of many NC State faculty members who utilize DELTA Testing Services for a secure testing environment for their online and distance education students.

In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, DELTA Testing Services underwent many changes. The biggest change in September 2015 was the physical relocation of the Centennial Test Center from Venture II to Venture IV to better accommodate students. Among noteworthy events for DELTA Testing Services was earning Test Center Certification and receipt of a grant from the National College Testing Association (NCTA).

This is not the first time DELTA Testing Services has expanded. In 2011, Cox Hall Test Center on Main Campus opened providing an additional 37 seats to Venture II’s 42 seats.

Need for New Space

DELTA Testing Services spent eight years in Venture II before moving to Venture IV in 2015. The move was necessary due to the 20 percent annual increase in student enrollments and the 67 percent increase in exams administered over the past several years. DELTA Testing Services simply outgrew its space.

Associate Director of Online and Distance Education Administrative Services Sharon Broere said, “Our space has been great during the regular semester.” However, she further explained that during the week of final exams, the number of students visiting the testing center and the time they spent there overwhelmingly increased which caused long wait times.

To ease the wait times at the two main locations, overflow sites were used to accommodate students. Overflow locations are still used today to better serve students.

In addition, to inform students of potentially long wait times, DELTA staff created WaitTime in Spring 2013. The WaitTime web application shows students how long the wait may be before they can sit for their test. WaitTime is still in use and is a great tool for students.

Making the Move

A long-term solution to the exponential growth of students using the Centennial Campus Test Center was to move to another location. The new space in Venture IV has 108 seats and four individual testing spaces to accommodate Disability Services. Between the two locations, DELTA Testing Services now has a total of 144 seats and five individual rooms. With the additional space, beginning Fall 2015, Testing Services partnered with the Disability Services Office to assist with on-campus accommodated testing.

Many students like the new location and the clear layout of the space, including larger desks and extended testing hours. Previously, the Centennial Campus location was only open two nights a week. It now stays open four nights a week with 7 p.m. being the last sign in time.

The DELTA IT staff provided technology and set-up assistance to Testing Services for an easy transition. Although the move went smoothly, informing students proved a little more challenging.

Shortly after the move on Centennial, the testing center at Cox Hall temporarily closed in October 2015 due to noise issues from the renovations around Cox Hall, according to Broere.

To help spread the word about these changes, DELTA Testing Services, with permission from professors, added a block of information to class Moodle pages beginning in Spring 2016. The block gave students a direct link to the DELTA Testing Services website and an easy way to access news and announcements regarding testing.  

Another part of the communication strategy was to pilot the Remind.com text messaging system for DELTA Testing Services to send important updates.

Test Center Certification and NCTA Grant

Another exciting change came when DELTA Testing Services received Test Center Certification from NCTA in March of 2016. According to Broere, the certification gives Testing Services more credibility among faculty. “We’re following a certain set of guidelines that are approved on a national level,” she said. The guidelines include the space of the testing centers, staff training, managing paper tests and test information, managing students and customer service.

“Overall, the faculty trust us to make good and proper decisions as far as exam integrity,” Broere said.

In addition, DELTA Testing Services staff received a national grant from NCTA used for team building, strategic planning and professional development.

Broere said she applied for the grant to provide the staff the opportunity to engage with one another outside of the office and to help build the relationships among colleagues.

Support from Faculty

DELTA Testing Services continues to receive positive feedback from faculty. “The DELTA Testing center gives me peace of mind that a secure testing environment is available with the added benefit of flexibility for the students and faculty,” said Melissa Hart, lecturer in Poole College of Management. She also mentioned being able to focus on engaging students and refining her course rather than stopping the flow of learning for testing.

Despite all of the changes made in 2015-2016, DELTA Testing Services continues to provide quality testing services to online and distance education students. With the addition of the NCTA Certification, the testing center maintains its reputation of integrity and commitment to providing the best service possible.   

Russ again noted his appreciation for DELTA Testing Services, “The staff is very professional, and the services that they provide faculty and students are excellent.”

Related Links:

• Cox Hall Addition in 2011
• DELTA Testing Services Expansion
• DELTA Testing Services NCTA Test Center Certification
• DELTA Testing Services NCTA Grant
• NCTA Website
• WaitTime Web Application

Writer
Laura Oldham

Photographer
Thomas Crocker

It’s hard to explain something you have to see to believe. Nevertheless, DELTA has teamed up with NCSU Libraries and other partners to spread the word about the incredible capabilities and uses of virtual reality (VR) in education.

DELTA began working with VR nearly three years ago. Realizing its importance and potential in the educational realm, the DELTA Grants team incorporated the 360° technology into two projects — a virtual tour of Grand Asia Market for a Community Food Security course and eFIRE.

Course Applications

eFIRE is an interactive microsite created to teach individuals the importance of and how to conduct prescribed fires without having to personally venture into forests. The pictures and recordings of the prescribed burns were documented through GoPro cameras attached to a rig that allowed for a 360° view of the fires, trees and shrubbery. This interactive panoramic view makes onlookers feel as if they are standing outside with the instructor.

Within the 2015-2016 grant cycle, DELTA has taken eFIRE one step further and incorporated some of its components into a fully online Fire Ecology course. The inclusion of the 360° videos complements the additional live webinars, personable faculty introductions and student created video research projects the course utilizes. These “very well produced” VR videos have become shining segments of the Fire Ecology experience.

DELTA has also helped make great strides in improving nutrition courses by working with a range of individuals including Assistant Professor Suzie Goodell and Teaching Assistant Professor Natalie Cooke. Community Nutrition (NTR 420) students are required to create lessons and prepare to teach groups of community members on topics and skills utilized in the kitchen. A suggestion for improving the course, however, was the ability to get a feel for what it would be like to teach community members prior to the actual experience. Through a 2015-2016 DELTA Exploratory Grant, DELTA staff, nutrition students and instructors began creating videos of possible scenarios that could happen while working in the community.

The videos show instructors teaching audiences that are being difficult or challenging. After watching the videos with a virtual reality headset like Google Cardboard, students will have group discussions to determine if the instructors handled the behavior appropriately. The groups can then see what would have happened had the instructor chosen one resolution over another.

“Of course you can’t create everything, but the more tools we can give students and put them vicariously into that position, the better. We’re trying to create this experience where the student feels like they are put in the classroom and they are the teacher and they have to make a decision, but they’re not really there,” said Cooke.

DELTA has also worked alongside Assistant Professor and Distance Education Coordinator Clint Stevenson to improve food safety and food science courses. Much like Goodell and Cooke, Stevenson wanted to give his students a glimpse of the real world without having to jump in head first.

Through a DELTA Grant, Stevenson was able to create a VR tour of the Howling Cow plant, a tool he continues to use in his classes to show students a day in the life of working in a dairy processing plant. The tour has hotspots that allow students to learn more about particular areas of the facility. Virtual tours of Howling Cow and other manufacturing plants allow individuals to learn more about food science, equipment and appropriate food safety practices.

“We’ve been communicating food science all wrong. We start off with facts and everything we know, but now we’re starting to move more into thinking about using VR to communicate it in a way that connects with students’ values and their culture,” said Stevenson.

Stevenson’s extensive knowledge on the topic is being spread throughout his classes and to corporations and industries above him. He and his team are receiving external funding to do creative VR projects for artisan cheese makers, small dairy processors and even have a contract with a large dairy company with more than 70 plants nationwide.    

“We’re getting private funding to assist our stakeholders in their training programs but at the same time I’m reusing what we create for them in the college classroom. So that’s where it comes full circle,” said Stevenson.

Through the incorporation of VR in the classroom, Goodell, Cooke and Stevenson are able to provide priceless, real-world, practical learning experiences to their students.

VRIG

An offshoot of the work DELTA has done in VR and the connection with pockets of faculty experimenting with the technology, a natural partnership with NCSU Libraries whose purpose is to support faculty was imminent.

DELTA’s partnership with NCSU Libraries aims to spread awareness of the cutting-edge technology across campus through a group called Virtual Reality Interest Group (VRIG).

“We felt like it would be good to bring together the people we knew individually who were working in the space of VR and get them to come together and talk about it — share their issues, their projects, help people make connections to each other and help us better understand what’s going on in the campus community and help us promote the resources we have available,” said NCSU Libraries Associate Head of Learning Spaces and Services David Woodbury.

The partnership recognizes the need for cohesiveness between different departments and colleges. VRIG will help encourage these relationships and make connections.

“The courses that we’ve applied VR to show it applied in different ways. We have the observation, the instruction, the evaluation, training and field trips,” said DELTA Lead Instructional Designer Cathi Dunnagan. However, although there have been multiple courses involved in varying projects, the one thing they all have in common is the utilization of the same technology.

 VRIG was created to take what these instructors know about VR and spark conversations between NC State faculty and staff who may be interested in similar projects. Through this informal environment, people across all disciplines are encouraged to share what they are doing in the classroom and on campus. This communication prevents project duplication and raises awareness about new equipment and faculty capabilities.

“We want to establish a sense of community and want to connect the dots and have an awareness and sharing opportunities to collaborate,” said Lead Instructional Designer Bethanne Tobey.

Similar interests have also helped glue NCSU Libraries and DELTA together. Woodbury recalls that as VR was “picking up steam,” DELTA was simultaneously working on 360° video projects. DELTA’s Associate Director of Creative and Multimedia Mike Cuales sought out the library to use the Makerspace to build camera rigs for 360° cameras. The two entities worked on the Makerspace video together.

Thanks to VRIG, news on this invaluable resource of lending and best practices is spreading across campus and sparking new ideas for those dedicated to giving their students the best learning experience possible.

Partnering for Outreach

DELTA and NCSU Libraries have also teamed up to spread the word about VR through conferences and events such as the East Coast Games Conference (ECGC). Cuales initiated the partnership and encouraged DELTA’s and the libraries’ collaboration with computer science and design.

The VR Village made a big impact at ECGC this year. Collaborators from VRIG were able to showcase a range of VR content developed to enhance online learning. A number of projects were showcased including materials from the NTR 420 recordings and a physical architectural model accompanied by a VR visualization of the structure and landscape. Haptic gloves for rehabilitation and a glimpse of live 360° video were also presented, an interaction that can only be described as an out-of-body experience, according to Cuales.

Other universities from the Research Triangle area were present at ECGC, in addition to major buyers for companies such as Amazon and Best Buy. NC State’s presence at the conference showed the university’s competitive leg up in the world of virtual reality, an attractive appeal to graduate students.

Over the past year, DELTA has dedicated a great portion of its services to providing new learning opportunities to students through the use of VR. In the 2016-2017 cycle, DELTA has four new VR-based projects.

VR’s fascinating way of transporting users to different environments helps students learn about places without having to personally be there.

Related Links:

• DELTA Virtual Reality Timeline
• East Coast Games Conference VR Village 2016
• DELTA Grants Make VR a Reality
• eFIRE: A Hot Topic at NC State and Beyond
• 360 Video, Virtual Reality Presentation Highlights Edu Applications
• DELTA Grant Leads to Student Presentations at Symposium
• Coffee & Viz Event Series

Writer
Cassidy Colson

Photographer
DELTA Instructional Media Productions Team

Videos have been used at NC State for decades. With advances in video technologies and production capabilities, DELTA continues to see a return on investment in equipment and personnel because of its commitment to creating videos with high integrity.

Associate Vice Provost for Distance Education Rebecca Swanson said, “The commitment is evident in the quality of the videos we use in online and distance education courses and the dedication of the staff.”

DELTA takes pride in creating resources for students and faculty that will ultimately enhance the learning experience.

Faculty Portraits

A helpful resource for students and faculty is the continued production of faculty portraits as an introductory video. These short video segments are a way for online and distance education students to get to know their professors in a way they otherwise would not be able to. Previously, the introductory videos were called welcome videos and showed the instructor as a “talking head” with the focus on course information.

According to Swanson, faculty portraits have been enormously helpful because they give students an idea of what it will be like working with a specific instructor.

Video production staff start by interviewing faculty and then turn it into a 90-second story highlighting the faculty member’s personality, career and teaching style. The videos are packed with information and carefully cut together to make a full, engaging and powerful presentation. The stories in the faculty portraits are a way for students to start a conversation with faculty on a more personal level.

Assistant Director for Instructional Media Production John Gordon said the videos are effective for students because they are stylized with unique shooting angles, editing and use music.

DELTA production staff like creating faculty portraits because they provide an opportunity to try new production techniques and to stretch capabilities. Since each video is filmed in a two-hour time frame, producers have to be creative about the delivery.

Faculty portraits are not dated and can be used in a wide range of environments. A faculty member can show his or her video as a way to introduce themselves to the audience at a conference. The portraits may be embedded into their website and repurposed for promoting programs.

More Than Just Instruction

While videos have been used for many years, their impact and importance to universities operating in the online and distance education environment has changed substantially.

Gordon explained that well designed and produced instructional videos help NC State’s Online and Distance Education programs compete against others around the world. The videos shine a positive light on those making their first inquiries into an online program.

“Video is the appetizer; the conversation after watching the video is the main course,” said American Filmmaker and Author Tiffany Shlain at the 2016 HOW Design Live Conference. This quote is regarded as Gordon’s team’s motto. Video serving as a gateway to a conversation is just one of the many benefits of instructional videos.

According to Gordon, good instructional videos can motivate students to learn, quickly and effectively take students to locations they would not normally see and allow students to see close-up what they cannot see in a large classroom.

“We are combining traditional cinema filmmaking techniques to highly designed, highly customized instructional material to create films that engage, tell a story, start a conversation, generate curiosity, clarify a point, or teach how to do something,” said Gordon.

Instructional Videos at Work in PRT 358

In Annette Moore’s Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management (PRT) 358 class about recreation program planning processes, students are required to choose a service-learning site in the community to create a semester-long program. They select a location that is a best fit for them.

Moore received a DELTA grant in the 2014-2015 cycle with the class launching in Fall 2015.  With the help of the video production staff, Moore used instructional videos to help students find their perfect service learning site.

Moore applied for the DELTA grant to organize her class and Moodle page. Moore said, “I had seen some samples of courses that had been transformed through DELTA grant assistance, so I knew there was hope for me and my course!”

Moore added, “Students appear to have a better idea of which sites they want to partner with, and are overall more content with their site once assigned.” She further explained that students indicate they are more comfortable once they meet their supervisors, having already seen the locations and heard about them via videos.

Previously, students only read a description of the site. Now, students can see, hear and get a real understanding of what experiences that site provides. Catherine Kitchin, a senior studying PRT, said, “You actually get a feel for what the site is like. In one video about the Jaycee Park and Community Center, I cried watching it because you could tell the supervisor was so passionate about his job.”

From service-learning sites such as city parks to the Cary Senior Center, the DELTA video production staff worked to create memorable videos for each site to enhance student success by helping them choose a place that fits their needs and expectations.

Using Mediasite to Show a Microscope in Three Different Ways

Jeff Robinson working on video with Mediasite

Other classes such as Thomas Dow’s mechanical engineering course are employing the use of instructional videos. In this course, DELTA production staff helped Dr. Dow use Mediasite to view three different angles of a microscope lab at once.

DELTA Technology Specialist Jeff Robinson said, “Mediasite allowed me to ingest three different video sources simultaneously, providing the student with a choice of which materials they want front and center.”

According to Robinson who produced Dow’s video, the three different screens showed a person physically manipulating the microscope, the actual microscope video and the computer screen with compiled measurements. Students are able to see the direct results in real-time.

Robinson said old techniques would not let students manipulate the video to see all three screens at once. The new techniques are a way to help students see all angles and feel like they are really using the microscope themselves.

From Fire Comes Light

Professor of Forestry and Operations Research Joseph P. Roise received a DELTA grant for an online course in Fire Ecology. Dr. Roise explained how exciting witnessing fire ecology and its effects are in the field; however, he was challenged with displaying those effects virtually. With the DELTA grant, Roise and colleagues were able to overcome that challenge with the use of creative instructional videos.

“From Fire Comes Light” was a video created to showcase the Shaken Creek Preserve, a biodiversity hotspot. It is 600 acres of protected longleaf pine ecosystems, and has sections of the most unique plant diversity in the entire North Carolina Coastal Plains region.

The video is designed to engage the student by telling a story. According to Gordon, it tells the story of controlled burns, of a conservationist and of the rare plants found in the preserve.

As one of three main media components of the course, the video aims to show the importance of biodiversity hotspots and fire ecology. Without the frequent prescribed fires, the immense plant diversity would be lost.

The video has many layers intended to engage students and generate a conversation with professors. In just the short six-minute video, DELTA’s instructional design and video production teams were able to satisfy the learning objectives which included explaining the role of fire in promoting diversity, community composition and community structure and how fire suppression has threatened these things.

Gordon explained how the video compared and contrasted areas with prescribed fires and areas without. “How many words would it take to show the same difference? It’s a very efficient delivery of stories,” he said.

Since physically taking students to Shaken Creek would not be logistically feasible, the video allows students to see the preserve to align themselves with the importance and uniqueness of biodiversity hotspots.

At the end of the course, Roise is implementing a final student-created video research project. “We want to get the students excited and involved in producing an interesting visual product; we still have term papers, but the result is visual — which young people enjoy watching,” Roise said.

”From Fire Comes Light” has put NC State in front of people interested in fire ecology and showcased the incredible work of the DELTA production staff. The video has been requested to be screened in the Hunt Library lobby, on the College of Natural Resources website, at the American Geophysical Union 2016 Fall Meeting in San Francisco and on The Nature Conservancy website.

Overall, Gordon explained how instructional videos are able to be used semester after semester, and the videos focus on specific topics to communicate that subject very quickly. Each of these instructional videos has a specific focus and collectively aims to enhance student’s learning and success.

A Winning Combination

Creating instructional videos has also been a way for faculty and video production staff to collaborate.

Swanson explained that to produce the best video, the video production staff has to have a good understanding of what faculty members want and also the basic content.

“Sometimes the content expert may not necessarily be the expert on how to film. If you get those two experts together and there’s a common understanding — that’s when the best results happen,” Swanson said.

Video Success

According to Swanson, the DELTA video production staff are constantly looking for ways to improve. They are dedicated to making sure each recording has good integrity and does not have audio drop outs or other technical issues.

“Everyone is committed to student success and making sure our classes are the best they can be; it does translate into very high caliber courses,” Swanson said.

Swanson explained that campus students are also selecting online and distance education classes. The continuous enrollment shows they are getting a quality education.

In the future, Swanson said she hopes to see new technologies and even more faculty using videos and video recording capabilities in every classroom on campus. She added that she hopes to be able to fulfill more requests for the high-quality videos her team produces. “This is a wonderful video production unit but it’s at capacity,” she said.

As an integral part of Distance Education, instructional videos will continue to transform learning and add to student’s success and experiences.

Related Links:

• Read More and View Faculty Portrait Videos
• Read More About PRT 358’s Redesign
• Mediasite 3 Video Input Microscope Instructional Video
• Examples of Instructional Videos in CH 222/224
• Visit the Shaken Creek Preserve through “From Fire Comes Light”
• Cubetalk: Videos for the Professional Writing Program

Writer
Sherry O'Neal

Photographer
Thomas Crocker

College students are certain to have times during their academic careers when they need instant feedback on homework, assistance grasping concepts, or a few more hours of practice to decipher laboratory results. Four of the 2015-2016 DELTA Grants projects worked to provide solutions for students who want to help themselves. DELTA teams created applications and media-rich interactive devices to promote learning outside of the class or lab.

The DELTA Grants projects aimed to facilitate more touchpoints for students and provide more feedback before they are tested on material. One way to provide more one-on-one assistance to students is through online applications. These apps allow for feedback to students who may not have sought help at a tutorial center or from a teaching assistant.

Associate Director of Instructional Innovative Services Daniel Davis, said, “It is inspiring to witness such concerned faculty who desire to see their students grasp concepts. But the problem is, in a large class, an online class, or both, how do you structure the class to create the opportunity for higher-level problem solving but still have the course manageable?”

Two results developed this year by creating additional feedback for students in a more efficient manner. Allowing for more touchpoints for students to check their understanding or validate their results is a great benefit for learning outcomes as well as helping a percentage of students who may not have sought personalized help.

One course solution involved creating a smart phone app to allow students to use equipment they are comfortable with to test physics concepts. Another outcome was to take information once presented as a one-way street via videos and incorporate the content into modules, which include interactive, media-rich graphics, animations, and a soil sample visualization.

Virtual Physics Tutorial Center

Realizing students cannot always make it to the brick and mortar physics center during staffed hours, Zachary Lewis sought a DELTA Grant to create an online tutorial database system called Virtual Physics Tutorial Center (vPTC).

Through vPTC, an online interactive physics tutorial center, students can learn new material and receive feedback without making the trek to the on-campus center. An application was repurposed to create a ticketing system to rank the most popular questions. Students log in and search the database for answers to their questions.

The system provides students with text and/or video explanations of physics concepts. If the student still has a question after reviewing the existing material they can submit a question to the system, and there is no limit on the number of questions that may be asked.

Since it is a ticketed system, the most popular answer is rated and moves up as a ‘best resource’ for other students to use.

This interactive system may be reused by other university departments, an important characteristic to Davis and Lewis. “We design with universality in mind — to create in such a way that others might benefit from it as well. We are always thinking about how to maximize our impact,” said Davis. Lewis also said he hopes more students, departments and universities will be able to use the service in the future.

Lewis said working with the DELTA team exceeded his expectations, which were already high based on discussions with other physics faculty members that had worked with DELTA. “Every member of the team has been essential in the development, testing, launch and ongoing maintenance and improvement of this service,” he said.

Py4All

For Dr. Laura Gray Tateosian, who teaches the Python programming language as part of her Geospatial Information Science and Technology course, her instructional challenge was helping students learn problem solving for code development.  

“We wanted to address this [issue] by providing feedback in a low-stakes (non-graded) environment before students submit their assignments for grading. In an ideal world, an instructor would watch over each student’s shoulder as he or she writes each homework script. In the real world, the only way to make this sustainable is to automate the process,” Tateosian said.

One struggle for students was making errors in their homework that caused them to have coding issues. The DELTA Grants team used Tateosian’s existing grader scripts as the basis for a new web application to enable students to upload their Python scripts and receive nearly instant feedback on issues in the code.

The program flags portions of the submitted script as green, yellow, orange or red, indicating the level of issues within the programming. This information is vital for students to receive prior to uploading their final projects.

Tateosian said, “The team has been really fantastic. I would never have been able to develop this tool by myself in such a short time span. In addition to technical development, they also shared their considerable knowledge of educational interface design and student learning research.”

Py4All was deployed in Fall 2016. Students are able to use the application with less oversight while receiving vital feedback to improve their programs.

MyTech App

Replacing expensive equipment that is difficult to read in physics labs is what led Teaching Assistant Professor Dr. Colleen Countryman to seek DELTA’s assistance in developing a free mobile app for her students to conduct experiments.

While a graduate teaching assistant, Countryman received an initial exploratory DELTA Grant in the 2014-2015 cycle. A DELTA team assembled to create the mobile app, which used focus groups and testing to inform the development of the final product.

In 2015-2016 the grant was extended to conduct research and tweak the app based on feedback.

According to Countryman, the familiarity with smartphones plays a large part in the popularity of the app.

“When students used similar apps in our studies before the development of the MyTech app, they were incapable of explaining the intricacies of how their sensors collected data. With the MyTech app’s built-in transparency and a curriculum that directly integrates these features, students were able to provide detailed explanations of these mechanisms at the level of advanced physics students,” said Countryman.

“Using our own survey instruments, we were also able to determine students’ understanding of how the sensors collect data improved and, in fact, exceeds the expectations of introductory physics students set forth by the American Association of Physics Teachers,” she added.

Countryman said initial survey data indicated students enjoyed working with the app and felt it was better than the alternative. The free MyTech app was implemented last year and is available on Google Play and Apple Store.

“Not often do we get to affect change beyond the boundaries of NC State,” said Davis.

Davis added, “The fact that the department is saving money by not having to purchase more machines or repair existing ones is of great benefit. The students benefit both because it takes less experimentation time to get to the data and the machinery is easier to engage with. Additionally, unlike the old way, the data is created almost instantaneously and is presented in a graphical way that is easier to interpret and apply.”

Horticultural Science 200

Lecturer Mr. Lee Ivy inherited a course comprising a collection of 73 videos and 10-15 assignments in 2012 when he was hired.

The challenge for HS 200 was taking a class previously offered and making it his own. Initially, he received a distance education DELTA Grant during the 2012-2013 cycle. Ivy said, “The goal of the first grant was to gain ownership, develop some of my own material and create a more hands-on, project-based course.”

He described the process as intimidating and painstaking. “I had never torn a course apart and examined all of the reasons why, all the ways how and all the methodologies and inspirations behind activities, said Ivy. “It was challenging but very rewarding,” he added.

“Working with the DELTA team stretched me, pushed me and ultimately gave me confidence in this course as well as in developing others.”

At the end of the first year, the DELTA team, led by Cathi Dunnagan, developed a solid framework for the course. “I had the ownership I craved,” Ivy said.

Excited to implement some of the media-rich solutions discussed during the 2014-2015 cycle when the course was revamped, Ivy applied for an exploratory grant during the 2015-2016 cycle.

According to Dunnagan, the course was redesigned into modules. There is a prominent graphic in Moodle that builds out as students complete modules, giving them a sense of how far along they are in creating their home garden.

“We are encouraging the students to get their hands dirty,” said Ivy. This second grant allowed for the creation of animations to better explain complex concepts and to inspire students to compare real horticulture environments.

One of the new module activities is a 3-D soil sampling component. Students use this game-like feature to visualize the landscape site, learn how to properly take soil samples and calculate chemical and physical soil amendments. “Again, it will inform while inspiring them to participate in an outdoor horticultural environment,” Ivy added.

Based on student evaluations, course participants have responded well to the layout and production methods in the videos. The numbers greatly improved after the first grant cycle and Ivy expects the new additions to the course implemented this fall will receive good reviews as well.

The PRATT (Photosynthesis, Respiration, Absorption, Transpiration, Translocation) animation will be rolled out Fall 2016. The design of this animation is to graphically explain five complicated processes every plant experiences. It is a critical learning piece for the course that students have struggled to grasp.

Ivy said, “I get really excited about new technologies, especially since I am not scared of exploring them. Having gone through the grant processes has taught me to embrace new possibilities in teaching and conveying information.”

“Cathi [Dunnagan], Ben [Huckaby], Chrissie [van Hoever] and Meg [Snyder] made this process very enjoyable due to their expertise, excitement and creativity. I recommend DELTA grants to as many as are interested in expanding their teaching capabilities,” added Ivy.

These four DELTA Grant projects from the 2015-2016 cycle have met students on platforms they are already familiar with. By recognizing instructional challenges, faculty members have partnered with DELTA to adjust their courses to help students succeed by giving them the ability to access information and receive assistance in a timely manner.

Related Links:

• MyTech: Taking Physics Beyond the Classroom
• Taming Python – New Online Tool Helps Students Write Better Code

Writer
Laura Oldham

Photographer
Thomas Crocker

Did you know that NC State offers the only online non-credit insect rearing course in the world? The university and DELTA have been assisting in the outreach of similarly unique programs and other non-credit courses throughout the past year via WolfWare Outreach (WWO), an extension of the WolfWare services which includes a dedicated Moodle server for fee-based, online classes.

Various organizations and programs have taken advantage of this incredible outreach program including NC State’s Office of Professional Development (OPD), the university’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). By using WWO, these sectors have been able to reach a much broader audience than in the past.

“[WolfWare Outreach] is a new revenue-generating model for different online content providers to deliver to new target audiences. For example, a three-credit-hour course can be created into a smaller modules format according to the needs of the target audience, which is not semester based and it’s not based on credits. It’s a whole different model,” said DELTA’s Associate Vice Provost for Marketing and Partnership Development Kay Zimmerman.

Online Insect Rearing Gone Global

Program Coordinator and Research Professor Allen C. Cohen instructs a global audience on current insect rearing practices, data-driven research, techniques and more through his Introduction to Insect Rearing course. His passion and expertise have led him to teach both credit-based and fee-based, non-credit courses on insect rearing at NC State. He has been able to target a broader audience through DELTA’s WWO Moodle service.

According to Cohen, there are approximately 10,000 people around the world who rear insects for a living — not including others who are interested in learning more! Due to such a specific and widespread audience, online learning was deemed the most appropriate delivery method to educate people from around the globe. As of September 2016, the program had more than 60 people signed up for the course, without taking into account the approximate 100 individuals who have already completed it. A collection of 10 different countries are represented by those who have finished the course, an astounding number considering Cohen has yet to tap into the Asian audience.

As Cohen’s interest in potential for online courses has increased, so have his hopes for more content delivery and the program’s ability to exceed workshops at other universities. Through these online opportunities, Cohen can reach the insect rearing community worldwide.

ITRE and CALS

WWO became available to faculty last year as a pilot program. Although the service participated in shadow billing throughout Fall 2015, it became a fee-based service in January 2016. Regardless, dedicated faculty continue to use WWO as a popular way to extend the university’s land-grant mission. Other entities currently using WWO include ITRE and CALS.  

There are three ITRE online training courses available through the WWO Moodle server that assist professionals working to improve the transportation industry. These courses include Building Relationships with Public Officials at Every Level, Building and Maintaining Effective Organizations through Good Employees, and Budgeting as a Planning Tool for Additional Funding.

“WolfWare Outreach provides a convenient, affordable and reliable technical resource for hosting ITRE online courses, as well as access to DELTA’s highly experienced and supportive instructional design staff for consulting when we need to improve and expand our course offerings,” said Eugene Murray, ITRE Communications and Distance Learning Specialist.

The Power of Plants

Much like Cohen’s course, the incorporation of HS 202 Power of Plants: Appreciation and Use into WolfWare Outreach has allowed the CALS class to reach a broader audience. Material from HS 202 now extends to the public, Master Gardeners and volunteers associated with Longwood Gardens and the JC Raulston Arboretum through three non-credit courses taught by Liz Riley, a postdoctoral teaching scholar. Riley previously assisted Lis Meyer in attaining a DELTA Distance Education Grant. Taking her knowledge from this grant and working with the development of HS 202 Power of Plants: Appreciation and Use, Riley began teaching the non-credit course.

As HS 202 materials were being developed into a fully online, for-credit academic course, the DELTA Grant team simultaneously worked with the idea of taking that information and creating three non-credit courses. The courses offered to individuals through the WolfWare Outreach service server include Annuals, Perennials and Vines; Trees, Shrubs and Conifers; and Edibles, Bulbs and Houseplants.

There were 152 enrollments in the extension courses between summer 2015 and summer 2016. Individuals interested in participating can register through Longwood Gardens and pay through a university-sponsored site.

“I have really enjoyed teaching the non-credit courses. These courses have allowed us to spread more horticultural knowledge to a different audience that is very interested in the content,” said Riley.

Teaming Up With NC State Colleges

CALS offers a range of courses through WolfWare Outreach in addition to HS 202. Some of these programs include Entrepreneur Initiative for Food, Entomology’s Beekeeper Education & Engagement System (BEES) Program, Plant Identification, FDA Food Safety Education and Training program and Soil Science. NC State’s Veterinary School offers three Outreach programs — Avian Pathology, Animal Loss and the K-9 program.

Other NC State colleges are also providing learning opportunities through WolfWare Outreach. Poole College of Management is now allowing individuals to enroll in a Tax, Technology and Analytics Online Certificate and the College of Textiles offers Zeis Textiles Extension, “an eLearning program that provides powerful learning tools for companies to train employees in Textile Fundamentals and Textile Testing.”

WWO Expansion

The WWO service includes Moodle, Collaborate and Mediasite and is integrated with REPORTER for registration and payment purposes as of spring 2016. Once a registrant pays for a course, he or she receives account information and access to the online course.

With WWO’s ability to target and teach individuals across the world, it became a chore for employers, instructors and course participants to keep track of what had been completed and who completed it. This back-and-forth led to ultimate confusion and served as another reason to use REPORTER.

“REPORTER is a solution for tracking, managing, reporting and measuring external outreach, internal training and non-credit activities,” said DELTA’s Assistant Vice Provost of Business Operations Jessie Sova.

REPORTER serves as an invaluable tool in aiding the communication between the different parties involved in WolfWare Outreach’s services and is designed to increase the profile and efficiency of programs.

WWO’s expansion has impacted an incredible number of people just within the past year. Its incorporation throughout university departments and colleges has encouraged new learning opportunities for individuals who may not have otherwise had the chance to learn about that particular subject. This outreach promotes the Think and Do attitude NC State values and DELTA has been happy to assist in the process.

Related Links:

• WolfWare Expands
• WolfWare Outreach Project