TCL takes top honors in worldwide digital content competition

Content ‘fixes’ will make information more accessible to students

The Technical College of the Lowcountry has won first place in a worldwide digital content competition designed to make information used in educational settings more accessible and inclusive.

TCL faculty and staff took home the top prize after participating in the “Fix Your Content Day” – an online competition held Oct. 3 that had participants from educational institutions around the world racing to adjust as many course files as possible within a 24-hour period.

The annual competition encourages educators, instructors and staff “to improve the accessibility of online course content, enabling students of all abilities to access these valuable resources,” according to a news release issued by Anthology, the Florida-based company that hosted the competition. Participants used the company’s digital tools to make the changes.

“Making content more accessible is a win for all students, not just those with an identified accommodation request,” said TCL Online Course Coordinator Rick Ernest, who led TCL’s team for the competition.

TCL staff members worked collaboratively with their local Blackboard users group, which included USC, in Columbia. TCL staff members made 1,316 “fixes” to its content beating out other participating colleges from around the world.

“As a small institution, sometimes it feels like we don’t have the resources or time to make big changes,” said Ernest. “I think that the recent efforts made by our TCL faculty during the competition shows that we can make big changes when we focus on a common goal.  Our team may be small, but our impact is much bigger.”

TCL’s participants included Curtis Bolden, Kelli Boniecki, David Bustamante, Rick Ernest, Natiema Fuller, Latesha Smith, Jamella Taylor and Steve Thrift.

Altogether, the contest saw a total of 41,000 fixes to content, Anthology reported.