“Work smart. YuJa Panorama is the smart way to do the heavy lifting of digital accessibility.”
– Dr. Maia Smith, Associate Director of eLearning at South Louisiana Community College
Case study
How YuJa Panorama Streamlines and Improves Digital Accessibility at South Louisiana Community College
Introduction
YuJa Video Platform Goes ‘Above and Beyond’ the College’s Needs
South Louisiana Community College (formerly SLCC, now SoLAcc), a comprehensive community college with nine campuses, is part of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS), which provides strategic management and support for Louisiana’s 12 community and technical colleges. LCTCS licensed the YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform, making it available for all member institutions.
Dr. Maia Smith, Associate Director of e-Learning at SoLAcc, has regular contact with other e-learning coordinators and leaders across the system. She heard about YuJa Panorama Digital Accessibility Platform from colleagues at both River Parishes and Delgado Community College, who have been using YuJa Panorama heavily at their institutions.
50+
Programs
~12,000
Enrollment
1997
Founded
Location
Lafayette, LA
“I knew digital accessibility was an important part of that and I focused heavily on making improvements.”
About the Client
About South Louisiana Community College
Part of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, South Louisiana Community College (SLCC) (formerly SLCC, now SoLAcc) is a comprehensive community college that operates campuses in Abbeville, Crowley, Franklin, Lafayette, Morgan City, New Iberia, Opelousas, St. Martinville, and Ville Platte. SoLAcc serves approximately 12,000 students annually and offers an array of academic programs. Students earn associate degrees, technical diplomas, certificates, and industry-based certifications.
Simplify the Course Audit Process
Improve Course Accessibility
Remediate Issues Proactively
Accessibility Benefits All Students
Instructors Enjoy Total User Support
Course Audits
Course Audits Were a Manual and Cumbersome Process
When Smith began in her role at the college as an e-learning coordinator one of the first tasks she took on was auditing courses against the Quality Matters Higher Ed Course Design Rubric. “I knew digital accessibility was an important part of that and I focused heavily on making improvements,” Smith stated, adding that none of the images in courses had alternative text and aspects like the variability in font and contrast issues were pervasive.
Smith did all of the course audits and updates manually. “We didn’t have any tools to help assess accessibility in classes – just the Quality Matters rubric and going through each individual course, each image, page by page, line by line to check the accessibility by hand,” she explained. She conducted small group faculty training sessions to try to shift the focus for faculty.
Improve Accessibility
YuJa Panorama Improves Accessibility of Course Content
YuJa Panorama is integrated directly with Canvas, which simplified digital accessibility for faculty. “Once we could put a number behind what was accessible and what wasn’t and to break down the issues, it became so much easier and less burdensome to identify and make changes in their courses, which strengthened our relations because it enabled instructors to manage their digital accessibility on their own,” Smith said.
Before implementing YuJa Panorama, Smith said she would have put the institution’s overall course accessibility at less than 50 percent. After integrating YuJa Panorama, it steadily increased to about 90 percent.
Remediate Issues Proactively
Enable Proactive Remediation of Accessibility Issues
Today, Smith said YuJa Panorama helps departments and faculty remediate accessibility issues. The institutional overview provides a quick snapshot to guide efforts. “I can look from an institutional standpoint. I can combine courses, look at departments at a broad or granulated level,” Smith said. “I can see common errors and create additional training, and Panorama eliminated the heavy lifting for me. And I can see all of this in minutes, not weeks or months.”
Instructors are using live captioning, adding alt text to images, creating the right contrast ratios and more to ensure their content is accessible. They’re “striving for perfection,” Smith said. “I think instructors are a lot more confident about their digital content. YuJa Panorama has made their jobs easier by making them aware of what needs to be done and enabling them to do it proactively.”
Student Benefits
Accessibility Benefits All Students
Smith said YuJa Panorama has been integral in making sure instructors and administrators can analyze digital accessibility across their Canvas courses. “It doesn’t ensure we do, but it makes sure we can at any time and make changes with a level of efficiency I’ve never seen before,” Smith shared, adding that she is immensely proud of the faculty for striving to reach 100 percent accessibility across courses.
“Digital accessibility is more than addressing disabilities or students with disabilities. We’re not providing accessibility for one student for one semester, we’re making learning accessible to all people,” she said. “This is Universal Design for Learning, where what’s good for one is good for all.”
Total User Support
YuJa Supports Institutions Beyond Implementation
Smith said she loves the support YuJa provides beyond implementation. YuJa provides 24/7 total user support and training. “My experience has been nothing short of amazing. The customer support we received has helped get us on the right track, maintain where we are in some areas and improve other areas of digital accessibility across our organization with a level of efficiency I’ve never seen before,” Smith concluded.“My experience has been nothing short of amazing. The customer support we received has helped get us on the right track, maintain where we are in some areas and improve other areas of digital accessibility across our organization with a level of efficiency I’ve never seen before.”
Highlights
01.
South Louisiana Community College didn’t have a comprehensive accessibility checker or remediation tool prior to implementing YuJa Panorama.
02.
The institution uses YuJa Panorama to help make Canvas course content accessible to all learners.
03.
YuJa Panorama has helped SoLAcc improve accessibility by approximately by huge margins since deployment.
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