One Button Studios
Morgan Tracy
Seminole State College, Sanford/Lake Mary Campus
Supports Student Learning and the Mission of the FCS/AFC:
Often, an underserved need on many college campuses is the availability of space for students to practice and/or record themselves giving speeches or presentations. This is particularly true for students enrolled in general education speech courses, and at Florida state colleges, specifically in regard to students in SPC 1608. Here at Seminole State College, we learned from faculty in the college’s Arts and Communication Department that all students in SPC 1608 (online or face-to-face) are required to record themselves giving a speech to their peers. We also observed that students were addressing this requirement by reserving library study rooms and using their own smart phones, with stacks of books serving as a tripod, to record presentations. Because students were already using library study rooms for this purpose, it seemed to make perfect sense to convert a couple of these study rooms to recording studios to address this need. We knew that if these rooms were supplied with the proper equipment, students wouldn’t have to rely on their own phones and creatively using library materials to capture their presentation and their audience.
Accordingly, in consultation with the college’s Arts and Communication Department and Media Services Department, a suite of technology was acquired to build two of what are called “One Button Studios” (a name borrowed from Penn State University, where this idea originated). One of the studios is at the college’s Sanford/Lake Mary campus and one is at the Oviedo campus. The technology we acquired for both rooms includes an Extron StudioStation, a video camera, a tripod, a microphone, and lighting. All of these items were paid for by an Innovation Project grant from NEFLIN, a regional library cooperative serving public and academic libraries in northeast Florida. Additional technology and facilities items were provided directly by the college, including a computer workstation, a wall-mounted TV (for visual aids such as PowerPoint slides), a physical workstation to store the equipment, and room-darkening blinds. All of the setup work was performed by the college’s Media Services team, with the exception of the installation of the blinds, which was outsourced.
Beyond the obvious impact of enhancing the introductory speech courses at the college, we plan to utilize these studios to assist other departments at the college. We have already had conversations with the leaders of our H.O.P.E. Scholars program (for underrepresented student populations) and our Career Development Center to guide students to the studios to produce short videos. Since installing the studios we have learned that employers are now often asking for short video introductions of job applicants, and the studios provide an excellent resource for our students to produce those.
Marketing, Public Relations or Advocacy Outcome and Recommendations:
Both studios were prepared in late 2018 and fully functional throughout 2019. Over the past year we have been aggressive in marketing these studios to faculty, staff, and students. We have participated in group meetings with faculty members from the Arts and Communication Department, and have also worked one-on-one with faculty from that department and others to demonstrate the functionality of the studios. Several faculty members have expressed great enthusiasm about the value of the studios, and have referred students in their speech
classes to use the studios. Laura Dickinson, a Communication Department faculty member who also coordinates the adjunct faculty who teach SPC 1608, has been particularly passionate about recommending the studios to faculty and students. Prof. Dickinson has
even appeared in a video that the college’s Marketing Department produced in late 2019 about the studios (viewable on YouTube at https://youtu.be/PBbJ1nYAiQo).
Quality of Support Materials
Logistically, students reserve the studios in half-hour increments for up to a total of two consecutive hours by using our LibCal reservation system (software from SpringShare), and this reservation system is available to students on or off campus through the library’s
website, including on mobile devices. When students check in at the front desk to get a key to a studio, they are also provided a flash drive if they wish to save their recordings and transfer those to another device. However, since there is a computer in each studio that is
networked, students may log in using their own profile and upload recordings directly to the college’s learning management system. In each studio we have posted a set of instructions on how to use the technology, which is indeed very easy to use – the idea of the “One
Button” is that one push of a clearly marked button on the small console triggers the camera and lights all at once, and recording may commence.
Innovation or Originality of Idea & Adaptability of Idea When we began to consider this project, our research indicated that no other state college in
Florida had a similar resource. We did discover that the University of Florida had built out a similar room at their Library West, and we took a field trip to Gainesville to learn more about their particular installation. After our own studios were built, we have endeavored to share
information about our own installation process, and we have presented on the development of our studios at regional library conferences. We are hopeful that our example may lead to the creation of similar studios at other state colleges, particularly when it is learned that setting
up the studios can typically be handled in-house by learning technology staff.
Accountability/Assessment of Practice
Although we have only had the One Button Studios for a little over a year, we believe they have already made an impact on student success, particularly in those courses that assign speeches or presentations. Our data reveals that during 2019 the studios were reserved 350
times by 86 unique users, who used the studios for a total of over 336 hours! In addition to directly impacting student success, a wonderful by-product of this project has been a high level of cross-departmental collaboration, as the library has partnered with multiple departments to plan, implement, and promote this valuable resource.