Video Supplements, Not Disrupts
However, others on campus, especially some faculty, haven’t always been as quick to embrace technology. And that’s completely understandable. The idea of changing the way you teach or incorporating unknown, seemingly complicated technologies can be scary. They might ask themselves, “What if the technology doesn’t work? What if students stop coming to class because they can watch lectures anywhere on their own time?”
These are valid questions, but the reality is that with the right technology, faculty won’t have to change the way they teach.
Fully automated and integrated classrooms with a scalable enterprise video solution, like Mediasite, helps universities reach the tipping point faster in terms of faculty use. Faculty can simply walk into a room that’s already been scheduled to be recorded, they teach, and the video stops at the end of class. Students can watch live or on-demand right in their learning management systems, and they’ll be able to see video of the instructor and supporting materials such as slides.
Bottom line: Students will still come to class. The presence of capture in classrooms creates a natural transformation of the classroom, such that students are engaged, focusing more on what the faculty is sharing versus focusing on capturing everything being shared.
With the pressure of in-class note taking relieved, students are using the videos for review while doing homework assignments and studying for exams. Instructors can also pre-record video lectures for students to watch prior to class (a flipped approach), and class time is then reserved for discussion and collaboration.
Video, or Lecture Capture, Improves Student Retention
According to the Wainhouse Research report, “Streaming and Lecture Capture for Education and Training Market 2016,” authored by Senior Analyst and Partner Alan Greenberg, schools that incorporate lecture capture reported improved retention and grades. At least one-third of the higher education leaders Wainhouse surveyed believe that lecture capture improves student retention.
- Take 16-year-old Luckey Hlatshwayo, for example. He lives in one of the most rural areas of South Africa. He’s one of more than 54,000 students and 3,000 teachers who participate in the Internet Broadcast project at University of the Free State in which schools receive video lectures from qualified teachers. In some schools, pass rates increased to 100 percent! He’s the first person in his family to attend university, and without video technology that would have just been a dream, he says.
- Rosalyn Yorke, a student in the School of Biological Sciences at University of Leeds, says despite her very best efforts, she’s never going to pick up on 100 percent of what a lecturer says during class. Luckily for her, she’s able to review lectures anytime she wants, because University of Leeds has the largest automated lecture capture deployment in the world. She and her classmates say they appreciate the tremendous flexibility having a lecture capture system affords. They’re retaining knowledge better and seeing improved grades.
- Instructors in the University of Florida – Department of Physics run experiments and collect data during lectures so students can see science in action–whether they’re in the lab or watching online. The university created a Lightboard video studio, essentially a glass chalkboard, allowing the instructor to write notes and draw equations while facing the camera, never having to turn their backs on the viewers. Data has shown that students who watch the video lectures before attending class have grades averaging 12 points higher than the rest of the class.
So What Now?
Take a deep breath and step back. Start at the simplest level: Hit record in as many rooms as possible, and watch the change in campus culture happen naturally.
From there, students and faculty will soon become creators, not just simply lecturers and viewers. Video will become widespread. Early success will drive further adoption…and further success.
Don’t feel pressured to over-plan the early days of your video strategy. Plans will become obvious and can be fine-tuned with time once video is moving around your campus naturally. The most important, and perhaps the simplest, thing you can do right now is to just hit record.
Robert M. Lipps is the executive vice president of Sonic Foundry. Lipps leads the company’s global sales organization including oversight of domestic, international and channel sales. He holds more than 20 years of sales leadership, business development and emerging market entry expertise in the technology and manufacturing sectors, including sales and channel management at Adaytum (now Cognos, an IBM company), Esker Software and Best Power (now Eaton Corporation). Lipps has a B.S. degree in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
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