Faculty Resources
eCampus Faculty Handbook
Technologies & Services
The following is an evolving list of technologies and services that NCTC faculty and staff may find useful for instruction. These technologies and services are in no way endorsed by the college. They are provided here solely as a start-point for independent exploration. As this list is updated frequently, faculty and staff are encouraged to submit additional educational technologies and services for inclusion.
Virtual Office Hours
Webex Office Hours
Webex Office Hours allows a student to sign up for a one-on-one meeting with the instructor during days/times designated by the instructor as office hours. The meetings can be recorded, if desired, and the recording will be available only to the student and instructor. When a student signs up for a certain time slot, Webex send a notice to both the student and the instructor that the meeting has been scheduled. When it is time for the meeting to begin, the instructor starts the Webex meeting. Once the office hours are set by the instructor in one course, those office hours carry over to every course and are set for the semester.
Please see detailed instructions in the Webex Office Hours module in the Faculty Group in Canvas.
Canvas Conferences (Big Blue Button) for online office hours
Instructors can use Canvas Conferences for office hours by creating a conference and only inviting the one student who has requested a meeting. Scheduling for these office hours can be accomplished by using the “Appointment Group” tool in the Canvas Calendar. Please see more details in the Faculty Group.
Other meeting applications
If instructors choose to use any other meeting application, they will be responsible for ensuring the privacy of all student information. The eLearning Department does not support applications outside of the Canvas LMS.
3-D Immersive Online Environment
Blog
Concept Mapping
Content Development
Copyright & Privacy
Digital Gaming
Free Audio Content
Free Bibliographic Management
Free Image Content
Free Lesson Content
Free Video Content
Image Hosting
*Contact the eLearning Department for more information.
**Currently unavailable for NCTC eLearning.
Creating Video for Online Courses
An effective component to transforming your online course into a dynamic learning community is creating and embedding personalized audio/video content. There are many methods and tools available for audio/video production, as well as services to store and deliver your content. This webpage presents general information related to video production at NCTC, including camera options, lighting, sound, and online hosting services.
Camera
Instructors often want to record video for an introductory message to their students, briefly summarize a topic, or demonstrate a particular skill. To support such productions, a High-definition camera is recommended when recording videos. Related training at the individual and group levels is also available.
Lighting & Sound
Light has different characteristics. Hard light is direct and creates sharp shadows, like the sun on a clear day. Soft light is indirect and results in few shadows, like classroom fluorescents. Quality and placement of light is more important than amount of light. The most common lighting model diffuses light from three different angles to a single point, i.e., instructor, student, etc. Indirect natural light can be very useful as well. Recording whiteboard-based instruction is tricky as these surfaces easily reflect light back into the lens.
Whenever possible use either a clip-on or handheld microphone to record sound. Use one clip-on microphone per person. If recording multiple people simultaneously, provide each their own clip-on microphone. Place both the clip-on microphone and/or handheld microphone relatively close to the speaker's mouth. Make sure the top of the microphone is unobstructed and not touching anything.