What is Vocat?
Vocat is an open-source tool managed by the CTL that allows faculty and students to upload videos, images, or audio files and then assess work qualitatively or quantitatively. Time-stamped annotations allow highly specific feedback on video and audio, discussions provide a forum for more general feedback, and a rubric generator offers the ability to score directly in the app.
Vocat is now available to pilot at other campuses. Funding from CUNY’s OER Initiative is supporting enhancements to make it easier for faculty to identify open media they can use on Vocat, as well as highlighting innovative assignments and lesson plans that use videos, audio and images. See examples below on how instructors are using Vocat in new ways.
To request a course, Baruch faculty should navigate to https://baruch.vocat.io/, and log-in with their Baruch usernames.
Why use Vocat?
Baruch faculty and staff use Vocat for a variety of reasons including (but not limited to):
- For hybrid courses
- Student engagement beyond the classroom
- Online learning
- Asynchronous assignments
- Assessment of multimedia projects
- Public speaking practice
Examples of Vocat Projects
‘An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube’
Adjunct lecturer and the Center for Teaching & Learning’s Digital Pedagogy Specialist Tamara Gubernat used VOCAT in her hybrid course as a way to replicate and extend the interaction with and among students into the online portion of the course. “An anthropological introduction to Youtube” is the video documentation of Michael Wesch’s 2008 presentation at the Library of Congress. Professor Gubernat selected this video as a way to bring students back in time to re-experience the early years of Youtube. The video also serves as a great example of the approach and type of collaborative explorations conducted in the class through weekly “missions”.
To view more details about this open-source Vocat assignment, please see [link].
Resources & Support
The CTL is currently developing a guide to openly licensed media that can be used on Vocat. Please come back soon to take a look at it, along with more sample assignments.
The CTL staff are able to provide the following support services for faculty who are interested in using Vocat:
- Help with course setup on Vocat
- In-person workshops and consultations
- Classroom demos for students
- Assignment design consultations