DECT

Distance Education Captioning and Transcription

Frequently Asked Questions'q' and 'a' image courtesy Flickr user 'larskflem'

What is the Distance Education Captioning and Transcription (DECT) grant?
The DECT represents a commitment by the California Community Colleges to expand access to distance education to all students. Further, DECT provides a means for colleges to promote faculty innovation in the use of audio, video, and multi-media content in distance learning classes. The system’s substantial support for DECT is also a recognition that distance learning is the fastest growing segment of CCC enrollment.   Funding has been authorized by the Chancellor’s Office to aid California community colleges in improving their capacity to serve disabled student populations and, in some instances, the general public, by ensuring the accessibility of aural information.  Services will be provided to colleges through a process whereby the grantee contracts with outside captioning vendors to provide assistance to any community college that elects to use these vendors as well as establish policies and procedures to reimburse colleges that contract these services directly with a captioning vendor not under contract.

Why do you need this funding?

  • To ensure student access
  • To support faculty innovation
  • To support mission-critical technological advancement
  • To comply with federal and state legal requirements

Can we purchase video content with this funding?

  • Funding is available for captioning of videos that are already owned and can be used with telecourses.
  • Funding is not available for purchase of new videos with captions that can be used with telecourses.
  • Funding is not available for purchase of new videos without captions that can be used with telecourses.
  • Funding is not available for captioning of new videos if they do not already contain captions.

The following is a list of new projects that the grant will cover:

  • Hybrid classes (some instructional hours offered at a distance)
  • On-campus classes utilizing distance methods of content delivery as they evolve (e.g., class capture, web conferencing, vodcasting, podcasting, content posted within a Learning Management System)
  • Digital learning object repositories used to collect and make available digitized content; this content could be used by on-campus, hybrid, online, and other delivery methods

Who is eligible for funding?
California Community Colleges offering distance education classes, for either live or asynchronous captioning and transcription.

Are community education or community extension classes eligible?
The DECT grant does not cover community services/continuing education material.   The DECT covers apportionment generating classes only--credit, non-credit, but not no-credit.  Here is language from a legal opinion from the state Chancellor's office regarding the use of DSP&S funds for community services:

"The State funds Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSP&S) to offset the direct excess cost to community college districts of providing such services. However, DSP&S funds can only be used to serve students with disabilities who are enrolled in State supported activities. Therefore, support services for students with disabilities who are enrolled in community services must be funded from student fees or other college resources. While the need for accommodations should be assessed on an individual basis, it may be advisable to establish general policies and procedures for providing support services to students with disabilities in community services programs."

What type of funding is available?
The Distance Education Captioning and Transcription (DECT) program has two funding processes in place—Payment Method A and Payment Method B.

Payment Method A
Under Payment Method A, the college pays the vendor directly and the grant reimburses the college.

We require that you email/fax us the Application and Agreement form along with the Additional Project Courses page(s) (if captioning is for more than one class) and a vendor quote.  Once signatures are in place, we will email back copies with a Project # indicating that the request for funding has been granted.     Please fill out separate applications for each term.

After the captioning/transcription services have been completed and paid for, email/fax the Request for Reimbursement/Payment form with the following documentation (The Request for Reimbursement is an authorization to pay the actual cost invoice on behalf of the applicant college, thus the need for authorized signature.  Signatures on the Application form is to start the project and the cost is an estimate.):

1.       A copy of the vendor’s invoice with Applicant District’s approval initials by each charge satisfactorily completed

2.      A copy of the Purchase Order and/or contract issued, when applicable, to Vendor

3.      A copy of the Applicant District’s payment check to Vendor.

Payment Method B
Payment Method B involves a pre-approved vendor list that is posted at the Foundation for Community Colleges website.  Colleges can use vendors from this list for captioning/transcription work and we will pay the vendors directly through the grant funds. 

We require that you email/fax us the Application and Agreement form along with the Additional Project Courses page (if captioning is for more than one class) and a vendor quote.  Once signatures are in place, we will email back copies with a Project # indicating that the request for funding has been granted.   We will cc the vendor as well.  Please fill out separate applications for each term.

To help save time and streamline the application process, please gather signatures for both the Application/Agreement and the Request for Reimbursement/Payment forms at the same time.  You may email or fax to the DECT Office together.  Please do not fill in amounts on the Reimbursement/Payment form.  The Request for Reimbursement/Payment form will be processed at the end of the project.

After the captioning/transcription services have been completed, the vendor will email the invoice directly to us.  We will then email the invoice to the college and ask that each charge satisfactorily completed be initialed and then emailed/faxed back to us.  If you didn't email or fax the  Request for Reimbursement/Payment form along with the Application and Agreement form, please include with initialed invoice.  Remember:  Leave the amounts portion blank on the Request for Reimbursement/Payment form. (The Request for Reimbursement is an authorization to pay the actual cost invoice on behalf of the applicant college, thus the need for authorized signature.  Signatures on the Application form is to start the project and the cost is an estimate.)

What kind of reporting do you need to do?
We request that you fill out the End of Term Report form at the end of the semester.  We would like to track the outcomes of this funding.  Accordingly, we ask that you provide us with two sets of data from the classes served.

  1. The number of students enrolled in the class(es) at the start of the term and the number of students enrolled in the class(es) at the end of the term.
  2. Student retention and success rates in the class(es).