Meet a Digital Usage Manager
Let me introduce myself, Thomas, I’ve been in charge of digital education in a Parisian university for a few years. My job is not very well known and yet it is very interesting! As the person in charge of digital uses – or NICT manager – my main role is to identify new technologies, habits and uses of the web and digital in a company, a media, an entity. Here, a university. NICTs are the new information and communication technologies. It is therefore my responsibility to check the contents and to organize their distribution on the different media made available to students by the university’s pedagogical teams.
My job as a digital usage manager
In parallel to this main thread, my days are varied, I have several missions around this issue. Indeed, an important part of my job is to stay on the lookout for new digital technologies! Monitoring news but also patents and licenses. All uses of digital technology are concerned: new media and working methods, connected objects, artificial intelligence, dematerialization.
I have to be able to propose changes to the educational content made available to distance learning students. Finally, as in a university environment, not everyone is necessarily aware of these innovations. I help my colleagues to find their way around, and I support them in this implementation and transition.
I love my job because it calls for a wide range of skills: in communication, training, engineering, computer science and research. I am constantly learning and transmitting. It calls on my rigor, my sense of observation, my team spirit and my pedagogical side.
The challenges of my job
My challenge is to make the university educational videos produced and put online accessible to as many students as possible.
I am delighted to be a client of Authôt, their solution meets all my needs! Especially in terms of digital accessibility and subtitling. I explain here how and why.
Expertise in digital accessibility
In addition to training my colleagues, keeping abreast of trends, producing content, there’s a lot of work to be done in terms of digital accessibility. Indeed, we have to make sure that we respond to digital accessibility issues – especially for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. Educational videos must be understood and usable by everyone.
Digital accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing students consists mainly of subtitling in the same language. Contrary to what one might think, this is not necessarily obvious! For my part, I have the look of a consultant, but subtitling requires real expertise and above all a lot of time.
Given the quantity and diversity of our students, it’s not always easy when you’re in charge alone. I needed real external expertise to accompany me.
I know the needs and uses, but managing all the content – and especially adapting it – is another matter!
Subtitles and internationalization
Then, as we welcome more and more foreign students in Paris, I had a real concern about the internalization of subtitles for the videos. We really have students from all over the world, so we couldn’t just subtitle in English. Luckily, as a subtitling expert, Authôt brought us its know-how! True multilingual subtitling: Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish…! Our students who are learning French are relieved! They can continue their studies with confidence. From their home at the moment or at the library or in the university premises… This is a second condition that is fulfilled here.
Digital Uses: Different learning formats
Finally, in addition to the different subtitle formats, Authôt brings us its very useful transcription services! Indeed, depending on the students’ usage, a written transcription from their teachers’ course is an additional training support that can make all the difference!
Indeed, yes, video is a good learning support, but it is even more so when combined with other resources. Not everyone has the same methodology, does not use the same senses to learn and memorize. Some students will prefer video, others will prefer the written word, and others will prefer listening to the spoken word. By providing them with the expert transcriptions done by Authôt, we all gain in time and efficiency! We are sure to contribute to their learning, whatever the chosen form.
Volume Management
With the new government measures to deal with the pandemic, I have to manage a larger volume than usual. Thanks to Authôt, I can delegate certain tasks to colleagues or even students. We have created a working group to manage the large flows as efficiently as possible. Before the subtitles are synchronized, the group can intervene to correct or modify certain elements of the transcription. It’s easy to do, they just needed an account to access the files I uploaded on Authôt APP.
To ensure a pedagogical follow-up, many courses will take place online. And here again, Authôt offers us a solution to meet this need: Authôt LIVE. Courses are now subtitled Live and can even be translated for our international students. The transcripts will be retrieved at the end of the courses and sent to the whole promotion.
I think that for those in charge of digital uses, those responsible for digital, pedagogical, distance learning, Authôt is an excellent choice for their content! I highly recommend their complete expertise!
Authôt. Vous parlez. Nous écrivons.