2012 DELTA Open House: Helping Faculty Build Student Success

Just over 75 guests attended the 2012 DELTA Open House on December 4 to learn about the services DELTA provides that allow faculty to build student success at NC State University.  The second floor of Park Shops provided the perfect layout for visitors to stroll through “Presentation Hallway” and visit booths where representatives from across DELTA explained services and projects. Some of these included:

LearnTech Live with DELTA’s Instructional Support Services team

• Allowed faculty to ask the LearnTech Help Desk questions face-to-face regarding different issues and challenges in their courses
• Gave an overview and support for Moodle’s Grade Book
• Promoted DELTA’s Instructional House Call service and Online FAQs
• Provided information on upcoming DELTA Workshops and Seminars and Custom Training opportunities
• Offered  information about the upcoming Moodle upgrade

DELTA Online Course Quality Review Program with Cleo Magnuson, Instructional Design and Development

• Discussed the process for Online Course Quality Review
• Provided information about course reviews, which identify strengths and areas for improvement  and provides a variety of resources and opportunities to consult with instructional designers

DELTA Testing Services with Karen Moore and Angela Datino, Distance Education Testing Coordinators

• Provided information on DELTA’s local and remote proctoring services for Distance Education courses
• Showed attendees the multi-paneled Control Center screen used to monitor students taking  exams at the Cox Hall and Venture II testing facilities
• Explained the process in monitoring students and the ability to record footage for later examination Shared the testing facility’s best practices for instructors regarding proctored testing

Innovative Instructional Tools with David Tredwell, New Media Development

Provided information on the following innovative instructional tools, developed in collaboration with faculty, available now:

• MicroExplorer 3D: Provides students with an introduction to compound microscopes and a handy reference guide for the parts and functions of the microscope
• LearningPath: Guides and engages students in lessons and topics through interactive and media-rich material
• Virtual Viewer: Facilitates student exploration of high resolution images through multi-pane viewing, multiple magnifications and viewing modes, videos, audio and free-form text descriptions
• Flashcard Study Tool: Allows one to author sets of online flash cards to give  students  a convenient way of studying material

Emerging Technologies with Amanda Robertson, New Media Development

Shared information on emerging technologies that DELTA is currently exploring:

• Games: Educational games, or “Serious Games,” are now part of DELTA’s toolkit for solving instructional challenges.  “Gamification” is also being explored to use game mechanics  to increase student engagement
• LaunchPad: Currently in development, this application will make it easy for faculty to enter and edit content in many of DELTA’s Instructional Tools, such as the VirtualViewer, LearningPath and the Flash Video Tool.
• Mobile Learning: An ongoing initiative  at DELTA to identify the best strategies for leveraging mobile technologies for teaching and learning.

Media Distribution Services: Lecture Capture with Leisa Bolles and Larry Evans, Media Production Services

• Demonstrated the Lecture Capture system
• Showed the Mediasite player and how it will start playing on mobile devices in the spring, allowing students to access information from wherever they want
• Provided information regarding Lecture Capture locations
• Promoted the pilot for MyMediasite, a software based version that will allow faculty to record without the typical requisite hardware

Attendees were able to float in and out of Park Shops Classrooms 201 and 210 for four scheduled sessions, beginning with a Testing Services Presentation.  Sharon Broere, Associate Director for Distance Education Administrative Services, provided information on DELTA’s testing facilities and shared insight to both on-site and remote testing services.

DELTA Vice Provost Tom Miller’s Q&A session was highly anticipated and highly attended.  NC State faculty, staff and other Open House attendees had to opportunity to ask about topics ranging from what is trending in technology and education right now to the Distance Education funding model.  Dr. Miller addressed issues surrounding tuition and fees for Distance Education students versus tuition and fees for on-campus courses.  He expressed that DELTA wants to help faculty build student success whether it be on-campus, at a distance or a combination of face-to-face and online.  Dr. Miller also discussed Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

A Faculty Panel with Jim Croom, Louise Dolan, Michael Kanters and Tim Petty discussed how DELTA helped them and could help other faculty at NC State University.  Each instructor discussed their course, shared advice for teaching with technology and answered questions from the audience.

A DELTA Staff Panel allowed guests to bring forth an instructional challenge, and a team composed of Instructional Designers, Multimedia Specialists and Instructional Support staff offered their solutions.  Staff Panel members Mike Cuales, Stacy Gant, Lee Ann Gillen, Ben Huckaby, Cathi Philips and Traci Temple shared some of their favorite instructional challenges and how they conquered those.  They then opened the floor for questions, challenges and discussion.  The Panel provided a link to a table of challenges and solutions written for the session: go.ncsu.edu/instructional-challenges

To view the 2012 DELTA Open House presentations, please visit the following links:

• Testing Services Presentation with Sharon Broere
• Q&A with DELTA Vice Provost Tom Miller
• Faculty Panel: How DELTA Helped Me and Can Help You
• Staff Panel: Bring Your Instructional Challenge

Lastly, the DELTA Open House allowed visitors to tour of some of our DELTA facilities on main campus.  In downstairs Park Shops, John Gordon provided a DELTA Studio Tour.  Darren Ley and Tony Pearson lead groups to our Ricks Annex Control Room and Poe 202 Collaborative Classroom, where visitors were able to take a behind-the-scenes look at our Video Communication Services facilities.

Thank you to all who attended and made for another successful DELTA Open House!