Guest post for the "Teaching & Learning in Social Work: Exploring Ways to Enhance Life-Long Learning for Professional Practice" blog by Laurel Hitchcock. (2017, June 23). Post available at http://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2017/06/23/supporting-the-success-of-online-students-who-are-deaf-lessons-presented-at-swde2017

Counselman Carpenter, Elisabeth A.

Marquart, Matthea S.

English

Columbia University Academic Commons

9/27/2017 Supporting the success of online students who are deaf: Lessons presented at #SWDE2017 | Teaching & Learning in Social Workhttp://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2017/06/23/supporting-the-success-of-online-students-who-are-deaf-lessons-presented-at-swde2017/ 1/4Home About Assignments PresentationsMatthea MarquartBeth Counselman-CarpenterSupporting the success of online studentswho are deaf: Lessons presented at#SWDE2017Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Jun 23, 2017 |Matthea Marquart, MSSW, is thedirector of administration of theOnline Campus at ColumbiaUniversity School of Social Workas well as an adjunct lecturer, andBeth Counselman-Carpenter,LCSW, PhD, is a full-time lecturerof direct and advanced clinicalpractice, gender and sexuality, with her current research focusingon technology in social workpedagogy.  In this blog post, theyshare highlights from their recent presentation on supporting the success ofonline students who are deaf.  If you have questions for them, they can bereached on Twitter at @MattheaMarquart or @ElisabethAnneCC.On April 13, 2017, we presented a roundtable session on “Supporting the success of online students who are deaf”at the third annual Social Work Distance Education Conference sponsored by Our Lady of the Lake University’sWorden School of Social Service.  We chose this session topic because social work values, as well as the law, require those of us involved in onlineeducation to ensure that we’re providing equal access to all of our students.  As the Úeld of online educationgrows and new technologies develop, it’s important to us to make sure that we’re inclusive in administration,planning, and teaching.  We also wanted to host a conversation on the topic, so that we could learn from theexperiences of our peers at other institutions.You can access a copy of our handout, which includes details about the tools & strategies we’ve used to supportonline students who are deaf, here: https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V12B58Home Guest Educator Post Supporting the success ofonline students who are deaf:Lessons presented at#SWDE2017 Teaching & LeaWork by LaurelHitchcock is liceCreative CommNonCommerciaInternational LicSearch for:Laurel HitcPhoto Credit JaLaurelHitchc@LaurelHitchcoFollow Me on TLearning SocFrom Simulahttps://t.co/A@SocialWork#SocWorkUAabout 5 hours 9/27/2017 Supporting the success of online students who are deaf: Lessons presented at #SWDE2017 | Teaching & Learning in Social Workhttp://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2017/06/23/supporting-the-success-of-online-students-who-are-deaf-lessons-presented-at-swde2017/ 2/4From our perspective, there are three criticalcomponents to success:  never assume, attention to asolid time line, and thorough preparation with a back-upplan for live course sessions.  Never assume: My experiences (Beth) with deaf andhearing-impaired students over the past year has mademe a stronger and more thoughtful instructor.  It forcedme to actively challenge certain assumptions I hadpreviously held about equal access and thus deepenedthe creativity in and outside of the classroom to look at access through a more critical lens.  When choosingmedia for your course, never assume that the captions provided are of the level and caliber in terms of accuracy. YouTube videos are NOT equal access compliant, as they are often inaccurate or their timing is oÙ.  All mediaselected by the instructor must be captioned by the institution’s captioning services or be reviewed for accuracyby the OÜce of Disability Services prior to being assigned, shown or posted.  This also includes transcribed videosshown from the library, when transcription has been completed by outside sources, and for podcasts.Attention to the timeline: Captioning requires focus and solid planning as part of the core foundation of yourcourse.  Most oÜces require a three to four-week turnaround for all captioning, which requires having your mediaorganized and well-placed in the semester’s calendar prior to the start of the semester (if possible).  It is NOTequal access to show a video in class and ask for it to be captioned later.  Planning ahead and being conÚdent inyour choices is critical.  Should something unexpected, such as a snow day or a server being down, (whichhappened this past year and lead to an unexpected asynchronistic class recorded lecture being posted),communicate actively with your student about their needs and be Ûexible about deadlines when asking for an‘emergency’ captioning of media.The all-important backup plan: The best-laid plans may never come to fruition.  Even live captioning can fallapart – so working with an open, and prepared teaching team, is critical for success.  Live captioners, who work inmultiple shifts during a synchronistic class, can occasionally have technical diÜculties and need to re-enter theclassroom during live lectures.  To manage this, our back-up plan was for the course teaching associate to step inand provide captioning (as best as possible) while the professor and student emailed both ODS and thecaptioning service emergency support while class continued.  The teaching associate was aware of theirresponsibilities when this happened, and although the captioning was not perfect, it allowed for the students tocontinue to participate until the situation was remedied.Overall, attention to detail is paramount.  Be mindful of the amount of student-generated audio and video that isposted asynchronistically and the turn-around time frame for all of those assignments to be captioned (usually itis 48-72 hours).  If the captioning can’t be done well, or in a timely manner, change the assignment for the entireclass.  Do not create an alternative assignment for the student, as again, this is not equal access. Should you needto engage a backup plan, reach out and engage the student by inviting them to give feedback in terms of theirlearning experience, what could have been done diÙerently, and how they are experiencing access to the course.From the administrator perspective, perhaps the most important thing that we do in administration iscommunicate.  There are many departments and people involved in supporting students who needaccommodations, including the University’s OÜce of Disability Services, the School’s disabilities liaison, theAdvising OÜce, the Field OÜce, the Student Services team, and the instructors, teaching associates, and technicalsupport specialists.  The students who need accommodations need to be looped in as well.  Working various members of this team, depending on the circumstance, includes Úguring out the level ofaccommodation needed, when it’s needed, and how it will be provided.  For example, online students completeÚeld work in person, so in-person American Sign Language interpreters may need to be scheduled for Úeld work; the same is true for Advising sessions and student life events on campus.  Live online classes will need livecaptioners, which must be scheduled in advance;  the live captioning service will need to be kept informed aboutacademic holidays and any class cancellations, and the administration and instructor should agree on anemergency back-up plan in case the captioner doesn’t show up.  Live online student events require the samelevel of planning as live online classes.  Media shown in class or assigned for students to watch as homeworkmust be captioned, which can take two-four weeks.  Media created by students for peer viewing andcommenting, such as video introductions, recorded presentations, or video role plays, will need expeditedturnaround to ensure equal access to participation.  In order to make sure media captions are completed on time,the administration and instructors need to be in close communication about all media in the course.  @alabamapoits table at#ESCBirming@kristinarscohttps://t.co/about 21 hoursCategories#MacroSW#SocWorkEd#SWvirtualpArticlesAssignmentsCurationGuest EducaGuest StudeInterprofessioPresentationProfessional NetworkService LearSimulationsSocial MediaSW Field EduSW Practice Teaching witArchived PostsSelect MonthArchived Posts   Enter email addresSignup today tonew updates!9/27/2017 Supporting the success of online students who are deaf: Lessons presented at #SWDE2017 | Teaching & Learning in Social Workhttp://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2017/06/23/supporting-the-success-of-online-students-who-are-deaf-lessons-presented-at-swde2017/ 3/4Share This Post OnDuring the roundtable, our peers shared that their institutions are currently do the following:Caption all media that will be used during the Úrst week, in every course, and then selectively caption the restof the semester as needed on a course-by-course basis.  This ensures that students who are deaf can enroll inany course and participate starting the Úrst week, and saves the cost of fully captioning all courses.  Live-caption sporting events as a matter of course, so that anyone in the community can follow theannouncers.Use a variety of captioning approaches, including using third party vendors Cielo and 3Play Media, requiringstudents to caption media they create for assignments (in VoiceThread), requiring instructors to caption mediathey use in class, and using auto-captioning via Kaltura to start and then manually correcting the mistakes tobring the captioning up to standards.  What we learned from this discussion is that other social work programs are also engaged in ongoingconversations in order to keep up with new technologies and continually improve our services.While it’s important to create inclusive and equal access learning plans within the classroom, and our owninstitutions, we cannot neglect greater structural need for higher education as a whole to improve delivery ofinformation with equal access.  Developing accommodations to support all types of online learners needs to be awider and deeper conversation.  Future research will hopefully include not only students who are deaf, but onlineequal access for students with visual impairments and other learning needs.Here is our abstract with the learning objectives:One social justice victory of online education is the ability to expand access to higher education and serve adiverse student body.  This roundtable discussion will give instructors and administrators the chance to sharestrategies and tools for supporting the success of students who are deaf.Online courses with synchronous components generally include audio elements in the form of live virtual classes; homework assignments that include videos, podcasts, or other media;  and student-generated mediaassignments such as introductory videos or video role plays.  To enable students who are deaf to fully participatein these courses, school administrators and instructors need to be ready with tools and strategies, such as livecaptioners or American Sign Language translators, media captioners, and plans for inclusive lessons.This roundtable discussion will provide a forum for those with experience supporting the success of students whoare deaf to share their experiences, and for those without experience to learn and ask questions.  The goals forthis session include:1. Sharing concrete tools and resources that can support online students who are deaf2. Sharing strategies for inclusive lesson planning and instructional design3. Identifying areas where schools of social work can better prepare to support students who are deafReferences:Marquart, M. & Counselman-Carpenter, B. (2017). Supporting the success of online students who are deaf,Columbia University Academic Commons. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V12B58.How to Cite this post:Marquart, M. & Counselman-Carpenter, B. (2017, June 23). Supporting the success of online students who are deaf:Lessons presented at #SWDE2017. Retrievedfrom: http://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2017/06/23/supporting-the-success-of-online-students-who-are-deaf-lessons-presented-at-swde2017/Author: Laurel HitchcockDr. Hitchcock served as the editor for this blog post. The author is the Guest Educator.Subscribe9/27/2017 Supporting the success of online students who are deaf: Lessons presented at #SWDE2017 | Teaching & Learning in Social Workhttp://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2017/06/23/supporting-the-success-of-online-students-who-are-deaf-lessons-presented-at-swde2017/ 4/4Designed by Elegant Themes | P

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