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.

Professor’s ‘yawn’ rant offers a lesson in viral video

Even if lecture capture technology isn't used in a classroom, a student could record an embarrassing moment on a cell phone.

Cornell University Professor Mark Talbert’s search for a student who yawned during class was first seen by about 200 students. The recorded rant had been viewed 218,000 times on YouTube as of press time—and educators say it’s a reminder that anything said in a lecture hall these days can be held against you in the court of viral video.

Talbert, a senior lecturer in Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, was recorded in a late October lecture searching the hall for a student who had yawned loudly in the middle of Talbert’s presentation.

Talbert asked the more than 200 students to identify the person who had yawned, adding that the “overly loud” yawning had become too frequent.…Read More

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Online learning official: Video lectures help students ‘review, review, review’

Moloney said more UMass Lowell classrooms will have lecture capture systems soon.
Moloney said more UMass Lowell classrooms will have lecture capture systems soon.

Jacqueline Moloney wants college students to do less transcribing and more listening.

Moloney, executive vice chancellor and head of online learning at the University of Massachusetts Lowell campus, has overseen an effort to make lecture capture technology a standard feature in the university’s classrooms, along with a host of other technologies that can be tailored to fit instructors’ preferences.

Along with a suite of other technologies—digital document cameras and interactive LCD touch screens among them—about one-third of UMass Lowell’s classrooms have been equipped with lecture capture programs that, Moloney said, let students “review, review, review” by rewinding the video lectures and hashing over complex concepts.…Read More

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Students give video lectures high marks

More than half of students said streaming lectures improved their grades.
More than half of students said streaming video lectures have improved their grades.

College students gave video lectures high marks in a recent survey, although many students supported the technology because it freed up more time for napping and hanging out with friends.

And three in 10 said their parents would be “very upset” if they knew just how often their child missed class and relied on their course web site.

A majority of students who responded to the survey, conducted by audio, internet, and video conferencing provider InterCall, said they would only attend a live lecture if an exam were scheduled for that day, or to borrow notes from a classmate. The survey didn’t indicate the percentage of students who took this position.…Read More

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