Elevating Learning at Butler County Community College with EchoVideo
By Mary Jane Pettola, David Kaplan
Community colleges are pivotal in providing accessible education to a diverse demographic. They serve recent high school graduates, working adults, and lifelong learners, all with unique educational needs. However, these institutions often grapple with tight budgets, varied student backgrounds, and struggles with retention and completion rates. Innovative tools like EchoVideo are essential in overcoming these challenges, enhancing learning experiences across disciplines.
Butler County Community College (BC3): A Snapshot
Situated in Butler, Pennsylvania, BC3 caters to around 3,000 students. The college offers associate degrees and certificates in 62 fields, striving to cater to a diverse student body with varied educational goals. To provide both interactive and engaging in-person, hybrid, and remote instruction, BC3 turned to EchoVideo to enhance the courses offered.
Boosting Online Speech Courses
Professor Christopher Bondi, Assistant Professor at BC3, specializes in speech communications. He integrated EchoVideo into his online teaching to enrich students’ public speaking skills. Bondi discovered EchoVideo while seeking supplemental lecture materials for his asynchronous courses. “For the first time in my tenure here at BC3, I was teaching online speech courses. I really [wanted] to offer them some kind of supplemental lecture material,” Bondi explained.
Bondi found EchoVideo to be more than just a lecture recording tool. It allowed him to create comprehensive instructional content that enhanced student engagement. “[EchoVideo] was there, and I learned that this is the platform that we use to record lectures where I can throw all kinds of information on those lectures, publish them very easily, and it’s ended up being a really, really useful tool for me.”
Speeches and Video Go Hand in Hand
Bondi’s instructional approach focuses on guiding students through the speech crafting process using step-by-step tutorials and real-world examples. Assignments range from informative speeches to simulated addresses by historical figures, challenging students to hone their communication skills in various contexts.
“The assignments that they have to do [are] three speeches every semester. They have to craft an informative speech, a persuasive speech, and then a speech that I call the speechwriters speech, where they have to write a speech in the voice of a famous speech maker with regard to a current topic. So, for example, they would take something that’s happening today that’s topical and imagine, for example, what if Martin Luther King Jr. was giving a speech about gun control?… And they have to write the speech as that person thinking what might this person say? So because it’s an online asynchronous speech course, we don’t have the capacity to meet in-person. The course is not designed that way. So what they have to do is they have to record themselves doing these speeches.”
Recognizing the evolving landscape of virtual communication, Bondi prepares students to excel in delivering compelling presentations online with EchoVideo. By incorporating multimedia elements like PowerPoint presentations, images, and audio clips, Bondi equips students with the skills to deliver engaging and professional speeches. “Technology has shown us that online speech making is expanding with our ability to have virtual meetings and presentations. We know that it’s a tool that is useful.”
Learner Engagement Through Video
The integration of EchoVideo has received enthusiastic responses from students. Empowered by innovative instructional materials and Bondi’s expertise, students are eager to develop their public speaking skills in a virtual setting. Bondi’s commitment to continuous improvement ensures students receive a high-quality education tailored to their needs.
EchoVideo Multiplies Instructor Impact
Revolutionizing Economics Education
Not only can EchoVideo serve to deliver course content to both learners and instructors, but it can also supplement lecture material and address learner confusion areas. Gerry Sproull, a former administrator and current economics instructor at BC3, uses EchoVideo to elevate his teaching methods. Sproull uses EchoVideo to teach both micro and macroeconomics online, creating supplemental material to help students grasp complex concepts. “My idea was to put myself into the class, even though I wasn’t going to be in the room with the students. I wanted my personality and my love of economics to come through.”
By recording lectures and providing visual aids, Sproull ensures students have access to comprehensive learning materials beyond the traditional classroom. EchoVideo allows Sproull to ‘insert himself’ into the learning process, making the online experience more personal and engaging.
Flexibility in Content Management
EchoVideo offers unparalleled flexibility in content management. Sproull curates a repository of instructional videos in EchoVideo’s digital library, which can be accessed and utilized as needed. This feature proves invaluable in supplementing classroom discussions with relevant multimedia content, enriching students’ learning experiences. “The EchoVideos I can store in a library or I can store in a class… and then I can go grab them if I want. If in a discussion, a macroeconomic topic would come up in a micro[economic] class, I can go supplement the discussion with a snippet or all of that video.”
Creatively Utilizing Office Hours with EchoVideo
Sproull’s proactive approach extends beyond addressing immediate concerns to anticipating future learning needs. He plans on repurposing underutilized office hours to generate content that addresses key areas of confusion—such as complex topics like elasticity of demand and cost analysis. By preemptively addressing potential challenges, Sproull equips students with supplementary resources to reinforce their understanding of key concepts. Additionally, he improves personal efficiency and ensures that his impact is multiplied for all his enrolled learners.