Carleton’s Kevin Cheung, professor of Mathematics and Statistics, has devoted a portion of his career to solving a common problem for teachers. He wanted to find a way to complement and augment his regular teaching practice with online video tutorials that would help his students understand the often complex course material.
It was important that the students could see the work he was doing on a computer without having to contend with an over-the-shoulder camera view or clunky software interfaces. Not seeing any plausible options, he set out to develop the tools he needed himself.
The result is YASC, a teaching and presentation app for Mac OS X that puts teachers in the driver’s seat. The program, pronounced “why ask,” allows teachers to display and teach content from any computer application in a simple and elegant way.
“When I started the project, I was just hoping to write something for myself,” said Cheung. “But as I was progressing, I realized I could turn it into a nice package that other teachers could use. Judging from the response so far, it’s worth getting YASC into more hands.”
While alternative software solutions do exist, YASC eliminates many technical hurdles. The program allows users to choose exactly what they want to display. With powerful annotation features designed for real-time use, teachers are finding that presentations and lectures can be incredibly smooth.
“My hope is that YASC will further stimulate the development of quality teaching tools by commercial software companies and the open source community beyond what is currently being done,” said Cheung.
The application is currently available for free to all Carleton employees and students through the Educational Development Centre. For more information and a number of tutorials on how to use YASC, click here.
For more information:
Chris Cline
Media Relations
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
christopher_cline@carleton.ca
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