1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,120 We're on a worldwide search to see what inclusive education looks like. 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,350 So Blackboard Ally is going on tour for 2019, 3 00:00:07,350 --> 00:00:10,050 visiting campuses around the globe to learn how they're 4 00:00:10,050 --> 00:00:12,885 tackling their toughest accessibility challenges, 5 00:00:12,885 --> 00:00:16,695 and improving the learning experience for all their students. 6 00:00:16,695 --> 00:00:19,440 Welcome back loyal listeners to 7 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:24,000 the 5th episode of the Blackboard Ally tour podcast series. 8 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,200 We've made a quick drive down from Gaston College in North Carolina, 9 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:33,510 and arrived here at the campus of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. 10 00:00:33,510 --> 00:00:36,075 It's our first visit to a medical school. 11 00:00:36,075 --> 00:00:38,520 It's going to be really interesting to hear about some of 12 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,190 the unique accessibility challenges that 13 00:00:41,190 --> 00:00:44,340 they deal with in terms of medical school curriculum, 14 00:00:44,340 --> 00:00:46,425 as well as how they're thinking about 15 00:00:46,425 --> 00:00:50,985 inclusivity to the broader hospital and patient community. 16 00:00:50,985 --> 00:00:53,270 So let's check in with two members of the team, 17 00:00:53,270 --> 00:00:55,635 to hear a little bit about their story. 18 00:00:55,635 --> 00:00:58,380 All right. So I am here at MUSC, 19 00:00:58,380 --> 00:01:01,320 The Medical University of South Carolina. 20 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:03,645 I'm glad I got the name right this time. 21 00:01:03,645 --> 00:01:08,840 I'm here with the team who's really supporting Ally rollout, 22 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,615 and really thinking closely about how to support students 23 00:01:12,615 --> 00:01:17,100 in medical university on how to really succeed, 24 00:01:17,100 --> 00:01:22,005 be successful in very challenging learning environments. 25 00:01:22,005 --> 00:01:25,330 You are facing some unique accessibility challenges, 26 00:01:25,330 --> 00:01:28,290 so we'll talk a little bit about what those challenges look like, 27 00:01:28,290 --> 00:01:30,750 and how you're using Ally and UDL, 28 00:01:30,750 --> 00:01:34,800 and other sound digital pedagogy to support those students. 29 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:38,325 So first, I'll allow Melissa and Alex to introduce themselves. 30 00:01:38,325 --> 00:01:39,625 I'll start with Melissa. 31 00:01:39,625 --> 00:01:41,175 Hi, I'm Melissa Hortman. 32 00:01:41,175 --> 00:01:43,410 I'm the Director of Instructional Technology 33 00:01:43,410 --> 00:01:45,935 here at The Medical University in South Carolina. 34 00:01:45,935 --> 00:01:51,930 My role is in the central office in Instructional Technology and Faculty Resources. 35 00:01:51,930 --> 00:01:55,665 We provide support around technologies, 36 00:01:55,665 --> 00:01:58,140 and good teaching practices, 37 00:01:58,140 --> 00:02:04,230 media and graphics, as well as classroom support to the entire campus, 38 00:02:04,230 --> 00:02:06,285 all six colleges here in USC. 39 00:02:06,285 --> 00:02:07,680 I'm Alex Walters. 40 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:10,890 I'm the Senior Instructional Designer and Digital Accessibility Specialist. 41 00:02:10,890 --> 00:02:15,030 Also with the Office of Instructional Technology and Faculty Resources. 42 00:02:15,030 --> 00:02:17,735 My role really centers around a lot of training, 43 00:02:17,735 --> 00:02:19,310 and best practices for online learning, 44 00:02:19,310 --> 00:02:23,535 instructional design, and really helping faculty learn how to teach. 45 00:02:23,535 --> 00:02:26,630 So tell me just a little bit about the university here? 46 00:02:26,630 --> 00:02:28,460 You mentioned you have six colleges, 47 00:02:28,460 --> 00:02:30,335 what kind of programs do you offer? 48 00:02:30,335 --> 00:02:34,545 How much is kind of online, on ground? Just a little background. 49 00:02:34,545 --> 00:02:38,310 So at the Medical University we have six colleges here, 50 00:02:38,310 --> 00:02:39,870 the college in nursing, 51 00:02:39,870 --> 00:02:43,365 college of pharmacy, college of dental medicine, 52 00:02:43,365 --> 00:02:45,285 college of graduate studies, 53 00:02:45,285 --> 00:02:48,120 college of medicine, and college of health professions. 54 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:52,710 So we have a wide variety of health professions here in USC, 55 00:02:52,710 --> 00:02:55,935 and they're all graduate level, doctorate level programs. 56 00:02:55,935 --> 00:02:59,505 So we're getting students from all walks of life, 57 00:02:59,505 --> 00:03:03,750 and we have some unique challenges here where many of 58 00:03:03,750 --> 00:03:09,705 the health professions have this sort of antiquated look at their profession of, 59 00:03:09,705 --> 00:03:15,210 I had to go through this and I had to go through these admissions standards, 60 00:03:15,210 --> 00:03:17,580 so our students have to go through that too, 61 00:03:17,580 --> 00:03:19,750 and this sort of rigor that comes with it. 62 00:03:19,750 --> 00:03:24,360 Our students are extremely stressed out and anxious. 63 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:30,900 All of the time our entire libraries full with students studying 24/7. 64 00:03:30,900 --> 00:03:35,580 Our lecture capture system has we're on track for 80,000 hours 65 00:03:35,580 --> 00:03:37,950 of viewing lecture content this year, 66 00:03:37,950 --> 00:03:41,565 just because students are studying all their time. 67 00:03:41,565 --> 00:03:42,750 They're studying in class, 68 00:03:42,750 --> 00:03:44,820 while they're in class, they're studying outside of class. 69 00:03:44,820 --> 00:03:46,620 They're missing class to study. 70 00:03:46,620 --> 00:03:50,700 It's all about passing that board exam that kind of next step, 71 00:03:50,700 --> 00:03:53,970 to become that professional that they would like to be. 72 00:03:53,970 --> 00:03:56,100 I mean it ultimately help people. 73 00:03:56,100 --> 00:03:58,860 So that's why they're here because they care about people, 74 00:03:58,860 --> 00:04:00,539 they care about their profession, 75 00:04:00,539 --> 00:04:04,230 and they want to help all types of people. 76 00:04:04,230 --> 00:04:08,180 And you're using open LMS here at university. 77 00:04:08,180 --> 00:04:09,690 What is the usage? 78 00:04:09,690 --> 00:04:11,865 How do they organize courses? 79 00:04:11,865 --> 00:04:13,720 I imagine it varies quite a bit, 80 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:14,790 but what do you see from 81 00:04:14,790 --> 00:04:18,440 an Instructional Design perspective in terms of the usage of the LMS? 82 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:20,910 So it's kind of all over the place just 83 00:04:20,910 --> 00:04:23,875 because of where we are out there's all the different colleges. 84 00:04:23,875 --> 00:04:26,900 We have some colleges that are very structured, 85 00:04:26,900 --> 00:04:28,760 very organized in how they use the LMS. 86 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:32,035 So lots of training, others templates, 87 00:04:32,035 --> 00:04:35,415 there's things that they use that really help them set up those courses. 88 00:04:35,415 --> 00:04:37,050 In other parts of colleges, 89 00:04:37,050 --> 00:04:41,220 they use LMS more as just a way to put their content for student access. 90 00:04:41,220 --> 00:04:45,060 So they're not necessarily using it for evaluations, 91 00:04:45,060 --> 00:04:46,635 assignments, things like that, 92 00:04:46,635 --> 00:04:49,980 it's more of just a way to get that content to students, 93 00:04:49,980 --> 00:04:51,690 which is why we have such a huge push 94 00:04:51,690 --> 00:04:53,535 right now with our digital accessibility initiative. 95 00:04:53,535 --> 00:04:55,920 We want to make sure that content is accessible 96 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:58,560 to all those students that are getting into the LMS. 97 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:02,845 So it kind of varies throughout each college different uses. 98 00:05:02,845 --> 00:05:05,700 You all have fully online programs as well? 99 00:05:05,700 --> 00:05:08,190 We do. We have fully online programs, 100 00:05:08,190 --> 00:05:09,780 we have 3 in nursing, 101 00:05:09,780 --> 00:05:12,920 and then we have a couple in the college of health professions, 102 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,600 and graduate studies too I believe, so we do. 103 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:18,810 In kind of historically, 104 00:05:18,810 --> 00:05:20,700 who has owned accessibility, 105 00:05:20,700 --> 00:05:25,185 how have you approached accessibility with the digital content specifically? 106 00:05:25,185 --> 00:05:29,220 So we started about two years to kind of 107 00:05:29,220 --> 00:05:34,650 move on this journey towards digital accessibility and what this means for MUSC. 108 00:05:34,650 --> 00:05:37,110 It's really been housed in our diversity and 109 00:05:37,110 --> 00:05:40,500 inclusion office with our 88 compliance officer, 110 00:05:40,500 --> 00:05:43,860 and as we started to dig deeper into it, 111 00:05:43,860 --> 00:05:46,800 we found that there were more and more stakeholders that needed 112 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,830 to be involved in those high level discussions. 113 00:05:49,830 --> 00:05:53,880 So we actually had one of our legal counsel individuals 114 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:59,070 start a task force that would move digital accessibility for what does this look like? 115 00:05:59,070 --> 00:06:02,340 How do we even imagine this at an enterprise? 116 00:06:02,340 --> 00:06:04,710 Because, we're not just a university, 117 00:06:04,710 --> 00:06:11,415 we also have a hospital with now 16,000 employees. 118 00:06:11,415 --> 00:06:15,435 In that hospital, where learning is happening on that end as well, 119 00:06:15,435 --> 00:06:17,940 so it's starting to get bigger, and bigger, 120 00:06:17,940 --> 00:06:22,080 and bigger, and learning happens at every level that we're finding, 121 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:25,215 and there's more and more content that's being shared online. 122 00:06:25,215 --> 00:06:28,215 So once that task force kind of ended, 123 00:06:28,215 --> 00:06:32,730 we started a digital accessibility committee that meets on a biweekly basis, 124 00:06:32,730 --> 00:06:35,360 and we dive into auditing, 125 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:37,920 what that looks like in each one of the areas, 126 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:42,765 external web sites, our hospital side, our university side. 127 00:06:42,765 --> 00:06:46,440 We are diving into our purchasing processes, 128 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:50,835 our 700 plus softwares that we have on campus, 129 00:06:50,835 --> 00:06:55,590 and what that looks like to audit those and ensure 130 00:06:55,590 --> 00:07:01,170 that patient care isn't inadequate because of the software that we can't provide, 131 00:07:01,170 --> 00:07:03,255 or can't provide because they're complying. 132 00:07:03,255 --> 00:07:07,140 So again, digging deeper and digging deeper and digging deeper, 133 00:07:07,140 --> 00:07:09,090 we're finding more and more content in 134 00:07:09,090 --> 00:07:12,195 different places that's being shared with individuals. 135 00:07:12,195 --> 00:07:16,470 So even now, we know that there's a long road ahead. 136 00:07:16,470 --> 00:07:20,220 But I think that once we started introducing Ally 137 00:07:20,220 --> 00:07:24,585 into the puzzle about a year ago, last month actually, 138 00:07:24,585 --> 00:07:27,960 we started to see that there was a little bit 139 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,229 of movement at least on the university side, 140 00:07:31,229 --> 00:07:34,670 because the technology was able to support that movement. 141 00:07:34,670 --> 00:07:38,100 I'd say the training aspect of Ally has been really key, 142 00:07:38,100 --> 00:07:39,155 from the time we turned it on, 143 00:07:39,155 --> 00:07:41,200 because folks were able to get in there and click around and 144 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:44,530 really investigate some of the issues that were showing up on their documents, 145 00:07:44,530 --> 00:07:47,260 which was really key and that led to more questions, 146 00:07:47,260 --> 00:07:49,480 whether that was towards us or towards 147 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,255 the folks kind of the point people for digital accessibility in their college. 148 00:07:53,255 --> 00:07:55,855 So really jump started the conversation, 149 00:07:55,855 --> 00:07:57,845 which I think just the raising awareness part is 150 00:07:57,845 --> 00:08:02,285 such a huge deal when it comes to this initiative. 151 00:08:02,285 --> 00:08:08,010 Yeah. Just as far as that audit in trying to look across really complex, 152 00:08:08,010 --> 00:08:12,665 even fragmented systems, you've been mapping all of that out. 153 00:08:12,665 --> 00:08:18,170 What's been the process of checking that from the LMS to the websites to your technology? 154 00:08:18,170 --> 00:08:20,855 Has there been a particular strategy that you've been using that 155 00:08:20,855 --> 00:08:25,160 other institutions may think about as they try to audit their accessibility? 156 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,165 We have tried to take down every single piece of 157 00:08:29,165 --> 00:08:33,275 content that we could look at for digital accessibility purposes, 158 00:08:33,275 --> 00:08:37,025 and then we found that more was being added on a daily basis. 159 00:08:37,025 --> 00:08:40,085 So we almost went to an estimate of this is 160 00:08:40,085 --> 00:08:43,660 our baseline of what we think we might need moving 161 00:08:43,660 --> 00:08:47,060 forward and what we know can kind of 162 00:08:47,060 --> 00:08:50,775 be put on the back-burner in terms of we probably don't use this, 163 00:08:50,775 --> 00:08:52,325 once we implement standards. 164 00:08:52,325 --> 00:08:55,620 We probably won't need the 60-minute lecture. 165 00:08:55,620 --> 00:08:59,785 We'll only need the 10 minutes of the meat of the conversation. 166 00:08:59,785 --> 00:09:04,495 So we thought that we would have to take down every single thing. 167 00:09:04,495 --> 00:09:07,685 But in reality, it was almost looking forward to the future. 168 00:09:07,685 --> 00:09:14,760 So what does the future of education look like at MUSC and in those fragmented places? 169 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:17,385 What do they plan to do? 170 00:09:17,385 --> 00:09:21,680 Then we've started to be able to envision 171 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:26,065 this is how much work is going to have to go into this area. 172 00:09:26,065 --> 00:09:28,345 These are the priorities in this area. 173 00:09:28,345 --> 00:09:31,380 So it's actually helped us to look forward 174 00:09:31,380 --> 00:09:35,170 which has brought into a lot of other conversations around 175 00:09:35,170 --> 00:09:38,495 UDL and best practices in teaching and it's almost 176 00:09:38,495 --> 00:09:43,040 revitalized that side of the conversation a little bit more to say. 177 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:46,520 But we're not just talking about digital accessibility anymore or 178 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:51,170 the thousands of pieces of content that have been out there since 1998. 179 00:09:51,170 --> 00:09:52,960 Let's re-look at your course, 180 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:55,175 let's re-look at that content that you're sharing. 181 00:09:55,175 --> 00:09:58,374 Let's talk about what teaching 182 00:09:58,374 --> 00:10:02,120 really looks like in a digital world for our students today. 183 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:04,250 That's right. It's really been around where we're trying to 184 00:10:04,250 --> 00:10:07,145 re-frame the entire- what's the culture change, first of all. 185 00:10:07,145 --> 00:10:10,105 We're really trying to re-frame the entire conversation around, 186 00:10:10,105 --> 00:10:12,095 teaching best practices for teaching and how 187 00:10:12,095 --> 00:10:15,310 this digital accessibility is part of teaching, 188 00:10:15,310 --> 00:10:18,035 part of that UDL and all it comes into one thing. 189 00:10:18,035 --> 00:10:20,260 So it's been really interesting to have conversations around 190 00:10:20,260 --> 00:10:22,775 that with folks that maybe have considered it before. 191 00:10:22,775 --> 00:10:27,320 So actually, best practice is part of good teaching which is really key. 192 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:30,240 Helping them start to understand to that. 193 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:33,190 Just because you've taught one way forever. 194 00:10:33,190 --> 00:10:34,805 It's okay to change, it's okay to review, 195 00:10:34,805 --> 00:10:36,470 it's okay to look back, 196 00:10:36,470 --> 00:10:39,150 and take a look at what you're doing and how can it be improved. 197 00:10:39,150 --> 00:10:42,130 Because I think teaching is a continually improving process. 198 00:10:42,130 --> 00:10:44,410 Nobody's ever the perfect teacher. 199 00:10:44,410 --> 00:10:48,740 So it's always good to look at and see what can I do to make my instruction better? 200 00:10:48,740 --> 00:10:53,310 When did accessibility really get on the radar as a priority? 201 00:10:53,310 --> 00:10:59,315 So at MUSC, we've really hit the ground hard running, 202 00:10:59,315 --> 00:11:01,475 not just hit the ground but running. 203 00:11:01,475 --> 00:11:03,305 Probably about last August, 204 00:11:03,305 --> 00:11:06,780 in terms of pushing out to the campus, 205 00:11:06,780 --> 00:11:08,735 not just kind of talking about policies, 206 00:11:08,735 --> 00:11:10,810 procedures, auditing what this looks like, 207 00:11:10,810 --> 00:11:12,429 kind of higher level conversations, 208 00:11:12,429 --> 00:11:16,720 but talking to every single user on campus. 209 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:19,795 We went around and we met with every single unit, 210 00:11:19,795 --> 00:11:22,410 even our Finance and Administration unit. 211 00:11:22,410 --> 00:11:26,050 Everybody is involved in this conversation. 212 00:11:26,050 --> 00:11:27,305 Everybody is involved in 213 00:11:27,305 --> 00:11:30,590 this initiative and that's what we wanted to portray to them that, 214 00:11:30,590 --> 00:11:32,415 sure, this is a legal issue, 215 00:11:32,415 --> 00:11:37,630 but we're all in this together to create a more inclusive environment for everyone, 216 00:11:37,630 --> 00:11:40,340 not just even our students, but everyone. 217 00:11:40,340 --> 00:11:45,615 From the time that they look at MUSC to the time that they don't look at MUSC anymore. 218 00:11:45,615 --> 00:11:49,325 We want them to have that inclusive experience. 219 00:11:49,325 --> 00:11:52,895 So we've really hit the ground running last August. 220 00:11:52,895 --> 00:11:55,010 We've generated, I think, 221 00:11:55,010 --> 00:11:58,030 a lot of buzz around this on campus, 222 00:11:58,030 --> 00:12:01,955 people who know what digital accessibility is. 223 00:12:01,955 --> 00:12:05,200 Our teachers, our instructors aren't teachers. 224 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:07,400 They're not trained teachers like Alex said. 225 00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:10,005 They may have never heard of UDL before, 226 00:12:10,005 --> 00:12:12,560 but now they know what digital accessibility is. 227 00:12:12,560 --> 00:12:15,490 Our physicians are walking around the hospital and talking 228 00:12:15,490 --> 00:12:18,789 about digital accessibility or this signage is inaccessible, 229 00:12:18,789 --> 00:12:20,545 who do I talk to about that? 230 00:12:20,545 --> 00:12:26,425 We're almost crowd sourcing internal complaints so that we can address them and that 231 00:12:26,425 --> 00:12:32,525 we can make sure that everybody on any level is getting that inclusive experience. 232 00:12:32,525 --> 00:12:33,700 Just as an example of that, 233 00:12:33,700 --> 00:12:35,470 we gave a presentation on Wednesday about 234 00:12:35,470 --> 00:12:38,125 using technology like thoughfully and effectively. 235 00:12:38,125 --> 00:12:41,855 We had a question afterwards where how does this affect digital accessibility. 236 00:12:41,855 --> 00:12:46,700 We're getting questions, just people are thinking about it which is awesome. 237 00:12:47,250 --> 00:12:52,280 Do you also have those people that are thinking about it in terms of, 238 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,360 well, I don't have students with disabilities. 239 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:59,615 We don't typically think of a doctor as somebody that's going to have disability or 240 00:12:59,615 --> 00:13:03,910 a nurse as somebody that has a visual impairment. There are certain necessity. 241 00:13:03,910 --> 00:13:07,300 So how do you approach those conversations? 242 00:13:07,300 --> 00:13:10,900 Because they also happen in other domains as well. 243 00:13:10,900 --> 00:13:12,575 I don't have a blind student in my course. 244 00:13:12,575 --> 00:13:14,315 Why would I care about that? 245 00:13:14,315 --> 00:13:16,460 What has that conversation looked like? 246 00:13:16,460 --> 00:13:18,215 So I think from faculty, 247 00:13:18,215 --> 00:13:19,370 when I speak to faculty about it, 248 00:13:19,370 --> 00:13:23,090 we just bring it back to that UDL part. 249 00:13:24,090 --> 00:13:27,905 As a teacher, as a faculty member, 250 00:13:27,905 --> 00:13:31,630 you want your students to have the most access to content possible. 251 00:13:31,630 --> 00:13:33,670 So they have better access to content, 252 00:13:33,670 --> 00:13:35,019 they're going to retain more information, 253 00:13:35,019 --> 00:13:38,150 and they're going to have a higher success rate. 254 00:13:38,150 --> 00:13:41,580 We really want to constantly tie it back to teaching. 255 00:13:41,580 --> 00:13:43,750 I think sometimes there's confusions 256 00:13:43,750 --> 00:13:47,440 between what's an accommodation and what accessibility really means. 257 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:53,990 So we're trying to break down that barrier and really get faculty to understand that 258 00:13:53,990 --> 00:13:57,340 they're separate and we really need to have content out 259 00:13:57,340 --> 00:14:01,060 there that everybody has equitable access to. 260 00:14:01,060 --> 00:14:04,730 So everybody has a fair game, fair playing field. 261 00:14:04,730 --> 00:14:06,425 Health care is changing, 262 00:14:06,425 --> 00:14:08,090 our environment is changing. 263 00:14:08,090 --> 00:14:12,760 There are dentists out there that have one arm or low mobility. 264 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:17,440 There are physicians out there who may have had a stroke after residency, 265 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:19,040 but are still practicing. 266 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:22,120 There are a lot of different circumstances in our lives. 267 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:24,340 So let's say there are these admission standards, 268 00:14:24,340 --> 00:14:25,810 we don't accept anybody, 269 00:14:25,810 --> 00:14:27,500 which is also not true. 270 00:14:27,500 --> 00:14:33,005 We do accept people with disabilities into all of our health care professions. 271 00:14:33,005 --> 00:14:34,950 So I think just, again, 272 00:14:34,950 --> 00:14:37,565 getting faculty out of that mindset of, well, 273 00:14:37,565 --> 00:14:39,450 I had to go through this, so you have to go through 274 00:14:39,450 --> 00:14:42,355 this quicker or you don't look like me. 275 00:14:42,355 --> 00:14:45,875 I think that that perception is changing slowly. 276 00:14:45,875 --> 00:14:47,920 But like Alex said, it's a culture change. 277 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:51,130 We have to get people out of that health care mindset, 278 00:14:51,130 --> 00:14:53,245 of that rigor mindset and say, 279 00:14:53,245 --> 00:14:55,795 "You're not losing the rigor at all. 280 00:14:55,795 --> 00:15:00,769 You are offering more opportunities to a wider audience." 281 00:15:00,769 --> 00:15:06,140 We do have nurses on campus that I know have low vision, 282 00:15:06,140 --> 00:15:09,665 are legally blind, but there's a spectrum. 283 00:15:09,665 --> 00:15:11,320 So I think that, again, 284 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:15,065 getting people outside of this accommodations versus accessibility, 285 00:15:15,065 --> 00:15:16,505 getting them outside of, 286 00:15:16,505 --> 00:15:18,670 well, since you're legally blind, 287 00:15:18,670 --> 00:15:20,090 this is what that means, 288 00:15:20,090 --> 00:15:23,780 almost re-educating our healthcare professionals at 289 00:15:23,780 --> 00:15:28,995 the instructor level and physicians who are going into patient care offices. 290 00:15:28,995 --> 00:15:31,750 What digital accessibility means, 291 00:15:31,750 --> 00:15:33,865 what disabilities even mean, 292 00:15:33,865 --> 00:15:38,900 I think is really picking up on campus and people are really talking 293 00:15:38,900 --> 00:15:44,060 about it and starting to question a lot more things than just the digital realm. 294 00:15:44,060 --> 00:15:47,400 But how are we providing better patient care? 295 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:49,330 How is this going to change compassion? 296 00:15:49,330 --> 00:15:52,990 How is this going to talk about empathy in our classrooms? 297 00:15:52,990 --> 00:15:58,105 So it's actually a really amazing conversation in the health care professions, 298 00:15:58,105 --> 00:16:00,670 especially because they're going to be 299 00:16:00,670 --> 00:16:04,145 working with a diverse audience for the rest of their lives. 300 00:16:04,145 --> 00:16:10,620 So they need to be able to understand that we need to give everybody that opportunity. 301 00:16:10,620 --> 00:16:16,365 We went and talked to the SGA and the students were very open to digital accessibility. 302 00:16:16,365 --> 00:16:17,920 They had no questions, no concerns, 303 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:19,855 no anything. They were fine with it. 304 00:16:19,855 --> 00:16:24,130 They loved it. More opportunities for studying and retention, sign me up. 305 00:16:24,130 --> 00:16:29,625 So it really is changing that old school mindset of health care professionals. 306 00:16:29,625 --> 00:16:34,410 Sure. Just another example you spoke about the nursing students. 307 00:16:34,410 --> 00:16:38,005 I may never want to be a nurse on the floor, 308 00:16:38,005 --> 00:16:40,265 but I may want to do like research in nursing, 309 00:16:40,265 --> 00:16:45,195 or a prerequisite to that is I have to have my undergraduate degree in nursing. 310 00:16:45,195 --> 00:16:47,410 We can't just frame it as an, 311 00:16:47,410 --> 00:16:50,410 "Oh, you can't be a nurse because you have disability." 312 00:16:50,410 --> 00:16:55,870 I may have higher aspirations passed just having an undergraduate degree. 313 00:16:55,870 --> 00:16:57,890 So that's something else, I think, to consider too. 314 00:16:57,890 --> 00:17:00,930 I love this connection around empathy, 315 00:17:00,930 --> 00:17:05,760 empathy for patients, and then thinking about being empathetic to student needs. 316 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,875 That seems like it's just such a synergy there between 317 00:17:09,875 --> 00:17:15,000 how healthcare works and how education works and they are two industries, I think, 318 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,870 that share very close similarities in terms of 319 00:17:17,870 --> 00:17:22,515 that care empathy towards others that of difference of diversity, 320 00:17:22,515 --> 00:17:25,120 of different needs and abilities and things like that. 321 00:17:25,120 --> 00:17:30,160 Yeah. For sure. It's been really interesting around campus to see the culture change, 322 00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:37,510 because there really has been a very deep culture change that I don't know if 323 00:17:37,510 --> 00:17:41,045 anything in kind of our recent history at MUSC 324 00:17:41,045 --> 00:17:44,910 has changed the culture this much besides digital accessibility, 325 00:17:44,910 --> 00:17:47,420 because it impacts everyone. 326 00:17:47,420 --> 00:17:52,915 Accommodations that only impacted a certain few or maybe faculty that got that paperwork, 327 00:17:52,915 --> 00:17:56,470 but this impacts everybody and we're all in it together. 328 00:17:56,470 --> 00:18:00,070 I don't know that there's been a movement like this in a while, 329 00:18:00,070 --> 00:18:05,110 and so it's really interesting to see this develop with that human touch, 330 00:18:05,110 --> 00:18:06,370 with the technology touch, 331 00:18:06,370 --> 00:18:09,030 with how Ally's come into play, 332 00:18:09,030 --> 00:18:13,025 how conversations with individual faculty have come into play, 333 00:18:13,025 --> 00:18:18,605 spotlighting people, spotlighting programs or groups that are working for it. 334 00:18:18,605 --> 00:18:22,370 It's just been a really cool experience on campus. 335 00:18:22,370 --> 00:18:24,630 You spotlight those champions, 336 00:18:24,630 --> 00:18:26,215 you spotlight those departments that are really 337 00:18:26,215 --> 00:18:28,100 like pushing forward with it, I think that's great, 338 00:18:28,100 --> 00:18:31,750 because folks can take a look at that and say, 339 00:18:31,750 --> 00:18:34,520 "Well, they've had success, we can do the same thing. 340 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:38,785 It's achievable," which is something we really want to encourage. 341 00:18:38,785 --> 00:18:41,045 What do you attribute this culture change? 342 00:18:41,045 --> 00:18:42,965 I imagine it's a lot of different factors. 343 00:18:42,965 --> 00:18:48,705 I mean, there's conversations outside of the university and inclusion, diversity. 344 00:18:48,705 --> 00:18:52,775 Do you think it's just a potpourri of factors that are contributing to that? 345 00:18:52,775 --> 00:18:56,900 For sure, and we have a lot of peer institutions that we've been talking to in 346 00:18:56,900 --> 00:19:01,565 the state that have really helped us kind of imagine what this looks like at MUSC, 347 00:19:01,565 --> 00:19:03,630 because a lot of our faculty will say, 348 00:19:03,630 --> 00:19:05,890 "Well, I went to a conference and I talked to 349 00:19:05,890 --> 00:19:08,460 my peers and they don't even know what digital accessibility is." 350 00:19:08,460 --> 00:19:09,940 I said, "Well, that's a good thing. 351 00:19:09,940 --> 00:19:12,500 We're on the forefront of something really 352 00:19:12,500 --> 00:19:16,420 amazing in health care that we're going to be providing this for 353 00:19:16,420 --> 00:19:20,310 our students and be leading the way for other people to provide 354 00:19:20,310 --> 00:19:25,090 this opportunity to their students as well and envision what that looks like." 355 00:19:25,090 --> 00:19:31,325 So us maybe being one of the first or only people in the health care professions, 356 00:19:31,325 --> 00:19:34,169 especially at the enterprise level that have Ally, 357 00:19:34,169 --> 00:19:36,195 is really important to us, 358 00:19:36,195 --> 00:19:37,820 because we want to lead the way. 359 00:19:37,820 --> 00:19:41,255 We want to pave the way of what this looks like. 360 00:19:41,255 --> 00:19:43,295 This is a tough culture change, 361 00:19:43,295 --> 00:19:44,885 health care professions are. 362 00:19:44,885 --> 00:19:51,990 They're really ingrained with this culture and we're changing and it's amazing. 363 00:19:51,990 --> 00:19:53,210 Changing what's possible. 364 00:19:53,210 --> 00:19:54,470 Changing what's possible. 365 00:19:54,470 --> 00:19:55,650 That's our little tagline. 366 00:19:55,650 --> 00:19:55,930 Our tagline. 367 00:19:55,930 --> 00:19:56,230 There you go. 368 00:19:56,230 --> 00:19:57,685 Changing what's possible. 369 00:19:57,685 --> 00:19:59,970 Put it in there. Yeah, thank you. 370 00:19:59,970 --> 00:20:05,390 So how did you come across Ally and what was appealing about, 371 00:20:05,390 --> 00:20:07,975 I mean it kind of fit into this broader set of 372 00:20:07,975 --> 00:20:11,220 solutions that you're looking for to support that accessibility? 373 00:20:11,220 --> 00:20:15,150 So Ally kind of came into a conversation on 374 00:20:15,150 --> 00:20:17,520 the whim with our account executive 375 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,235 and she brought it up and she said, "You should get this. 376 00:20:20,235 --> 00:20:22,870 I think that this would be really good for you." 377 00:20:22,870 --> 00:20:26,160 I said what is this digital accessibility thing? 378 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,655 I'm not even on a committee that even talks about this yet. 379 00:20:29,655 --> 00:20:33,670 She really pushed for us to get that in our package and it was 380 00:20:33,670 --> 00:20:37,020 really important for her to say, "You need this. 381 00:20:37,020 --> 00:20:38,400 You're going to need this, 382 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:41,110 and you want to get this right now, 383 00:20:41,110 --> 00:20:43,180 you want to be the first people to get this." 384 00:20:43,180 --> 00:20:46,275 So it was actually Leslie Sands our account executive, 385 00:20:46,275 --> 00:20:49,515 who is absolutely fantastic really pushing us to get it 386 00:20:49,515 --> 00:20:54,825 and it was the easiest sell I think that I've ever made to leadership, 387 00:20:54,825 --> 00:20:56,450 which is the weirdest thing. 388 00:20:56,450 --> 00:20:59,375 Because you can't fight Ally, 389 00:20:59,375 --> 00:21:04,435 you can't fight what it does and at the time I was an office of one. 390 00:21:04,435 --> 00:21:07,860 So Ally is like a team of 391 00:21:07,860 --> 00:21:13,200 15 amazing instructional designers that you know can get in there at any time, 392 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:15,690 in any place in the faculty space, 393 00:21:15,690 --> 00:21:19,515 in their space and gives them what they need to know 394 00:21:19,515 --> 00:21:24,420 about digital accessibility and how to remediate their documents. 395 00:21:24,420 --> 00:21:26,820 I mean how can you fight that? 396 00:21:26,820 --> 00:21:30,900 To be honest it was a pretty kind of perfect storm 397 00:21:30,900 --> 00:21:35,170 for us and when we rolled out it was fire hose roll out. 398 00:21:35,170 --> 00:21:37,170 We just turn it on and let it loose. 399 00:21:37,170 --> 00:21:41,130 It was very interesting that we didn't get any push back, 400 00:21:41,130 --> 00:21:42,930 at all from faculty. 401 00:21:42,930 --> 00:21:46,455 It was probably more questions on the college level of like, 402 00:21:46,455 --> 00:21:49,595 "What's this red thing showing up that's not good. 403 00:21:49,595 --> 00:21:52,005 I going to get a green like the rest of them." 404 00:21:52,005 --> 00:21:55,230 So we started a small campaign. 405 00:21:55,230 --> 00:21:59,550 When we first rolled it out and it kind of like sit ins where people could come by and 406 00:21:59,550 --> 00:22:04,170 learn about all of the different types of issues that they would see popping up. 407 00:22:04,170 --> 00:22:07,795 And it was really I think kind of effective because we did 408 00:22:07,795 --> 00:22:10,285 monthly campaigns about issues and this is what you're 409 00:22:10,285 --> 00:22:13,440 seeing and kind of a go green campaign. 410 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:17,790 I think throughout the year we just saw more and more usage from 411 00:22:17,790 --> 00:22:23,005 the faculty's end and less and less questions for me which was amazing. 412 00:22:23,005 --> 00:22:28,195 So it's been the work of 15 people that I definitely could not have done. 413 00:22:28,195 --> 00:22:31,560 So for small teens this is 414 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:38,340 a very important tool I think that can help support faculty where they're are, 415 00:22:38,340 --> 00:22:41,925 without you having to be the end all of 416 00:22:41,925 --> 00:22:46,705 any question or know how to do everything in every single circumstance. 417 00:22:46,705 --> 00:22:49,200 They find the Mac users versus a Windows user. 418 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:53,789 If I am using Microsoft Office versus whatever it is, 419 00:22:53,789 --> 00:22:57,465 it gives you the directions for you. You can't fight that. 420 00:22:57,465 --> 00:22:59,850 It allows faculty to already have 421 00:22:59,850 --> 00:23:02,850 a baseline of knowledge so they can ask pointed questions. 422 00:23:02,850 --> 00:23:05,760 So I may get an ally and see that my PDF is a tag. 423 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:07,620 I can find out what that means, 424 00:23:07,620 --> 00:23:09,180 how to fix it why is it important? 425 00:23:09,180 --> 00:23:10,785 So when they come to us with questions, 426 00:23:10,785 --> 00:23:12,501 we don't have to start from the very beginning. 427 00:23:12,501 --> 00:23:14,490 They know of digital accessibility. 428 00:23:14,490 --> 00:23:17,545 So they already have that kind of background knowledge 429 00:23:17,545 --> 00:23:20,950 which I think is really important when it comes to training and questions. 430 00:23:20,950 --> 00:23:25,200 So you have you been seeing in some of the trainings and your work with faculty that 431 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,850 that awareness piece has really been key for how those trainings have unfolded? 432 00:23:29,850 --> 00:23:32,400 Yes absolutely, you know them being able to 433 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,040 come in with the awareness of knowing some of the things 434 00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:36,780 they're going to have remediated or some things they're going to 435 00:23:36,780 --> 00:23:38,430 have to fix and that way they begin you- 436 00:23:38,430 --> 00:23:40,320 they come with those pointed questions 437 00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:43,455 so we can really focus on what do they need to know. 438 00:23:43,455 --> 00:23:44,985 So we can train from there. 439 00:23:44,985 --> 00:23:47,395 One of the great things like the go green campaign is, 440 00:23:47,395 --> 00:23:48,505 if you work with faculty, 441 00:23:48,505 --> 00:23:51,480 it's really great to see their faces kind of light up when there gauge goes green 442 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,680 because it's a feeling of accomplishment like even when I use Ally, 443 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:56,220 I still feel good about it. 444 00:23:56,220 --> 00:23:59,310 We'll see that you know jump from 24 percent to 100 percent. 445 00:23:59,310 --> 00:24:01,590 So I think that's something really cool. 446 00:24:01,590 --> 00:24:04,785 We had a faculty and a meeting the other day. 447 00:24:04,785 --> 00:24:07,170 The meeting had nothing to do with education. 448 00:24:07,170 --> 00:24:09,840 We start out with winds at all of our meetings and he stood 449 00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:12,180 up and showed his computer and I was like, "What is he doing? 450 00:24:12,180 --> 00:24:13,455 What is on his computer?" 451 00:24:13,455 --> 00:24:17,400 Then I saw his course an open and he said I just wanted 452 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:21,980 to share my win that I mean one of my courses all green. 453 00:24:21,980 --> 00:24:27,495 It was just like his face lit up and he was just so happy and I was like, 454 00:24:27,495 --> 00:24:34,755 "That guy is one of our toughest researchers and he's doing all this accessibility stuff. 455 00:24:34,755 --> 00:24:36,120 How did he learn this? 456 00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,190 What is he doing? Who has he talked to?" 457 00:24:38,190 --> 00:24:41,920 So I reach out to the college and they were like," He did this all on his own. 458 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,715 He just wanted to champion and do this." 459 00:24:45,715 --> 00:24:51,030 So putting that power in the faculty's hands where they see their gauges, 460 00:24:51,030 --> 00:24:56,860 where they have the power to change their content. 461 00:24:57,020 --> 00:25:00,920 It is. I mean just seeing his face light up was just that was it. 462 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:02,475 That was it for me. I was like I'm sold. 463 00:25:02,475 --> 00:25:05,190 All right, and that's a great motivator to everybody else in the room too, 464 00:25:05,190 --> 00:25:10,630 they see that and they go back to their areas and you know it's great to see so. 465 00:25:10,630 --> 00:25:14,475 Now you all are talking about some of the successes. 466 00:25:14,475 --> 00:25:18,464 There's of course some major challenges in rolling out Ally 467 00:25:18,464 --> 00:25:23,160 or maybe not just in rolling out Ally but then getting that movement, 468 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,535 getting to that green level especially in 469 00:25:26,535 --> 00:25:31,640 your context where you're dealing with some particularly challenging kinds of content. 470 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:34,670 You want to talk maybe a little bit about some of the challenges that 471 00:25:34,670 --> 00:25:38,180 you see in the content from an accessibility perspective and how 472 00:25:38,180 --> 00:25:41,080 you're thinking about those types of strategies especially 473 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:44,650 incorporating some of those UDL principles into thinking about that? 474 00:25:44,650 --> 00:25:46,800 Sure. Yes, so some of the challenges we really come across. 475 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:49,210 We have a lot of you know being a medical university a lot of 476 00:25:49,210 --> 00:25:53,100 complex images a lot of complex tables things like that. 477 00:25:53,100 --> 00:25:55,090 So one of the biggest challenges we have, 478 00:25:55,090 --> 00:25:57,810 around specific challenges are alternative text. 479 00:25:57,810 --> 00:26:03,495 So you know if I have an image in my lecture and I'm spending 20 minutes describing it. 480 00:26:03,495 --> 00:26:05,565 Make that- just give the students afterwards. 481 00:26:05,565 --> 00:26:08,160 How do I explain what just happened in that whole text? 482 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:10,975 So we really have a lot of education about how to 483 00:26:10,975 --> 00:26:14,760 write of all text and then if you do that longer description 484 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:18,265 or to provide more information externally link that out or 485 00:26:18,265 --> 00:26:22,015 send the students somewhere to where they can get that same information. 486 00:26:22,015 --> 00:26:23,760 That's been probably our biggest or the most- 487 00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:26,310 the questions I get most often are around things like that, 488 00:26:26,310 --> 00:26:27,985 its because we have so many complex, 489 00:26:27,985 --> 00:26:30,130 images and tables and things like that. 490 00:26:30,130 --> 00:26:34,185 Definitely in the health care professions and I'm sure in all professions, 491 00:26:34,185 --> 00:26:36,460 there's so much content to cover. 492 00:26:36,460 --> 00:26:39,870 So there's so much content that they want to put online, that they want to share, 493 00:26:39,870 --> 00:26:43,710 that they want to have available for the students and that's so much content 494 00:26:43,710 --> 00:26:48,180 can just add tons of time to try to remediate it. 495 00:26:48,180 --> 00:26:49,585 So where do I even start? 496 00:26:49,585 --> 00:26:50,760 What are the issues? 497 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:51,970 What are the main issues? 498 00:26:51,970 --> 00:26:56,340 So really diving deep into we'll just take a deep breath. 499 00:26:56,340 --> 00:26:57,960 Alex always starts his training with, 500 00:26:57,960 --> 00:26:59,475 Let's take a deep breath together, 501 00:26:59,475 --> 00:27:00,855 because we're diving in." 502 00:27:00,855 --> 00:27:05,190 This is going to be a lot but we're just going to take baby steps and just 503 00:27:05,190 --> 00:27:10,200 start slow and start somewhere just start somewhere, anywhere, just start. 504 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:15,445 So I think the idea of have all this content in this mountain ahead of me, 505 00:27:15,445 --> 00:27:19,765 well just start climbing because we're all climbing our own mountain in our own way. 506 00:27:19,765 --> 00:27:23,940 So I know I looked at my course for this spring that I was teaching I was like, 507 00:27:23,940 --> 00:27:27,560 "Do I have to too like do I have to make my stuff accessible?" 508 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,000 I'll just put it somewhere else and link to it 509 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:33,135 or just try to get around it and I started thinking, 510 00:27:33,135 --> 00:27:37,465 "Oh my gosh, I'm even trying to find loopholes around digital accessibility." 511 00:27:37,465 --> 00:27:41,605 So I've realized that I had to dive in too and I had to take the time 512 00:27:41,605 --> 00:27:47,550 to go through the process to really feel that pain because it is painful. 513 00:27:47,550 --> 00:27:50,310 Our faculty are in clinics when they're not 514 00:27:50,310 --> 00:27:53,910 teaching and they don't have time to remediate. 515 00:27:53,910 --> 00:27:57,020 So we're trying to just take baby bites, 516 00:27:57,020 --> 00:28:02,935 baby steps towards the end goal of compliance at some point but we will get there. 517 00:28:02,935 --> 00:28:05,515 It's just going to be a slower pace. 518 00:28:05,515 --> 00:28:08,460 Right. Our message is, we want this to feel realistic. 519 00:28:08,460 --> 00:28:09,675 We want to feel achievable. 520 00:28:09,675 --> 00:28:11,920 So we don't want you to feel like 521 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:15,765 everything- all of your content has to be accessible by this date, 522 00:28:15,765 --> 00:28:16,935 because that's just not realistic. 523 00:28:16,935 --> 00:28:21,345 So we really want to push that message forward and also the message of you're supported. 524 00:28:21,345 --> 00:28:23,190 There are a lot of folks around here that are 525 00:28:23,190 --> 00:28:25,285 more than willing to help you whether you know 526 00:28:25,285 --> 00:28:29,530 it's at Tech team your IT team and champions within your area within your college. 527 00:28:29,530 --> 00:28:33,705 So I think you know being able to get that message out as well like you're not alone, 528 00:28:33,705 --> 00:28:36,145 which I think is really important in something like this, 529 00:28:36,145 --> 00:28:38,310 know you're supported in this. 530 00:28:38,310 --> 00:28:41,115 It's not by yourself. 531 00:28:41,115 --> 00:28:43,950 Now, I imagine another challenge that you all are 532 00:28:43,950 --> 00:28:47,670 seeing and we certainly see it at other institutions and you 533 00:28:47,670 --> 00:28:52,620 probably your faculty rely a lot on medical journals and cheering Journal 534 00:28:52,620 --> 00:28:55,350 content into the courses and we know a lot of times 535 00:28:55,350 --> 00:28:58,500 that publish your journal content is not accessible, 536 00:28:58,500 --> 00:29:02,565 want to talk a little bit about the relationship that you have with the library. 537 00:29:02,565 --> 00:29:05,085 Is that a new kind of relationship that blossomed 538 00:29:05,085 --> 00:29:08,085 because of Ally because of a shared mission around this? 539 00:29:08,085 --> 00:29:10,085 So I love librarians, 540 00:29:10,085 --> 00:29:12,845 I think they are brilliant people and 541 00:29:12,845 --> 00:29:16,020 everyone should have a librarian on their team at all time. 542 00:29:16,020 --> 00:29:19,900 So we actually have always had a library in honor kind of 543 00:29:19,900 --> 00:29:25,230 Ed Tech community team and they've always been represented as part of the team. 544 00:29:25,230 --> 00:29:30,320 I actually brought her in very early into the conversation around Ally, 545 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:31,340 how are we going to do this. 546 00:29:31,340 --> 00:29:33,920 What does this mean for journal articles. 547 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:35,570 How can we work around this. 548 00:29:35,570 --> 00:29:36,620 What do we need to be doing? 549 00:29:36,620 --> 00:29:38,240 What do we need to be thinking about? 550 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,690 She has just been so great. 551 00:29:40,690 --> 00:29:43,285 One of the major benefits to having 552 00:29:43,285 --> 00:29:47,610 our particular librarian on our team is she has an instructional design degree. 553 00:29:47,610 --> 00:29:51,990 So she understands a lot of the pieces around the LMS. 554 00:29:51,990 --> 00:29:55,980 So she's been able to really dive in very very deep and say, 555 00:29:55,980 --> 00:29:58,540 "Okay. This is what exactly needs to be done." 556 00:29:58,540 --> 00:30:04,815 So recently our librarian whole team which is again they're amazing, 557 00:30:04,815 --> 00:30:06,390 they've jumped in and they said, 558 00:30:06,390 --> 00:30:08,430 "Okay, we have this form, 559 00:30:08,430 --> 00:30:11,640 any faculty across the campus can fill this out. 560 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:16,125 What we'll do is, we'll offer our services to go into your course and we will 561 00:30:16,125 --> 00:30:19,350 update every single journal article 562 00:30:19,350 --> 00:30:22,430 that you have in your course and make sure that it's linked correctly, 563 00:30:22,430 --> 00:30:24,030 that it's updated correctly, 564 00:30:24,030 --> 00:30:26,840 that were siting correctly in there." 565 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,380 So they've kind of taken this on themselves. 566 00:30:30,380 --> 00:30:33,350 Which is a huge portion of probably 567 00:30:33,350 --> 00:30:37,370 our accessibility institutional score is those journal articles. 568 00:30:37,370 --> 00:30:41,870 So they've really kind of championed this piece all on their own because 569 00:30:41,870 --> 00:30:46,635 they feel like this is their part that they can play. 570 00:30:46,635 --> 00:30:49,845 So I feel like that's kind of been our mantras. 571 00:30:49,845 --> 00:30:52,130 What part can you play in this? 572 00:30:52,130 --> 00:30:55,065 How can you help with the bigger picture? 573 00:30:55,065 --> 00:30:58,830 It's not just us standing up in front of the classroom talking about this. 574 00:30:58,830 --> 00:31:00,570 We're all talking about this. 575 00:31:00,570 --> 00:31:02,985 What part are you playing in that game? 576 00:31:02,985 --> 00:31:07,860 So it's just been amazing to see people step up and say, 577 00:31:07,860 --> 00:31:09,510 "Oh yeah, I am good at this, 578 00:31:09,510 --> 00:31:12,025 I can do this or I can help out this way". 579 00:31:12,025 --> 00:31:15,950 Really truly care about it too and not just 580 00:31:15,950 --> 00:31:20,880 to poor job at it they really want everybody to be successful. 581 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:22,650 They want our faculty to be successful, 582 00:31:22,650 --> 00:31:24,360 they want our students to be successful, 583 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,615 they want our residents all of our graduate medical education 584 00:31:28,615 --> 00:31:34,360 which extremely utilizes our learning management system to be successful too, 585 00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:38,760 for our physicians who are doing grand rounds online to be successful. 586 00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:45,010 So learning happens so many different ways and they've really stepped up to help out. 587 00:31:45,010 --> 00:31:47,370 They've been specifically using 588 00:31:47,370 --> 00:31:52,080 the library reference tool in Ally to add those references, 589 00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:56,010 add the metadata to the content to help students access 590 00:31:56,010 --> 00:32:00,120 accessible formats or get the HTML content from library databases. 591 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,015 So that's been pretty cool to see the use of that tool. 592 00:32:03,015 --> 00:32:06,255 I know a lot of people in ally community users 593 00:32:06,255 --> 00:32:09,840 are sometimes confused about what to do with that library reference but it 594 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,440 sounds like you all have found a really critical way 595 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:17,310 to use that to link to those databases to help with the content. 596 00:32:17,310 --> 00:32:19,710 Our librarian was saying yesterday that 597 00:32:19,710 --> 00:32:22,600 it went from zero percent accessible right of course, 598 00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:28,560 no PDF that's downloaded from really any journal is accessible to 100 percent 599 00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:32,010 accessible just by putting in that library reference because it 600 00:32:32,010 --> 00:32:35,550 links out to a place where students can get that accessible version. 601 00:32:35,550 --> 00:32:38,500 So the Library Reference I think is a hidden gem 602 00:32:38,500 --> 00:32:41,955 in Ally that has really helped us because it's built into the tool. 603 00:32:41,955 --> 00:32:46,050 It's not something extra like how I have to create a URL and delete this old thing. 604 00:32:46,050 --> 00:32:47,155 It's built right in. 605 00:32:47,155 --> 00:32:53,235 So it's always adding this metadata into all of the pieces of the content. 606 00:32:53,235 --> 00:32:56,875 Has it also as faculty are kind of looking 607 00:32:56,875 --> 00:33:00,355 at their content again and thinking about the usability. 608 00:33:00,355 --> 00:33:05,115 Has there been an entry point for how you guys are talking about UDL with them? 609 00:33:05,115 --> 00:33:09,060 Well, absolutely. I think one of the key aspects around 610 00:33:09,060 --> 00:33:12,900 that is really through Ally explain those alternative formats. 611 00:33:12,900 --> 00:33:15,705 Which has been really great to be able to 612 00:33:15,705 --> 00:33:19,215 show faculty Ally and then go all by the way from the student side, 613 00:33:19,215 --> 00:33:21,745 they have access to all these different formats and they can 614 00:33:21,745 --> 00:33:24,450 do all these different things with the content. 615 00:33:24,450 --> 00:33:26,850 So when you explain that to the faculty again you 616 00:33:26,850 --> 00:33:29,325 know you can't see their faces light up around that because, 617 00:33:29,325 --> 00:33:34,945 you mean I put my content in this way but students can grab it this entirely 618 00:33:34,945 --> 00:33:37,275 other way and be able to listen to it 619 00:33:37,275 --> 00:33:40,740 or get EPUB version and annotate mark and things like that. 620 00:33:40,740 --> 00:33:43,105 I think it's really cool and it's really powerful, 621 00:33:43,105 --> 00:33:45,329 and it also leads- 622 00:33:45,329 --> 00:33:47,250 I can always start with that but then also it leads 623 00:33:47,250 --> 00:33:49,635 bigger conversations around, 624 00:33:49,635 --> 00:33:51,540 how are you representing your content, 625 00:33:51,540 --> 00:33:52,780 how are you assessing students, 626 00:33:52,780 --> 00:33:56,565 how are you providing multiple ways to demonstrate what they know. 627 00:33:56,565 --> 00:33:59,460 So not only around UDL I can talk about from 628 00:33:59,460 --> 00:34:02,730 student side alternate formats and this different means they can get it but it 629 00:34:02,730 --> 00:34:05,165 also kind of leads down the path to 630 00:34:05,165 --> 00:34:07,050 the bigger conversations about how they're 631 00:34:07,050 --> 00:34:09,315 designing their courses which is really interesting. 632 00:34:09,315 --> 00:34:14,020 Yeah I think that's really cool because it really is more than just the content itself. 633 00:34:14,020 --> 00:34:17,890 You're thinking about how do they move through a course, through a module. 634 00:34:17,890 --> 00:34:19,280 How are they being assessed. 635 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:21,430 I think that that's such a key piece as well. 636 00:34:21,430 --> 00:34:25,255 Right. Yeah absolutely, and Melissa had mentioned earlier faculty sometimes 637 00:34:25,255 --> 00:34:27,410 the mindset is here is this is how I went 638 00:34:27,410 --> 00:34:29,905 through this school and this is how I was assessed, 639 00:34:29,905 --> 00:34:33,210 this how you should have to demonstrate your knowledge. 640 00:34:33,210 --> 00:34:38,860 So I think being able to open up that conversation as well, 641 00:34:38,860 --> 00:34:41,030 how you move the course and then how your knowledge 642 00:34:41,030 --> 00:34:43,830 assess or how you demonstrate what you know. 643 00:34:43,830 --> 00:34:46,395 I think it's definitely a hard issue to tackle, 644 00:34:46,395 --> 00:34:50,250 around you know the medical field but I think it's again as we have you know 645 00:34:50,250 --> 00:34:53,040 a more diverse student population and we have 646 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:56,385 all these great tools to demonstrate our assess you know what you know. 647 00:34:56,385 --> 00:34:58,470 I think that conversation is just going to get or 648 00:34:58,470 --> 00:35:02,200 hopefully that conversation gets bigger going forward. 649 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,470 We looked at your alternative format usage, 650 00:35:05,470 --> 00:35:08,285 yesterday we looked at some of your research your feedback usage. 651 00:35:08,285 --> 00:35:11,310 Were you surprised at what you were seeing there was it pretty 652 00:35:11,310 --> 00:35:14,550 exciting to see that these things were actually being taken up? 653 00:35:14,550 --> 00:35:18,465 It was especially the alternative format usage. 654 00:35:18,465 --> 00:35:24,875 We have not done any campaigns around students using this little drop down arrow. 655 00:35:24,875 --> 00:35:29,100 If they find it then they use it but we've never really told them about it. 656 00:35:29,100 --> 00:35:31,415 So they're finding it and they're using it. 657 00:35:31,415 --> 00:35:36,630 Our data is actually for me very surprising and really amazing that students are 658 00:35:36,630 --> 00:35:42,095 using all content in all different ways and a lot of different ways. 659 00:35:42,095 --> 00:35:46,240 So the usage of these- I mean they're probably sitting in 660 00:35:46,240 --> 00:35:48,745 Charleston traffic listening to 661 00:35:48,745 --> 00:35:52,195 their lecture on their way into class so that they're ready for the next class. 662 00:35:52,195 --> 00:35:56,030 It's just absolutely amazing to see how broadly 663 00:35:56,030 --> 00:36:00,940 the content was used and how much it was downloaded in alternative formats. 664 00:36:00,940 --> 00:36:03,790 I think the instructor feedback was also 665 00:36:03,790 --> 00:36:08,305 an engagement was very interesting to me because I didn't know 666 00:36:08,305 --> 00:36:11,445 that that many people were getting in and 667 00:36:11,445 --> 00:36:15,870 remediating their documents that to me is amazing. 668 00:36:15,870 --> 00:36:20,660 I mean it only proves that if you kind of put it out there, 669 00:36:20,660 --> 00:36:22,200 it's easy to learn. 670 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,855 People will kind of pick it up and I mean yes we have to 671 00:36:25,855 --> 00:36:30,075 continually push and push the cause of it the why of it, 672 00:36:30,075 --> 00:36:31,530 but they're doing it. 673 00:36:31,530 --> 00:36:33,650 People have done it without our help. 674 00:36:33,650 --> 00:36:36,450 I think once we really focus our efforts on putting 675 00:36:36,450 --> 00:36:40,765 a student campaign together I think our numbers are just going to skyrocket from there, 676 00:36:40,765 --> 00:36:45,520 especially it'll be an easy sell for the audio version especially for traffic around. 677 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:49,500 That would be nice. We always sell it with that but I think it's 678 00:36:49,500 --> 00:36:53,385 really going to be awesome once we start that really big student roll out. 679 00:36:53,385 --> 00:36:56,780 I think one of the interesting things too in our conversations 680 00:36:56,780 --> 00:37:01,045 yesterday was it's a very data driven culture here. 681 00:37:01,045 --> 00:37:02,570 You have a research culture, 682 00:37:02,570 --> 00:37:08,430 you have a medical culture and accessibility previously was kind of less data driven. 683 00:37:08,430 --> 00:37:11,220 It was kind of more trying to figure out content, 684 00:37:11,220 --> 00:37:13,945 has the Allies kind of numerical and 685 00:37:13,945 --> 00:37:16,815 data based approach having that institutional report. 686 00:37:16,815 --> 00:37:19,080 Has that been really helpful? 687 00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:21,320 We also talked about some of the challenges in 688 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:23,580 those numbers and how they can be a little misleading. 689 00:37:23,580 --> 00:37:25,435 Do you want to touch a little bit about just how you're 690 00:37:25,435 --> 00:37:27,580 thinking about that data based approach? 691 00:37:27,580 --> 00:37:30,570 Yeah, and I think the data that comes out of 692 00:37:30,570 --> 00:37:35,550 the institutional report has been extremely helpful for us and a 693 00:37:35,550 --> 00:37:39,150 little misleading because of the way that content is sometimes 694 00:37:39,150 --> 00:37:43,710 portrayed or we misunderstand with Ally versus without Ally, 695 00:37:43,710 --> 00:37:45,740 what that truly means. 696 00:37:45,740 --> 00:37:48,450 There's a lot of different pieces that go into 697 00:37:48,450 --> 00:37:51,755 the rating of each one of the pieces of content. 698 00:37:51,755 --> 00:37:56,730 I think really drilling down and understanding that and trying to communicate that 699 00:37:56,730 --> 00:38:02,770 in lay language to our leadership and it has been very difficult I think. 700 00:38:02,770 --> 00:38:06,140 It's been just data for a person that loves data. 701 00:38:06,140 --> 00:38:09,255 I love data and data is what drives what I do, 702 00:38:09,255 --> 00:38:10,995 data is what I live by. 703 00:38:10,995 --> 00:38:16,700 It's also almost complicated things more because now I have a number behind things. 704 00:38:16,700 --> 00:38:19,505 Now, our faculty are really hoping on, 705 00:38:19,505 --> 00:38:21,250 well it's 20 percent, 706 00:38:21,250 --> 00:38:22,980 what if it's 50 percent. 707 00:38:22,980 --> 00:38:24,715 What is the number? 708 00:38:24,715 --> 00:38:28,845 What's the special number from my end that I need to get to? 709 00:38:28,845 --> 00:38:32,095 Because very black and white in a research culture. 710 00:38:32,095 --> 00:38:36,080 So what is that number and us living in the gray are like, 711 00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:41,075 'Well necessarily you know let's get to Green but what does that mean? 712 00:38:41,075 --> 00:38:43,240 If it's still not usable." 713 00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:46,350 So it's really a case by case instance that we 714 00:38:46,350 --> 00:38:49,725 have to work with them on and I think that's where Alex is really 715 00:38:49,725 --> 00:38:54,585 shined as he's able to really dig into the content and talk to the people about 716 00:38:54,585 --> 00:38:59,865 what does this mean and how can I use this and do this. 717 00:38:59,865 --> 00:39:01,695 That's probably our next step, 718 00:39:01,695 --> 00:39:03,090 now that we have all this data. 719 00:39:03,090 --> 00:39:04,935 We've been in this for a year. 720 00:39:04,935 --> 00:39:07,060 What's the next step for us? 721 00:39:07,060 --> 00:39:11,570 I think it's really digging down to probably individual consultations. 722 00:39:11,570 --> 00:39:12,000 That's what- 723 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:13,000 That's what I'm going to say, I think- 724 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:14,000 -which most successful. 725 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,050 Right. those individual reports. 726 00:39:16,050 --> 00:39:18,824 We are going to be able to send and really highlights, 727 00:39:18,824 --> 00:39:24,005 be able to send them report and say maybe target some things and then you'll have them, 728 00:39:24,005 --> 00:39:26,865 train with them or work with them one-on-one and then 729 00:39:26,865 --> 00:39:30,690 send them a report after where they've gone and be able to remediate the content. 730 00:39:30,690 --> 00:39:32,850 I think that's really great 731 00:39:32,850 --> 00:39:35,390 because they're able to see the strides that they're personally making. 732 00:39:35,390 --> 00:39:39,715 So again I think that they really like the personal touch the one-on-one trainings, 733 00:39:39,715 --> 00:39:42,625 I think that's really key in this this whole thing. 734 00:39:42,625 --> 00:39:45,720 We've been able to show with institutional reporting kind 735 00:39:45,720 --> 00:39:49,515 of some leaps that we've taken from semester to semesters, 736 00:39:49,515 --> 00:39:52,210 from last spring to this spring where we at, 737 00:39:52,210 --> 00:39:56,715 and showing a number to leadership has been very powerful. 738 00:39:56,715 --> 00:39:59,545 I've even heard our previous use that number in 739 00:39:59,545 --> 00:40:03,450 a conversation and it's just really kind of empowering to 740 00:40:03,450 --> 00:40:11,045 see such a integral tool become almost highlighted at a leadership level. 741 00:40:11,045 --> 00:40:13,460 They're using these numbers in 742 00:40:13,460 --> 00:40:16,430 their conversations where they're using these numbers to kind of 743 00:40:16,430 --> 00:40:21,780 drive motivation and I think it's a good thing and a bad thing. 744 00:40:21,780 --> 00:40:24,630 So we have to kind of be very very careful 745 00:40:24,630 --> 00:40:29,100 around how data is given out and how data is used from this. 746 00:40:29,100 --> 00:40:33,730 But the amount of data that we've been provided from this has just been 747 00:40:33,730 --> 00:40:39,160 very very helpful for us to kind of dig down on points that we want to focus on. 748 00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:41,730 You also mentioned that and thinking about kind of 749 00:40:41,730 --> 00:40:45,830 next steps and moving forward that you're also seeing Ally 750 00:40:45,830 --> 00:40:48,630 being used not just in the course context but 751 00:40:48,630 --> 00:40:51,540 also for checking content that's being pushed 752 00:40:51,540 --> 00:40:54,935 publicly for that broader population that you mentioned 753 00:40:54,935 --> 00:40:58,425 all the patients everybody that's involved in this medical community. 754 00:40:58,425 --> 00:41:01,800 Do you seeing that continuing to move forward in how you're 755 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:05,540 leveraging that tool to really support that broader community? 756 00:41:05,540 --> 00:41:09,870 It was amazing when we kind of opened it up to everybody outside of the colleges. 757 00:41:09,870 --> 00:41:12,690 Our research arm jumped on, 758 00:41:12,690 --> 00:41:14,385 our hospital arm jumped on, 759 00:41:14,385 --> 00:41:16,825 our communications jumped on. 760 00:41:16,825 --> 00:41:20,970 We have people using it in very unique ways not just for teaching and 761 00:41:20,970 --> 00:41:25,030 learning but also for checking their content and learning how to remediate it. 762 00:41:25,030 --> 00:41:27,805 Because it's not always clear and a lot of the tools 763 00:41:27,805 --> 00:41:30,625 that we have on how to remediate content. 764 00:41:30,625 --> 00:41:35,940 So we've seen it utilized and updating external web sites 765 00:41:35,940 --> 00:41:39,270 and updating communication sort 766 00:41:39,270 --> 00:41:42,195 of protocols and different things that they're putting out there, 767 00:41:42,195 --> 00:41:47,035 within the library for research so just a lot of different ways. 768 00:41:47,035 --> 00:41:49,995 So this tool isn't just for teaching and learning. 769 00:41:49,995 --> 00:41:54,365 It teaches everybody how to remediate documents. 770 00:41:54,365 --> 00:41:56,305 Again, it's that in their face, 771 00:41:56,305 --> 00:41:58,745 In their place, in their time, in their space. 772 00:41:58,745 --> 00:42:03,780 So we don't have to necessarily start at square one like 773 00:42:03,780 --> 00:42:05,020 Alex said we can have 774 00:42:05,020 --> 00:42:08,700 those upper level conversations of how do we take this to the next level, 775 00:42:08,700 --> 00:42:12,605 how do we use this content once it's now accessible? 776 00:42:12,605 --> 00:42:16,610 I think any time we give some user a tool that 777 00:42:16,610 --> 00:42:21,170 is easy to understand and also is effective I think is super key, 778 00:42:21,170 --> 00:42:24,160 because you know Ally's very very user friendly 779 00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:26,690 in my opinion you don't need a ton of instruction to be able to 780 00:42:26,690 --> 00:42:30,005 jump in and use Ally right away which I think is really important 781 00:42:30,005 --> 00:42:34,525 because if you give someone a tool and they can't figure out within 5-10 minutes, 782 00:42:34,525 --> 00:42:36,675 they become frustrated or something like Ally, 783 00:42:36,675 --> 00:42:40,305 very usable, very easy to understand and then you see 784 00:42:40,305 --> 00:42:44,050 it's effective you see the meter move and things like that again that's really important. 785 00:42:44,050 --> 00:42:47,100 Wow. A huge thanks to Melissa and Alex for 786 00:42:47,100 --> 00:42:50,250 sharing a little bit about their story and how they're using 787 00:42:50,250 --> 00:42:51,980 Blackboard Ally to address some of 788 00:42:51,980 --> 00:42:56,965 these complex accessibility challenges that they see at the medical school. 789 00:42:56,965 --> 00:43:00,350 I think it's really exciting to see how they're bringing together 790 00:43:00,350 --> 00:43:03,680 different stakeholders on campus to address some of 791 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:07,140 these complex accessibility issues like working with 792 00:43:07,140 --> 00:43:11,280 library services to identify untagged PDF from 793 00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:15,240 journal articles and using Ally's library reference to replace 794 00:43:15,240 --> 00:43:19,430 them with links to more accessible versions in the library database. 795 00:43:19,430 --> 00:43:22,200 By making equity and inclusion key pillars of 796 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:26,035 the institution Medical University of South Carolina 797 00:43:26,035 --> 00:43:29,555 is really challenging historical notions of disability. 798 00:43:29,555 --> 00:43:34,760 Challenging that deficit orientation and thinking about the unique kinds of 799 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:37,210 abilities that people bring with them 800 00:43:37,210 --> 00:43:40,465 into the learning environment and into the workplace. 801 00:43:40,465 --> 00:43:43,195 Leveraging those diverse perspectives, 802 00:43:43,195 --> 00:43:47,845 diverse abilities to support new kinds of innovation foster 803 00:43:47,845 --> 00:43:54,150 more connected kinds of communities and ultimately build a better patient care community, 804 00:43:54,150 --> 00:43:57,185 a better hospital, a better society. 805 00:43:57,185 --> 00:44:03,180 So thanks again for joining us on the Blackboard Ally tour podcast series until the next 806 00:44:03,180 --> 00:44:11,110 episode connect with us on Twitter at #BbAlly and #BbAllyTour2019. 807 00:44:11,110 --> 00:44:15,750 Thanks so much and see you next time on the road to IncluCity. 808 00:44:15,750 --> 00:44:20,890 Join the tour along with the rest of the Ally community @tour.ally.ac. 809 00:44:20,890 --> 00:44:25,075 You can catch the latest updates on Instagram and Twitter 810 00:44:25,075 --> 00:44:29,190 #AllyTour2019 and listen to stories of inclusion from 811 00:44:29,190 --> 00:44:33,530 our community champions of the Ally Tour 2019 podcast series 812 00:44:33,530 --> 00:44:37,050 available on SoundCloud or on your favorite podcast app. 813 00:44:37,050 --> 00:44:42,400 We'll look forward to seeing you at the next stop on the road to IncluCity.