One But­ton Stu­dio Open in Aca­d­e­mic Cen­ter

MISHAWAKA —The Learn­ing Com­mons, in the base­ment of the Aca­d­e­mic Cen­ter, is typ­i­cally where stu­dents go for study­ing and tu­tor­ing, but now there’s an­other rea­son to visit. On Nov. 28, 2018, the Pi­lot Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio was of­fi­cially un­veiled. 

The Pi­lot Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio is a One But­ton Stu­dio that is avail­able for use by any cur­rent stu­dent, fac­ulty mem­ber, or staff mem­ber. Reser­va­tions are re­quired; to re­serve the stu­dio, visit bethel.my­w­con­line.com. In­di­vid­u­als who have never sched­uled a tu­tor­ing ap­point­ment will need to cre­ate an ac­count but it is free and takes less than a minute to do. Af­ter you sign in, change the de­fault set­ting from “Tu­tor­ing 2018-2019" to “Pi­lot Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio.” Then, se­lect the time you would like to re­serve and save your ap­point­ment.  

In ad­di­tion to any props you plan to use, the only things you need to take with you are your Bethel ID and a flash drive. When you ar­rive, swipe your ID to un­lock the door. Once in­side, sim­ply plug in the flash drive. This turns on every­thing, from the qual­ity light­ing to the pro­fes­sional  mi­cro­phone. 

You can also use the com­puter to dis­play a pre­sen­ta­tion or im­age on the tele­vi­sion screen that serves as a back­drop.  

When you are ready to be­gin, press the “RECORD” but­ton. There is a six to seven sec­ond de­lay from the time the but­ton is pushed to the time record­ing be­gins, so be sure to wait be­fore you be­gin speak­ing. When you are fin­ished, press the “STOP” but­ton and un­plug your flash drive. 

Now you have a high-qual­ity video that is ready to edit or dis­play! 

Rachel Kennedy, the di­rec­tor of the Cen­ter for Aca­d­e­mic Suc­cess, was in­stru­men­tal in bring­ing the Pi­lot Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio to Bethel. 

In the spring of 2017, Kennedy vis­ited In­di­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­sity and had her first en­counter with a One But­ton Stu­dio, piquing her in­ter­est in the pos­si­bil­ity of bring­ing one to Bethel. Later that same year, she and sev­eral IT [In­for­ma­tion Tech­nol­ogy] per­son­nel vis­ited a One But­ton Stu­dio at Notre Dame. Tim Mat­te­son, Bethel’s ed­u­ca­tional tech­nol­ogy man­ager, put to­gether a list of the equip­ment that would be needed and then spent more than eighty hours build­ing the stu­dio in the sum­mer of 2018. 

“It kind of be­came a col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween three de­part­ments: be­tween IT, the Cen­ter for Aca­d­e­mic Suc­cess and Adult and Grad­u­ate Stud­ies, who re­ally needed some­thing like that for their ad­junct fac­ulty... who would be able to record videos and up­load them to Can­vas for on­line classes,” said Kennedy.  

Kennedy is ex­cited to see the many ways that the Pi­lot Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio will be used. Some of its pos­si­ble uses for stu­dents in­clude record­ing videos for class pro­jects, pro­duc­ing an au­di­tion for a job, or par­tic­i­pat­ing in a me­dia com­pe­ti­tion. Fac­ulty may use it to de­velop ma­te­r­ial for on­line courses, record a lec­ture for stu­dents to watch in the pro­fes­sor’s ab­sence, or re­hearse a dis­ser­ta­tion de­fense. Staff may use it to cre­ate videos for stu­dent or­ga­ni­za­tions, cre­ate de­part­ment ori­en­ta­tions for new em­ploy­ees, or stage re­cruit­ment videos.  

These are only a few ex­am­ples of the many ways the Pi­lot Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio can be used, and it will be ex­cit­ing to see how it ex­pands the cre­ativ­ity of Bethel’s com­mu­nity, Kennedy said.