Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Recorded lectures help ‘disaster-proof’ instruction at JMU

JMU used Camtasia Relay to create recorded lectures, allowing students to keep on task in case of weather or illness-related disasters.

“Snowmageddon,” the monster snowstorm that pummeled the East coast of the United States in 2010, caused many universities to close their doors for several days, including James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, Va.—but it didn’t interrupt instruction at the school.

Fortunately, JMU had plans in place to deal with disasters, both weather- and illness-related. Two of JMU’s academic centers had developed a resource website for faculty who faced high class absences from a flu epidemic.

“For the flu and weather-proofing site, we created a ‘faculty-friendly’ framework that mirrors the way instructors think about their courses: syllabus, attendance, participation, lecture, group work, assessment, et cetera,” said Karen Santos, executive director of the university’s Center for Faculty Innovation.…Read More

New developments in campus technology: September 2012

Here are some of the latest ed-tech tools featured in the Sept. 2012 edition of eCampus News.

A new way to measure the color brightness of projectors, and a cutting-edge app that can help save lives during campus emergencies, are among the latest developments in campus technology described in the September 2012 edition of eCampus News.

Our September edition is now available in digital format on our website. You can browse the full publication here, or click on any of the headlines below to read these highlights:

New developments in AV technology come into focus…Read More

Dell jumps into lecture capture

Seven in 10 students said using lecture capture helped improve their final course grades.

The proliferation of online courses and the flipped learning model has created demand in higher education for lecture capture systems, and officials at technology giant Dell said July 9 they might be able to meet that need.

Dell will bundle lecture capture hardware and software into its server infrastructure for colleges and universities after partnering with popular lecture-recording company Echo360.

Along with the usual batch of networking equipment, servers, and storage, colleges will now have access to Echo360’s lecture capture system, which is used on more than 500 campuses worldwide.…Read More

Lecture capture remains popular despite controversy, lack of funding

Ten percent of college students said they watched lecture videos more than six times.

Lecture capture technology is thriving in higher education, even after cuts in campus technology budgets and a national political dustup that led at least one university to put severe limitations on how lecture-recording technology could be used.

Campus-based and cloud-based lecture capture systems improved students’ grades, efficiency, and course satisfaction, according to a national survey conducted by Tegrity, maker of a lecture-recording technology known as Tegrity Campus.

The overwhelmingly positive survey results come a year after a conservative media mogul posted lecture-capture video of University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) faculty member advocating violence as a legitimate tool in labor union negotiations. The video, later deemed “highly distorted” by UMKC officials, drew national attention and scorn from a range of conservative media outlets.…Read More

Colleges seek cash for educational technology as budgets shrink

Thirty-five percent of college students said lecture capture technology has improved their grades.

Thirteen states are set to drop higher-education funding by double digits in 2012, the federal stimulus has run out, and student enrollment continues its uptick, forcing colleges and universities to find financially creative ways to fund pricey educational technology such as campus lecture capture systems.

By reclassifying lecture capture technology in a bid for federal money and dispersing the cost of lecture capture systems over several parts of a campus budget, educational technology leaders from colleges large and small are engaged in a kind of budgetary gymnastics to keep lecture capture systems that have proven popular among most students.

The budget-conscious ways to maintain—and even expand—lecture capture systems were detailed in a report published recently by the Center for Digital Education and Tegrity, a company that makes lecture capture technology.…Read More

Online lecture viewers can zoom, pan within videos using new software

Online videos of lectures are an increasingly popular review tool among college students.

New software that allows viewers watching online video lectures to zoom and pan around recorded images could provide an interactive and more cost-effective alternative to current lecture capture technology as college campuses move to make recordings of classes available online.

Developed by Stanford University electrical engineering professor Bernd Girod and his team of students, ClassX software allows viewers to zoom in to watch the professor write on the board or pan out to see the full classroom.

Read more about lecture capture technology in higher education……Read More

Smart phones driving lecture capture growth

Eighty-five percent of students say using lecture capture made studying 'somewhat or much more effective than normal.'

Viewing replays of a professor’s lecture anytime, anywhere on a smart phone has ballooned lecture capture use in higher education, as recent surveys show the technology remains popular on campus.

Watching and re-watching lectures online has long been among college students’ favorite educational technology, and making those recorded class sessions available via smart phone has led to a jump in lecture views, according to research from Tegrity, a leading maker of lecture-capture systems.

Read more about lecture capture technology in higher education……Read More

Lecture capture less popular among competitive students

Seven in 10 said they were “comfortable” with lecture capture.

Lecture capture technology, according to a recent survey, doesn’t let overachieving students strut their stuff in the classroom, and they’re not happy about it.

Student respondents in a Clemson University study of the campus’s lecture-capture use gave the recording technology rave reviews, but among the minor critiques was concern that simply watching a lecture online wouldn’t let students academically preen like they do in class.

Read more about lecture capture in higher education……Read More

Weber State involved in lecture capture purchasing probe

Weber State's RFP for a lecture capture system violated competitive-bidding practices, a vendor alleges.

The Utah Attorney General’s office is investigating Weber State University’s request for proposals (RFP) for a lecture capture system in a case that raises important questions about competitive-bidding practices in higher education.

Lynn Packer, who had hoped to submit a bid for a lecture capture system he helped design, filed with the state attorney general’s office after discovering what he believed to be a bid specification rigging scheme.

Packer believed that lecture capture giant Sonic Foundry was working with university employees to ensure that the RFP could be fulfilled only by Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite platform through the use of “kill points.”…Read More