Podcasts and Form Tutorials

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Podcasts and Form Tutorials

• UCSB Financial Aid Office

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Goal

• Move towards a more customer service driven
  website
• Integrate media
• Generation Y
• Readily accessible
• Accommodate to different learning styles
• Entertainment and a personal touch
• The familiar voices of our Financial Aid Office
  staff and peer advisors
• Reach out to a wider audience
• All multimedia presentations are available in
  English and Spanish

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Functionality

• Our form tutorials and podcasts were designed
  with the financial aid application process in
  mind
• Help students and parents navigate the sometimes
  long
• and confusing forms
• Avoid returning incomplete forms
• A medium to help organize financial aid
  information

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Form Tutorials

• The form tutorials provide visual and audio
  instructions for our most difficult worksheets
• Dependent Verification Worksheet
• Independent Verification Worksheet
• Parent Asset Verification Worksheet
• Parent Income Clarification Worksheet

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Form Tutorials

• Software
• Adobe Acrobat Professional
• Program designed to view, create, and manipulate
  files in Portable Document Format
• Adobe Captivate
• Program used to author software demonstrations,
  simulations, and branched scenarios in Shockwave
  Flash format
• Hardware
• Microphone

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Form Tutorials

• Process
• Convert forms into .pdf format
• Use Adobe Acrobat to make forms interactive
• Develop script
• Use Adobe Captivate to record screen shots of
  form being completed
• Turn off spell-check to avoid red squigly lines
• Record audio and integrate into video project
• Add visual effects and edit timing
• Closed Captioning
• Create a border and play bar that matches your
  website
• Publish

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Form Tutorials

• Time Commitment
• There is a learning curve
• Allow a couple of hours every other
• day for a few weeks
• Some Tips
• Recycle your audio
• Get a sense of the timing before recording audio
• Get a quality microphone
• Find a quiet room with a door
• Record in the morning while your coffee is still
  hot!

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Podcasts

• Gauchocasts deconstruct and organize the
  financial process, from filing the FAFSA to aid
  disbursements
• Filing the FAFSA
• The Verification Process
• Requests for Additional Documents
• Types of Aid
• Federal Loans
• Accepting Federal Loans
• Disbursements

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Podcasts

• Software
• Adobe Illustrator
• A drawing program
• Adobe Flash
• Adds animation and interactivity
• Windows Moviemaker
• Audacity (or other audio editor/recorder)
• Other Resources
• Microsoft ClipArt
• Kevin Kelly - Sound Editor
• Michael Muranaka Art and animation
• Scott Brandos Music and lyrics
• SIST web development

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Podcasts

• Process
• Break down financial aid process
• Outline information for each session
• Set the scene
• Develop script
• Auditions
• Rehearsals and editing
• Final recording
• Sound editing and
  effects/music integration
• Add visual slides
• Publish

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Podcasts

• Time Commitment
• Script time varied depending on
  length and
  topic
• Rehearsals a couple of days
• Recording half a day in studio
• Visuals a couple of days
• Animation a few weeks
• Spanish Translation
• Audio and text translations
• Desembolsos
• Used FAFSA, financial aid references online and
  English to Spanish dictionary

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Benefits

• Staff collaboration and teamwork
• Creative outlet
• Reduced document return rate
• Website Hits
• 7373 hits to Gauchocasts
• 4001 hits to Dependent Verification Worksheet
  tutorial
• 1736 hits to Independent Verification Worksheet
  tutorial
• 350 hits to Spanish Dependent Verification
  Worksheet tutorial

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Benefits

• Website survey comments
• Tutorials
• These make filling out forms very easy
• Thank you for doing this. These are great
• Gauchocasts
• They are funny, but very informative
• I learned a lot more by watching these than I
  would have by reading something else
• Very clever. I think you will be able to get a
  lot of students to watch these

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Whats New at the UCSB Financial Aid Office?

• Updates to current projects
• FAFSA Simplification Project
• Researching new technology and communication
  mediums
• Short audio messages to students
• Video announcements
• Campus radio station commercials

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Questions?
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Contact Info

• Ron Andrade ron.andrade_at_sa.ucsb.edu
• Michael Miller mike.miller_at_sa.ucsb.edu
• Paula Reese paula.reese_at_sa.ucsb.edu
• Jami Dow jami.dow_at_sa.ucsb.edu
• Jason Valencia jason.valencia_at_sa.ucsb.edu
• Lisa Goto lisa.goto_at_sa.ucsb.edu
• Michael Muranaka mgmuranaka_at_gmail.com