College Project: 2013/2014
1) Briefly describe your College Project and who from the chapter and the college administration was involved in determining it?
Upsilon Pi made a video to promote math tutoring through the Student Success Center on campus. This service is free to all John A. Logan College (JALC) students. Our goal was to inform students of this resource to assist them in completing their math courses and thus be on their way to completing their degrees. To achieve this goal we received help and advice from college administrators including: Dr. Mike Dreith, College President; Kathirave Giritharan, Math Department Chair; Scott Elliott, full time math faculty; Adrienne Barkley Giffin, Director of Student Activities and Cultural Events; Teri Campbell, Basic Skills Specialist; Steve O'Keefe, Director of College Relation; Phillip Lane, Webmaster; John Homan, Coordinator of Media Relation and Sports Information; and Jonathan LeBlond, a video intern in JALC's media department.
The members of Upsilon Pi who contributed are: Anna Buetow, Chapter President; Brandi Husch, Secretary; Europe Doan, V.P. of Public Relations; Ashlee Sander, Fund-raising Coordinator/Treasurer; Ethan Edwards, V.P. of Membership; Kristi Fleming, V.P. of Fellowship; Naomi Buetow, member; Drew Hans, member; Dylan Moore, member; Will Safran, member; Lily Graber, member; and Travis Kempfer, member.
2) Summarize objectives for the College Project and the process by which the chapter and college administration set these objectives.
When members of Upsilon Pi met with JALC President, Dr. Mike Dreith, to discuss how we could better serve JALC, he gave us the challenge of finding a way to improve our college's completion rate of twenty-two percent, with math being the subject in students need the most improvement. We began by searching for a way to assist the math department in taking an active role in aiding students to complete their math courses. We invited two members from the math department, Kathirave Giritharan and Scott Elliot, to a meeting to brainstorm approaches to this challenge. The conclusion to the meeting was that there were already several resources available at JALC, but few to no students were taking advantage of them. From there, Upsilon Pi felt that the best course of action would be to promote a resource that was already established by JALC. Several members were tutors through JALC's Student Success Center (SSC), so we chose that as the resource upon which we would focus. The SSC is conveniently located on the JALC campus and offers three separate programs: Campus Tutoring, the federal TRiO program, and Disability Support Services. Next, we invited Teri Campbell, a basic skills specialist for the SSC, to a meeting to better refine our goal. After brainstorming several different options, it was decided that making a short video advertising the SSC would be the most practical way to raise awareness of the free tutoring offered there.
Creating a video was something that most active members were unfamiliar with. We therefore enlisted the help of the College Relation department. John Homan, Coordinator of Media Relation and Sports Information at JALC, allowed us to have access to the school's equipment and introduced us to Jonathan LeBlond, a video intern for the department. With the filming covered, the next task was writing the script. To begin, we resolved that the video itself needed to be no longer than two minutes to better keep the attention of our target audience. This meant that the dialog needed to be as informative as possible in a short amount of time. 3) Describe the planning process and strategies developed to complete the College Project.
The planning process started with deciding on the overall concept of the video. After brainstorming several ideas, chapter members decided that the video needed to be from the perspective of an average student in a classroom setting. Next, the chapter appointed Brandi Husch as Director and Europe Doan as Assistant Director. Brandi wrote the script and coordinated the filming process with the video intern, Jonathan LeBlond. Anna Buetow secured the classroom we used for filming and Ethan Edwards contacted Scott Elliot to be the teacher for our classroom scene. Ashlee Sanders, Drew Hans, Dylan Moore, and Naomi Buetow volunteered to take on the speaking roles with several other members volunteering to be extras in the classroom scenes. With our deadline in mind, we decided that the most efficient approach to completing the video would be to film all the footage in one day. To do this, organization was a key component, so Brandi Husch and Anna Buetow made a schedule for the day of filming. They used the strategy of recording all the classroom/group scenes first and proceeded to the scenes that had fewer people in them after that. With the advice of our video intern, that we recorded the actors saying their lines separately in order to edit the audio in later and so have a clear and understandable dialog.
After filming was over, Brandi Husch and Europe Doan assisted Jonathan LeBlond with the editing process. The process involved picking out the background music, choosing the best takes to use, editing the dialog in at the appropriate times, adding credits at the end, and uploading the finished video to YouTube and the JALC website.
Now that the video was finalized, Upsilon Pi had to figure out how to get as many students as possible to view it. In order to do that we used three different outlets: 1. Our Advisor, Adrienne Barkley Giffin, had our video played on the closed circuit televisions throughout campus. 2. Kristi Fleming created a flyer that we passed out and hung on the bulletin boards. 3. We asked all teachers on campus to show the video when they went over their syllabus on the first day of class.
4) quantitative and qualitative outcomes of your project, including the lessons learned by your chapter members and others?
As quantitative results, Upsilon Pi's YouTube video has received over four thousand views and it continues to grow. We posted 60 fliers on campus bulletin boards and on common-area tables. In addition, at JALC's “Loganpalooza”, an event promoting different clubs and organizations on campus, we were able to help 40 students physically find the Student Success Center as an activity for which they received a prize.
As qualitative outcomes, Upsilon Pi members were able to obtain new experiences through making this video, including presenting our project to JALC Board Members at a monthly meeting. We also gained support from the SSC's Teri Campbell and she wrote an article about our project for JALC's website. In addition, we received positive feedback from students who had previously never heard of the free tutoring available to them. Those students are now taking advantage of this resource. Upsilon Pi members took on important leadership roles in directing, acting, writing, and presenting the project. Members also participated in fellowship activities as we came together during the writing and filming process. Service was also the underlying drive throughout the project because members wanted to serve JALC and its students in a positive way.
5) What is left undone and what opportunities remain for the future?
Upsilon Pi members had several ideas to further promote our video that are still options for the future, such as possible floor signs with a QR code that students can scan with their smart phones to take them directly to the YouTube video. Members also would like to change the way JALC's standard syllabus describes the SSC to highlight its resources. The chapter also hopes to add sub-titles to the video that is shown on the closed circuit televisions throughout campus to better accommodate students that may not be able to hear the dialog for various reasons.
Upsilon Pi made a video to promote math tutoring through the Student Success Center on campus. This service is free to all John A. Logan College (JALC) students. Our goal was to inform students of this resource to assist them in completing their math courses and thus be on their way to completing their degrees. To achieve this goal we received help and advice from college administrators including: Dr. Mike Dreith, College President; Kathirave Giritharan, Math Department Chair; Scott Elliott, full time math faculty; Adrienne Barkley Giffin, Director of Student Activities and Cultural Events; Teri Campbell, Basic Skills Specialist; Steve O'Keefe, Director of College Relation; Phillip Lane, Webmaster; John Homan, Coordinator of Media Relation and Sports Information; and Jonathan LeBlond, a video intern in JALC's media department.
The members of Upsilon Pi who contributed are: Anna Buetow, Chapter President; Brandi Husch, Secretary; Europe Doan, V.P. of Public Relations; Ashlee Sander, Fund-raising Coordinator/Treasurer; Ethan Edwards, V.P. of Membership; Kristi Fleming, V.P. of Fellowship; Naomi Buetow, member; Drew Hans, member; Dylan Moore, member; Will Safran, member; Lily Graber, member; and Travis Kempfer, member.
2) Summarize objectives for the College Project and the process by which the chapter and college administration set these objectives.
When members of Upsilon Pi met with JALC President, Dr. Mike Dreith, to discuss how we could better serve JALC, he gave us the challenge of finding a way to improve our college's completion rate of twenty-two percent, with math being the subject in students need the most improvement. We began by searching for a way to assist the math department in taking an active role in aiding students to complete their math courses. We invited two members from the math department, Kathirave Giritharan and Scott Elliot, to a meeting to brainstorm approaches to this challenge. The conclusion to the meeting was that there were already several resources available at JALC, but few to no students were taking advantage of them. From there, Upsilon Pi felt that the best course of action would be to promote a resource that was already established by JALC. Several members were tutors through JALC's Student Success Center (SSC), so we chose that as the resource upon which we would focus. The SSC is conveniently located on the JALC campus and offers three separate programs: Campus Tutoring, the federal TRiO program, and Disability Support Services. Next, we invited Teri Campbell, a basic skills specialist for the SSC, to a meeting to better refine our goal. After brainstorming several different options, it was decided that making a short video advertising the SSC would be the most practical way to raise awareness of the free tutoring offered there.
Creating a video was something that most active members were unfamiliar with. We therefore enlisted the help of the College Relation department. John Homan, Coordinator of Media Relation and Sports Information at JALC, allowed us to have access to the school's equipment and introduced us to Jonathan LeBlond, a video intern for the department. With the filming covered, the next task was writing the script. To begin, we resolved that the video itself needed to be no longer than two minutes to better keep the attention of our target audience. This meant that the dialog needed to be as informative as possible in a short amount of time. 3) Describe the planning process and strategies developed to complete the College Project.
The planning process started with deciding on the overall concept of the video. After brainstorming several ideas, chapter members decided that the video needed to be from the perspective of an average student in a classroom setting. Next, the chapter appointed Brandi Husch as Director and Europe Doan as Assistant Director. Brandi wrote the script and coordinated the filming process with the video intern, Jonathan LeBlond. Anna Buetow secured the classroom we used for filming and Ethan Edwards contacted Scott Elliot to be the teacher for our classroom scene. Ashlee Sanders, Drew Hans, Dylan Moore, and Naomi Buetow volunteered to take on the speaking roles with several other members volunteering to be extras in the classroom scenes. With our deadline in mind, we decided that the most efficient approach to completing the video would be to film all the footage in one day. To do this, organization was a key component, so Brandi Husch and Anna Buetow made a schedule for the day of filming. They used the strategy of recording all the classroom/group scenes first and proceeded to the scenes that had fewer people in them after that. With the advice of our video intern, that we recorded the actors saying their lines separately in order to edit the audio in later and so have a clear and understandable dialog.
After filming was over, Brandi Husch and Europe Doan assisted Jonathan LeBlond with the editing process. The process involved picking out the background music, choosing the best takes to use, editing the dialog in at the appropriate times, adding credits at the end, and uploading the finished video to YouTube and the JALC website.
Now that the video was finalized, Upsilon Pi had to figure out how to get as many students as possible to view it. In order to do that we used three different outlets: 1. Our Advisor, Adrienne Barkley Giffin, had our video played on the closed circuit televisions throughout campus. 2. Kristi Fleming created a flyer that we passed out and hung on the bulletin boards. 3. We asked all teachers on campus to show the video when they went over their syllabus on the first day of class.
4) quantitative and qualitative outcomes of your project, including the lessons learned by your chapter members and others?
As quantitative results, Upsilon Pi's YouTube video has received over four thousand views and it continues to grow. We posted 60 fliers on campus bulletin boards and on common-area tables. In addition, at JALC's “Loganpalooza”, an event promoting different clubs and organizations on campus, we were able to help 40 students physically find the Student Success Center as an activity for which they received a prize.
As qualitative outcomes, Upsilon Pi members were able to obtain new experiences through making this video, including presenting our project to JALC Board Members at a monthly meeting. We also gained support from the SSC's Teri Campbell and she wrote an article about our project for JALC's website. In addition, we received positive feedback from students who had previously never heard of the free tutoring available to them. Those students are now taking advantage of this resource. Upsilon Pi members took on important leadership roles in directing, acting, writing, and presenting the project. Members also participated in fellowship activities as we came together during the writing and filming process. Service was also the underlying drive throughout the project because members wanted to serve JALC and its students in a positive way.
5) What is left undone and what opportunities remain for the future?
Upsilon Pi members had several ideas to further promote our video that are still options for the future, such as possible floor signs with a QR code that students can scan with their smart phones to take them directly to the YouTube video. Members also would like to change the way JALC's standard syllabus describes the SSC to highlight its resources. The chapter also hopes to add sub-titles to the video that is shown on the closed circuit televisions throughout campus to better accommodate students that may not be able to hear the dialog for various reasons.