How MOOCs are evolving with video technology


Crack open most massive open online courses (MOOCs) today and you’ll typically find three things – MOOC course documents (syllabi, eTextbooks, calendars), interactive elements (discussions, wikis, assignments, quizzes), and video lectures.

video-tech-moocs
Analysts predict that by 2016 lecture capture will become as ubiquitous as eMail on campuses.

Video is critical, not only because it distinguishes MOOCs from earlier text-heavy open courseware initiatives, but also because the video lecture is the medium that allows MOOCs to bring a high fidelity in-class experience to massive audiences online.

Yet amid the MOOC hype cycle, the issue of cost-effective video capture has largely been ignored. Most MOOCs remain agnostic on the topic, leaving the video choice to their member institutions.

For many participating universities, this “bring your own video” approach is unnecessarily ratcheting up their MOOC costs.

For example, the University of Pennsylvania recently cited video as one of the top contributors to an $800,000 price tag for developing 16 MOOC courses. European universities at a recent MOOC conference cited similar costs ranging from €30,000 – €50,000 per course.

At these prices, participating in MOOCs at scale could increasingly become untenable for many institutions.

But why has video been such a major component of these costs? The answer lies in the approach many institutions have taken – filming MOOC-specific versions of their lectures in production-quality studios.

These studios require investments in specialized and expensive recording equipment, professional AV and post-production services, as well as additional time and training for instructors.

T.E. Schlesinger, Schramm Professor and Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, proposes a different approach: “Rather than offering a separate ‘online’ experience, we will offer a first-class educational experience that, as a consequence of the technology being employed, eliminates geographical boundaries in terms of student participation.”

The technology that Schlesinger references – lecture capture – is already in use across several thousand universities worldwide, and could provide a straightforward answer to MOOCing at scale.

As with MOOCs, video is the central component of lecture capture solutions. Today, institutions like Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Newcastle, and others are using lecture capture to record tens of thousands of hours of lecture content per semester.

A school the size of University of Pennsylvania could use lecture capture software to record every lecture in every course across its entire campus, effectively creating the foundation for any MOOC course it decides to offer – at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing professional video production.

Beyond cost savings, modern lecture capture systems offer functionality that enhances the MOOC experience for both students and instructors. This includes:

Inside-video search – Lecture capture solutions enable students to search inside lecture videos as easily as they search inside email and documents. This would allow students enrolled in a MOOC to find any word mentioned by the instructor or shown onscreen in a recorded lecture, and then instantly fast forward to that specific point in the video.

Digital notes and bookmarks – Many lecture capture solutions enable students to bookmark points during a lecture and take notes as they watch the video.  These bookmarks and notes are time-stamped and saved as part of the recording, enabling students to return to important points in the lecture at a future time.

Integrated quizzes and polls – MOOC providers often advocate the use of short lecture videos followed by quizzes or surveys to test understanding of a topic and drive student engagement. Some lecture capture solutions allow quizzes and polls to be embedded directly into the lecture recording itself, providing a more integrated experience for instructors to test knowledge of course material.

Live broadcast – Most lecture capture systems enable live broadcasting of HD video and screen capture. This would allow universities to offer some MOOC lectures as interactive live webcasts, in which students could submit questions in real-time to the instructor and their teaching assistants.

Flexible recording – Lecture capture systems are transitioning from the use of specialized AV hardware to software that runs on laptops and mobile devices. As a result, MOOC instructors could record full-length lectures or shorter mini-lectures and supplementary course material from their office, home, or in the field.

Improved viewing experience – Lecture capture systems automatically synchronize instructor video and slides during a lecture, and present them to students in a single interface that more accurately represents what students would see if they were in a classroom.

Some systems also offer the ability to record multiple streams of video simultaneously, enabling the capture and playback of complex lab demonstrations, medical simulations, etc.

Over the past five years, modern lecture capture systems have become an established part of university education, and analysts predict that by 2016 lecture capture will become as ubiquitous as eMail on college campuses.

So as MOOCs continue to evolve in the years ahead, and as institutions look for ways to participate in this new medium, the price of video no longer needs to be an inhibiting factor. For schools that have already implemented lecture capture, cost-effective participation in a MOOC will largely be a byproduct of their existing education technology.

Ari Bixhorn is vice president of marketing for Panopto.

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