video technologies

4 ways to take campus video to the next level


Interactive video quizzes, authenticity, and accessibility are just a few ways campus video can distinguish your institution.

campus-video-nextOnly a few years ago, if campus video was used for more than the occasional film clip in class, it was cutting-edge. In today’s world of flipped classrooms, MOOCs, and student bodies who prefer YouTube stars to conventional media, it takes a little more effort to stand out. What are some ways that educational institutions can take their video strategy to the next level to potentially boost student engagement?

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1.Take advantage of cutting-edge video tools.

If you’re only using static video content as a part of the curriculum, you’re missing enormous opportunities to engage your audience. Don’t limit yourself to film clips and formal lecture capture. Today’s video capture tools make it easier than ever before to create short, informal videos from your desk that can be used to explain assignments, create study guides, and even give feedback to students in a friendlier, faster manner.

Even better, interactive video quizzing will soon make it easy to add questions within a video. Whether as an engagement tool to make sure people continue to pay attention to video content, an evaluation tool to keep you abreast of your students’ actual understanding, or a revolutionary way to create meaningful exams, interactive video quizzes will change the way educational institutions handle campus video.

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2.Don’t limit video to the classroom.

Video’s role in teaching and learning is well established at this point. But increasing strategic campus video usage can help boost efforts across campus, through every department.

Marketing. It’s not just about having one high production value promotional video for your campus this year. Today’s potential students are less impressed by gloss than ever before—what they’re seeking is authenticity. Empower your staff and student body to create videos showing why they’re passionate about their campus. A sincere video shot in fifteen minutes on a sophomore’s phone can sometimes be more persuasive than a beautifully edited production that took weeks and  thousands of dollars.

Admissions. Having trouble getting interviews with far-flung applicants? Consider the video essay as a way to let personalities shine through.

Training and onboarding. Both students and staff take time to come up to speed on everything from new technology to sensitivity training. Reduce the strain on your HR and IT teams by using video for training sessions. Combined with interactive video quizzing, it’s easy to set up mass training courses, on demand.

Alumni and community relations. Video personalizes content the way that text never can. Whether trying to inspire nostalgia in your alumni or keep town-gown relations smooth, campus video lets you give messaging a human touch.

(Next page: campus video tips 3-4)

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3.Make sure your media is accessible.

It’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a need-to-have. While educational institutions are aware of the necessity of ADA/508 compliance, accessibility became even more of a focus after last year’s lawsuits against MIT and Harvard. Too often, meeting accessibility requirements is a tactical operation, with institutions scrambling to create appropriate materials when a student who needs them enrolls in a course. Instead, treat this issue strategically, using automated captioning that can be applied across your video library for a fully-accessible campus.

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4.Get serious about your analytics.

Today’s video analytics make it possible to track exactly who watched which video, and for how long. Drop-off points and completion rates make it easier than ever to tell which material is resonating with the audience, and at what point you lost them. Add in polls, surveys, and quizzes, video becomes a powerful tool for accountability. Who completed their assignment? Which lectures aren’t working? What points are causing confusion? In today’s educational environment, it’s more important than ever not just to succeed, but to prove that you have succeeded. Using video analytics tools can help prove what’s working and improve what’s not.

Standards like Caliper can collect data that can be exported and queried across systems, making it possible to gather and interpret meaningful statistics from all of your ed-tech platforms together. As new releases and products are created, using Caliper analytics will ensure interoperability so you can switch platforms and upgrade systems, and still compare against previous years’ data.

Serious analytics not only helps meet the accountability standards that are increasingly part of today’s educational system, but also offers the kind of predictive analytics that will help identify at-risk students for early intervention. Taking analytics to the next level can lead to better learning outcomes and maybe even improved graduation rates.

Video can be an incredibly powerful tool. Now that educational institutions have mastered the basics, it’s time to raise the bar.

Justin Beck is a VP of Education at Kaltura, an open source video platform which powers video experiences for thousands of organizations across the globe, including some of the largest educational intuitions.

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