Academies help faculty leverage classroom technologies

Prof. Ray Cornelius, left, and Hector Valle

map out their strategy for generating digital

course content.

A growing list of Daytona State College faculty are taking a do-it-yourself approach to integrating technology into the teaching and learning process.

Just ask Ray Cornelius, chair of Daytona State’s School of Modern Languages, who has been participating in a series of academies offered by the college’s Faculty Innovation Center that let instructors create their own digital course content.

Using widely available technology in his hybrid courses (half online, half in-class), Cornelius serves up online lectures and knowledge check downs to students so they can be prepared before they come to class. The strategy frees more time in class for students to work in groups, practicing their language skills together, while Cornelius circulates and addresses questions as they arise in what is commonly known as a flipped-classroom model.

“We are delivering the course content to the students prior to them ever setting foot in the classroom, allowing them to come to class ready for interaction,” Cornelius said. “For the students who use the technology correctly and do the work, the results are amazing.”

Not so unusual when one considers the concepts behind hybrid instruction. What is inventive is how, after receiving the training, Cornelius and his fellow faculty are developing the digital course content on their own, without the assistance of technical experts.

“Our content development academy came out of a need to meet the growing demand for instructional media in a cost-effective way,” said Hector Valle, an e-learning specialist who teaches the faculty academies through Daytona State’s College of Online Studies. “We want this effort to be faculty driven, to empower faculty to produce their own content using technology they are comfortable using.”

The primary tool is one of the many open-source screen-casting applications available on the market that allows faculty to record lectures from the comfort of their home or office. Other topics covered in the academies include digital storytelling, interactive media creation, mobile device support, web conferencing and how to use the prototype Classroom of the Future to its fullest potential.

Valle said new academies will be offered based on demand and emerging technologies.

“We are constantly looking at current trends so we can keep faculty up to date on what is out there and how it can be used in the classroom,” he said. “Right now, it’s kind of like the Wild West in that there are no defined industry standards. But that’s coming, and we want to be ready so our students can have the best learning environment available.”