Although this was Ball State University's first time entering the Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services (SIGUCCS) competition, it won first place overall in the category of Student Created Promotional Materials.
Ball State received the award for a DVD titled, "This Is TTN" (The TCOM Network). The telecommunications department 450 and 334 classes, taught by Assistant Professor of Multimedia John Dailey and Digital Audio Instructor Rich Swingley, created the DVD with the prospect of using it to recruit new students.
The members of SIGUCCS honor publications for being practical and attractive. The award also focuses on the user interface, or how easy a program is to use.
"It is a promotional, informational DVD for TCOM pre-majors. It is designed to take the place of talking-head style orientation sessions," Dailey said.
The DVD featured a 3-D television set that opens up and lists areas related to a telecommunications major that the viewer can explore. The viewer can then use the remote control to select an area of interest and play video clips. The creation of the DVD took about one year, Dailey said.
"I couldn't believe it when I got the e-mail," Seth Keever, senior telecommunications major, said. "It was a complete shock. We all felt that a lot of things could have been improved. The user interface was an area we felt really could have been better."
Keever worked on the DVD as a junior, and his job focused on combining the 3-D television set with the 2-D element video clips.
"The awards that we receive are affirmation that we're doing something right, but it starts with high quality students," Nancy Carlson, chairwoman of the Department of Telecommunications, said.
A conference in Monterrey, Calif., from November 6 through 9 will showcase Ball State's achievement. Because of budget constraints, it appears only Dailey will attend.
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