DHHVAC: An Online Learning Community for Students with Hearing Loss Lisa B. Elliot NTID Center on Access Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology Lilly International Spring Conference, College and University Teaching and Learning, Bethesda MD May 30, 2015 Objectives ˙Understand barriers for students with hearing loss ˙Describe the online community ˙Explore options for creating online communities on your own campus For Your Consideration How do you: ˙Regularly communicate with students outside of class ˙Coax shy or isolated students to participate in class discussions or activities ˙Foster professional awareness and identity for your students or create connections between course content and real world topics Barriers to Success in STEM Student Preparation Socialization Accessible Media Who We Are Deaf STEM Community Alliance Only Alliance specifically for D/HH students Supported by the National Science Foundation, HRD #1127955 Multi-year project (Sept 2011- Aug 2017) Now in our 4th year Campus Partners RIT is the lead institution for this project, with Camden County College and Cornell University as partners. Goal and Objectives Goal: Create a model virtual academic community to increase the graduation rates of postsecondary D/ HH STEM majors in the long term Iterative and incremental (Cockburn, 2008) Iterative testing what works and revising what doesn?t Incremental building model in stages instead of all at once Goal and Objectives Objectives 1) Document and disseminate a description of the process of creating a model VAC for replication 2) Increase the GPAs and retention rates of D/HH students in STEM majors Model Infrastructure Google Apps for Education (Enterprise) Account (@dhhvac.org) Deaf and Hard of Hearing Virtual Academic Community (DHHVAC) Website (www.dhhvac.org) You Tube Video Library (www.youtube.com/ user/dhhvac) Communication Infrastructure Google Apps for Education (Enterprise) Account Google + Private Community (Social Media) Chat (Text) Hangouts (Video, Text, Document Sharing) E-mail Dissemination Infrastructure Infrastructure Monitoring (User Analytics) YouTube Channel Enterprise Account Website Community Activity Videos DHHVAC Model Barriers & Strategies Remote Tutoring Remote Mentoring Using G+ Hangouts Remote Mentoring Peer-to-Peer Interaction Using G+ Private Community Socialization Accessible STEM Information Using Website, G+ Private Community, & G+ Public Page Student Preparation Accessible Media Remote Tutoring Photo of student receiving tutoring. Student is seen on computer screen, tutoring professor pictured sitting at his desk in front of the computer. Remote Tutoring Quick Facts Modeled after RIT/NTID faculty-student in-person tutoring Conducted over 120 synchronous sessions with 11 tutors Google+ Hangouts as web conferencing platform Chromebooks, Macs, PCs, iPads & other tablets On-line resources, paper/pen, whiteboards, Conceptboard (virtual whiteboard) Asynchronous tutoring sessions Socialization Remote mentoring D/HH STEM professionals One-to-one & community Email, video hangouts Community interaction Students, mentors, tutors, staff Google+ private community Socialization This is an example of a post within the private community. Post +1s Additional comments Accessible Media Curated STEM Resource library on our public website: www.dhhvac.org Project publications and presentations Relevant work by others STEM ASL dictionaries (e.g., ASL-STEM Forum) Links to accessible STEM resources (e.g. Khan Academy, Math for College) STEM-relevant articles and videos in Google + Private community For Your Consideration How do you: ˙Regularly communicate with students outside of class ˙Coax shy or isolated students to participate in class discussions or activities ˙Foster professional awareness and identity for your students or create connections between course content and real world topics Contact Information Deaf STEM Community Alliance hqp://www.dhhvac.org OR lisa.elliot@rit.edu