Celebrating Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month 2024: A World of Opportunities

Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month is a reminder of the importance of inclusivity, understanding, and breaking down barriers for those with developmental disabilities.

The 2024 theme, “A World of Possibilities,” focuses on people working together to remove obstacles so everyone can do well and succeed. “‘A World of Opportunities’ – we’re celebrating people and working together to remove obstacles. Our goal is to build a community that’s committed to creating a world where everyone can do well and succeed. Join us in making a world where all kinds of people have the chance to thrive,” the NACDD website states.

“…universities can make an accessible infrastructure campuswide, offer assistive technologies, and promote inclusive teaching methods to create an environment where every student can thrive.”

DDAM encourages awareness, promotes inclusion, and challenges societal norms and biases that may perpetuate discrimination. Dedicating a month to this cause helps facilitate conversations around accessibility, equal opportunities, and the rights of individuals with I/DD. 

Challenges Faced by Those With I/DD

I/DD can take various forms, such as physical, cognitive, sensory, and developmental disabilities. Each person’s experience is unique, highlighting the diversity within the community. These disabilities can manifest early in life and often impact a person’s ability to learn, communicate, and perform everyday tasks.

Living with a disability comes with many challenges from physical barriers to limited access to education and employment opportunities, societal stigma, and others. The impact of these challenges vary depending on the specific disability, its severity, and the level of support available.

Promoting Inclusivity in Higher Education and Beyond

In higher education, Developmental Disability Awareness Month emphasizes the active promotion of inclusivity. Educational institutions should create environments accommodating diverse abilities, ensuring equal opportunities for all students.

For many institutions, this involves investing in a campus and culture that highly values diversity and inclusion. For example, universities can make an accessible infrastructure campuswide, offer assistive technologies, and promote inclusive teaching methods to create an environment where every student can thrive.

In the professional realm, employers are encouraged to actively promote workplace inclusivity by providing accessible facilities, implementing flexible work arrangements, and fostering a culture that strongly values diversity and inclusion.

For more information and resources about Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, visit NACCD online.

Tips for Evaluating a Student Response System in Higher Education

The system, such as the YuJa Engage Student Response System, allows instructors to pose questions to students through surveys and polls. Students respond in real-time using various devices, such as a smartphone or laptop.

When it’s time to evaluate student response systems for your institution, some key considerations include: 

Does it work within your existing technologies?: It’s critical to ensure the SRS integrates with your institution’s existing learning management system (LMS) and other educational platforms, such as single sign-on, the gradebook, and presentation software. This compatibility will help create a smooth experience and provide efficient data management.

“An SRS dashboard should provide robust analytics and reporting features to track student performance and engagement.”

What question types are available?: Look for a system that offers a variety of response options, such as multiple-choice, true-or-false, short answer, matching and clickable image. This flexibility allows instructors to tailor questions to different learning objectives through classroom gamification.

How does the dashboard inform decision-making?: An SRS dashboard should provide robust analytics and reporting features to track student performance and engagement. Look for systems that provide insightful data on individual and class-wide progress.

Does it have other helpful tools?: Does the SRS provide additional features and tools, such as mobile apps for on-the-go engagement, attendance tracking, and gradebook integration? 

Does the platform have a user-friendly interface?: A student response system should have an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for both instructors and students, which promotes adoption and minimizes the learning curve.

Is it cost effective?: Consider the overall cost of implementing and maintaining the SRS. Evaluate licensing models, subscription fees, and any additional costs associated with features or support.

Does it offer support and training needed to make the tool a success?: Look for a system that offers instructors and students comprehensive technical support and training resources. Adequate support ensures a smooth implementation and resolves any issues promptly.

Choosing the right SRS not only enhances student engagement but also contributes to a streamlined and effective learning experience, ultimately fostering a positive impact on both instructors and students.

YuJa’s Commitment to 508 Compliance

ICT is defined as any equipment or system used to create, convert, duplicate or access information and data. Examples of ICT include, but are not limited to:

• Internet and Intranet websites
• Smartphones and mobile devices
• Tablets, laptops and desktop computers
• PDF documents
• Online training, webinars and teleconferencing
• Software and operating systems

Section 508 doesn’t only apply to federal agencies. It impacts any company that does business with federal agencies, including private contractors, financial institutions, healthcare, many legal organizations, and others. 

Section 508 Refresh

In 2017, Section 508 standards were formally refreshed, which changed the scope of what is included in Section 508, making it more inclusive of electronic documents. It also improved synchronization of accessibility standards globally, such as with worldwide accessibility standards like the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

 

YuJa is Committed to Section 508 Compliance

YuJa’s comprehensive technology suite, which is designed to help those who require assistive technology, is 508 Compliant. Videos integrate with standard SRT formatting to allow subtitling and captions.

Other compliance features include:

• YuJa is fully compatible with assistive technologies, including screen magnifiers.
• Video and audio lectures offer synchronized captions through the use of SRT formatting.
• Any video broadcast can be accompanied by a text transcript.
• All scripts, plug-ins and other features are accessible through assistive technology.
• The Video Platform’s Media Management and Media Player support Audio Description, which provides a descriptive narration of visual elements to make content inclusive. 

Assistive Technologies are Audited

To ensure superior quality and usability across a wide cross-section of users, YuJa Inc. engages with independent, third-party accessibility auditors. Part of the audit requirements are using common assistive technologies with the Video Platform including JAWS, Zoom-to-Text, Dragon Naturally Speaking, Windows Narrator, among others. Additionally, every new feature introduced meets or exceeds  VPAT/508 specification requirements.

It is our goal to meet the needs of all students, including those who use assistive technology in a traditional or online classroom. For a Section 508 checklist, visit WebAIM.

YuJa Bridges the Education Gap for Active-Duty Military

Education and Active Duty Military

The United States military supports students who wish to begin or continue higher education while on active duty with tuition assistance and other educational programs for those in the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, and most Reserves. The GI Bill and VA Benefits also are available to help with educational costs no matter the type of degree a student is working toward.

Active Duty Military Students can: 

• Enroll in evening courses on base, provided by local colleges or community colleges.
• Take evening or weekend courses at an institution in a nearby community.
• Take advantage of distance learning opportunities and online learning.

The pandemic has expanded the world of online learning, with many programs now being offered entirely online. This makes remote learning convenient, accessible and flexible even to those with unpredictable schedules, while in-person learning options may vary depending upon where an individual is stationed, their work schedule, and their role in the military. 

Institutions that use YuJa help create distance or remote educational opportunities to support active duty students in meeting their educational goals.

Online Learning for Active-Duty Military

“The pandemic has expanded the world of online learning, with many programs now being offered entirely online.”

Online courses through YuJa allow students to watch lecture captures with integrated multimedia presentations, participate in online real-time discussions, and to connect and collaborate with one another.

To meet the needs of active-duty personnel in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, YuJa offers:

• The ability to watch lectures from any device.
• Features that enable search inside video and to re-watch lecture captures.
• Adaptive bitrate streaming and downloadable content for those with connectivity issues or who don’t have access to WiFi at all times. 
• The potential for instructors or course designers to create flexible, competency-based courses.

Benefits of YuJa’s Cloud-Based Storage Solution

Cloud storage is easily scalable, reliable and on-demand. Designed by engineers, scientists and PhDs with a track-record of deploying large-scale distributed systems, the YuJa Cloud is the nucleus of our Video Platform. Every tool within our products leverages the YuJa Cloud technology to deliver a high impact user experience.

Cloud hosting uses a network of connected devices to save files, documents and other media to a remote database, rather than storing them on a computer’s hard drive, a local storage device or an on-site server that is maintained by the organization. Information is retrieved using the internet.

YuJa’s Cloud-Based Storage Offers Many Benefits

Our cloud-based storage is scalable. YuJa’s cloud infrastructure allows your organization to be responsive to demand, whether that means quickly scaling up or down. Storage can easily be expanded to meet the needs of your institution or organization with minimal additional investment. 

We handle the maintenance. Unlike with local storage options, there’s no need for costly hardware purchases or routine maintenance for your staff. YuJa’s skilled support team cares for your data around the clock.

Cloud-based computing makes collaboration simple, effective and practical. Teams can work together from remote locations and access documents from anywhere.

Hardware failures won’t impact your data. Using a cloud-based solution means that the risk of catastrophic local hardware failures is minimized. Cloud-based solutions offer reliability and redundancy to prevent the risk of hardware failure impacting your content.

Cloud-based storage reduces capital expenditure. Using the cloud makes data storage an operating expenditure. Low subscription costs limit initial capital expenditures, and affordable options allow you to easily store all of your institution’s data.

Built-in redundancy ensures consistent availability of your data. YuJa’s cloud-based infrastructure is deployed in multiple physical data center locations across several availability zones and redundant sub-systems. It may sound complicated, but what it means for organizations is that users can access information any time, from anywhere. 

Cloud-based solutions are practical and sustainable. They require far fewer resources for construction, maintenance, and use than local storage options.

Institutions Trust YuJa’s Cloud Infrastructure

The City University of New York (CUNY), Stanford University, Nevada State and Trent University are just some of the hundreds of organizations in North America and beyond that trust YuJa’s Cloud infrastructure to safely and securely store their data 24/7/365.  

Making the Case for Video: 10 Reasons to Consider Video as an Educational Tool

Consider some of the following benefits of using video technology to teach and train your students or employees.

1. 1. Video improves memory retention of learned material.
      Incorporating video into the learning process makes learning 83 percent more effective over time than text-only learning materials.
   2. Video training reduces overall costs.
      At Microsoft, incorporating video into employee training has lowered the per hour employee training cost from $320 to only $17. Video training materials provide increased flexibility, and maximize the use of trainer or instructor time.
   3. Video enables on-demand learning.
      With video technology, learning can happen on the student, employee or customer’s timeline, not the instructor’s. This limits frustration and increases accessibility.
   4. Video improves accessibility.
      Video technology helps support different learning styles and learners with disabilities, including deaf and hard-of-hearing learners, or English language learners.
   5. Video attracts students, and the market continues to grow.
      Since 2000, the e-learning market has grown by 900 percent. Introducing video technology can generate revenue and reduce costs.
   6. Video provides new learning opportunities.
      In educational or corporate settings, video can help to keep people active, and interested in their field, improving student and employee retention.
   7. Video can be used as part of an integrated strategy with in-person activity.
      Hybrid or flipped learning provides both in-class experiences and video learning to maximize the benefits to learners.
   8. Video goes where learners go.
      With mobile technology, learners can review video content while commuting, at home, or between classes with ease.
   9. Video supports consistent student learning.
      With video technology, students can easily catch up for missed classes or review work for improved understanding.
   10. Video offers added value for all learners.
       Learners can use video to review, but the same video content can also provide information and education for future students.

When learning becomes part of everyday life, institutions, companies, employees and customers benefit. Students excel in their classes. Employees gain new skills and increased satisfaction, and companies see higher revenue. Users have the information they need, available on-demand. Incorporating video into your organization is one of the most effective ways to improve the experience for all of your users.

Remote vs Online Learning: What’s the Difference?

The terminology has caused confusion among students and the public at large, but the main differences lie in planning and preparation for these courses. 

Remote learning:

• This type of education is an “emergency measure used to assure continuity of learning.”
• Faculty must quickly adapt and use whatever tools are at their disposal, even if they’re not designed for educational purposes. 
• This type of education may lack user experience if instructors aren’t trained to use available resources.
• Students may or may not have access to technology and internet connectivity needed to fully participate in courses without institutional technology at their disposal.

Online learning: 

• Online courses are purposefully planned and designed to function in an online environment.
• Technology and tools are selected to support the instruction and to help meet objectives.
• Faculty are trained and supported in their use of online teaching tools. 
• Students only enroll in the course if they have the technology and tools to help them be successful.

During the pandemic, many realized that the flexibility of online learning is a benefit that should be afforded to all students, even beyond lockdowns and emergency situations. To that end, selecting technology to support true online learning is critical. 

Create a Successful Online Course With Tools that Support Online Learning

“Courses and content should be available 24/7, so students can learn anywhere, and using any device.”

For a successful online learning experience, a strategic approach must be taken to ensure: 

Availability. Courses and content should be available 24/7, so students can learn anywhere, and using any device. Offering downloadable documents for offline viewing, adaptive bitrate playback, and delivery that facilitate support across a broad range of devices all will help students and instructors be successful. 

Accessibility. Courses should be accessible to all, including providing accessibility features like closed-captioning, high contrast options, compatibility with screen readers, and adherence to standard accessibility templates and frameworks. 

Interaction. Enabling interaction between the instructor and students, and among learners, is important to facilitate idea and knowledge sharing. Each individual should be able to contribute to the learning process. 

Integration. Learning tools should all work together to support your learning ecosystem. Ensure your solution includes enterprise connectors and integration points for cross-compatibility with your LMS, SSO, and other learning tools. 

Support. Train and support both instructors and students in their online educational journey.

Inside Higher Ed concluded that as institutions work to meet the needs of students, they must intentionally design online learning. “We certainly do not expect all courses to be online in the future, but institutions would do well to support all faculty in leveraging digital learning tools and best practices… To best employ such tools in serving students, institutions will need to rely on thoughtful technology selection, faculty development, instructional design and application of proven frameworks to best ensure quality online learning.”

Effective Captioning Strategies: When to Use AI Versus Human

What’s the Difference Between Transcripts and Captions?

Transcriptions are the text form of an audio file. Transcripts include the words you hear and may also include other details, such as background noises, pauses, or music.

Captions are a type of transcript also includes anything isn’t visual, such as sound effects. Captioning divides transcript text into into time-coded chunks known as caption frames. Time-coded frames typically appear on screen as text corresponds to the spoken words in a video.

Having transcriptions and captions available is especially important for those who have little or no hearing, but it also is helpful in situations where it’s inappropriate to listen to something with the sound on. Students also cited using captions and transcriptions to help them focus, retain information, to overcome audio issues, and in studying for exams.

Both captioning and transcripts are alternative formats that provide users with greater accessibility. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re thinking about whether to use human or AI for captioning and transcription.

Human and AI Each Have Benefits

There are two main types of transcription or captioning services, human and artificial intelligence (AI). Each option has it’s unique benefits, and depending on your needs, both have advantages to consider based on your application. Chances are that your organization will find a need for both services. It’s less “human versus AI ” and more understanding when each will serve a better purpose for your needs at the time.

Artificial Intelligence Use Cases

If you’re in a time crunch, you can’t beat the speed of AI. The software recognizes speech and translates it to text in real time. YuJa’s AI-based automated speech recognition (ASR) provides captions and transcriptions that are 90-95% accurate on live events and on-demand recorded content.

Over time and usage, the artificial intelligence engine continues to learn and improve.

Some companies go a step further to improve accuracy of AI transcription and captioning. YuJa’s automatic captioning accuracy is validated internally with YuJa Product Team staff on a semi-monthly basis. These tests are carried out on various accents, dialects, and regions of the world to determine the accuracy of the software.

When you need a transcription in multiple languages, AI is a great tool. Sending an audio file out for human transcription in this type of scenario would not only be cost prohibitive, but timely. Many professional transcriptionists only transcribe to their native language, so you would need several people to transcribe one file.

If you need multiple language transcriptions, look for a video solution that provides captioning and transcription in a variety of languages, from English, to Spanish, French, German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, and others.

When to Consider Human Transcription

Because humans have the capacity to understand complex information, human transcription and captioning is the go-to choice for accuracy. YuJa Pro Captioning, professional human captioning, provides 99%+ accuracy.

Language is complex. Humans understand this. We know about and can decipher homonyms. We have the capacity to pick up on changing topics, people using acronyms, interruptions, or speakers with regional dialects or accents, and humans can account for those and other language nuances in the transcript.

While human transcription may take longer to generate, it’s less likely that you will have to go back and re-listen to audio to gain clarity after reading the transcript.

Human transcription and captioning also should be considered in other instances, such as when there are several speakers, when speakers have thick accents, or there is a lot of background noise.

Integration is Crucial

When considering human and AI services for your enterprise or institution, it’s ideal to look for a company that integrates with both. That means the organization understands its customers’ each have unique needs and instances in which human or AI transcriptions and captions would better serve them.

The YuJa Enterprise Video Platform integrates with third-party human captioning services for both automated and manual workflows. Our captioning partners provide ADA-compliant (99%+) captioning solutions to YuJa customers. Caption workflows can also be managed and turned on-and-off when appropriate. YuJa currently supports the following providers: 3Play Media, Rev, Cielo24, AST CaptionSync, as well as some region-specific vendors.

FERPA, Intellectual Property Rights and the YuJa Video Platform

FERPA applies to any public or private elementary, secondary, or post-secondary school and any state or local education agency that receives funds under an applicable program of the US Department of Education. 

YuJa is a FERPA Compliant Enterprise Video Platform 

What does this mean for users of the Video Platform? 

YuJa ensures student privacy and complies with regulations outlined in FERPA. While the Video Platform does contain student directory information, students control how that information is seen and accessed. All academic information is available only to the instructor and cannot be freely accessed. Information may be shared only within the guidelines of FERPA.

FERPA rights include:

• The right to inspect and review records.
• The right to have inaccurate records corrected.
• Written permission to disclose student records, except in certain circumstances.
• The right to refuse to allow directory information to be shared.

How Institutions Can Use Information

YuJa allows students to interact safely and securely with classmates in a protected environment and feel confident that YuJa will never sell personal information to third parties.

Examples of appropriate use of student information under FERPA include: 

• Schools can provide information for financial aid.
• Instructors can provide a list of student names for members of the class.
• Professors can provide students with the ability to check their grades through a private interface.

YuJa only asks for information essential to maintain the classroom learning environment, which remains private and inaccessible to others. Even instructors cannot see email addresses or phone numbers and this information is not shared.

YUJA AND INSTRUCTORS’ PRIVACY

For instructors, maintaining FERPA compliance is essential. YuJa supports these efforts while ensuring students’ privacy rights are protected. Instructors can be at ease knowing they don’t have to be concerned with potential violations of FERPA when encouraging student interaction and engagement. This helps instructors create a safe space for student learning.

Instructors may also be concerned about intellectual property (IP) rights. YuJa stores lecture captures, video podcasts and other materials on the YuJa Cloud. The content’s intellectual property rights are retained by the organization and instructor, not YuJa. A secure group has access to the files instructors choose to share, and membership in individual groups is controlled by the instructor or administrator.

STUDENTS AND PRIVACY, IP CONCERNS

Students may worry about their online privacy, including security of personal information and IP. 

FERPA protects privacy by limiting access to personal information. Instructors will have some information, as does the school administration, but in most cases they don’t have the right to share it without permission. YuJa allows students to interact safely and securely with classmates in a protected environment and feel confident that YuJa will never sell personal information to third parties.

With regard to the security of intellectual property, including files, lecture captures, and other material, YuJa stores data in the YuJa Cloud. This is a secure and stable online storage environment with security protections in place. We place security as our highest priority and use world-class primary data centers.

Instructional Chunking With YuJa’s Video Platform

Instructional Chunking at a Glance 

Chunking in higher education is also commonly referred to as micro-lessons. When put into practice, the material is broken down into modules and then broken down once more into lessons, which are typically 5 to 10 minutes in length. These compact lessons are used as a strategy to break down complex information into more digestible tidbits, making it easier to learn and allowing the brain to process and retain the new information. 

Because research has shown that students better learn and retain information that has been broken down through chunking, instructors have embraced the method in their course design. Given the rise of online learning, chunking is especially important, as content has to be presented both logically and progressively for students to excel. 

Chunking With YuJa’s Enterprise Video Platform

Chunking can be used to benefit students at all levels of education. Research by experts at Nielsen Norman Group showed that people prefer content that is logically divided or chunked because the information appears less difficult and easier to understand. 

YuJa’s Video Platform lends itself to many capabilities, but it’s designed to help make learning and instructing easier, including through chunking instructional material. One way to facilitate chunking is through a flipped classroom, which is a blended form of learning where instruction is done at home through video, and during scheduled class time teachers focus on allowing students to gain a deeper understanding of concepts through discussion, group activities and more detailed instruction. Flipped classrooms naturally lend themselves to take the form of chunking, because lessons are typically taught within a shorter time frame than what is seen in a traditional classroom setting. 

Instructors can take the concept of chunking a step further in a flipped classroom by turning what normally would be a passive learning experience into an active or interactive one. Through YuJa’s Video Capture Instructors can:

• Create a video quiz with existing video content;
• Turn their media player into a collaboration space with time-linked, in-video commenting tools;
• Allow students to review, search and annotate video content.

Using Analytics to Inform Instructional Design

YuJa also allows its users the ability to see how effective videos are through the Video Analytics Suite, which provides instructors and course designers a deeper understanding of how their lessons are making an impact on students.

This additional access helps pinpoint areas of concern, and track participation and user adoption using near real-time reporting tools. Data can be filtered based on specific courses, video and users. Additionally, “hotspots,” or areas of confusion are highlighted, along with drop-off points, popular content and more. Administrators, teachers and faculty also can quickly perform data exports, including setting up automated report generation and publishing. 

No matter your educational institution, YuJa’s products aim to simplify the workflow and make it easy for teachers to provide the best learning experience for students.