LAST JANUARY, MICHAEL Wesch, assistant professor of anthropology at Kansas State University, created a great audiovisual illustration and explanation of the power of Web 2.0 technologies. Produced in the basement of his house, this video was only 4 minutes and 31 seconds.
Once it was uploaded to the online video sharing website YouTube, "Web 2.0: The Machine Is Us/ing Us" became a hit in days. This video has been watched more than 2.8 million times around the world.
"My video created great connections for myself and the university," said Wesch in an online webinar he gave last June. More specifically, its success resulted in extensive national and international media coverage, donations to the KSU anthropology department, as well as broad and intense interest in the program from students and faculty around the nation and the world. "It has transformed the image of what is traditionally seen as a little agricultural college," concluded Wesch.
Amazing for a video produced with a free screen casting application, don't you think? While Professor Wesch's success story might not be easy to replicate, it definitely shows that the power of online videos can be unleashed by institutions of higher education without huge production or promotional budgets.
WHO'S WATCHING
With the rise of broadband internet users, watching videos has become a favorite pastime for millions of online browsers.
According to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive in December 2006, 74 percent of adult web users have watched online videos on websites such as YouTube, ABC, CNN, Yahoo, Google, and MySpace. The proportion increases to 85 percent for the traditional college student demographic, users aged 18 to 24. The same poll found that 32 percent of YouTube users spend less time watching TV as a direct result of their online video viewing habit.
More and more higher ed institutions are regularly producing full-fledged online video programs.
Is it a passing fad? An August 2006 report by In-Stat, a technology research firm, indicates otherwise. The report predicts the number of households watching online videos worldwide will grow from 13 million in 2005 to 131 million in 2010, a growth fueled by the adoption of broadband internet in 413 million households worldwide by 2010. Beyond these statistics, the multiplication of online video initiatives in colleges and universities proves the medium has finally come of age.
DUKE ON CAMERA
While most institutions have been posting a limited number of online videos created for other distribution channels (e.g. television, VHS video) for a while, more are starting to launch full-fl edged online video programs produced on a regular basis.
Since its redesign last April, Duke Today, Duke University's website featuring the daily roundup of campus happenings, has included "Duke on Camera," which lists available video stories produced by the News and Communication Office. "We noticed that videos were among the most popular 'top story' features on the old site," explains James Todd, writer and producer in charge of these videos at his institution. Duke has dramatically increased its capacity to find and produce videos over the past few months and is currently releasing a video per week.
Last fall, in the aftermath of the media storm around the lacrosse team alleged rape case, the university's news team started to look into YouTube as a new way to reach potential applicants.
A story came along that seemed to be a perfect test case-Duke's engineers had built a prototype "cloak of invisibility." This had some Harry Potter overtones, but it turned out that the story, ironically, hinged on something visual: the pattern of microwaves moving around a cylinder, remembers Todd. Once the video was shot, it was uploaded on October 19, 2006, to Duke's channel on YouTube, which had been created for the occasion. "Within 24 hours, the video was viewed more than 20,000 times," recalls Todd. With more than 89,000 views as of late June, "Invisibility Cloak Findings at Duke University" is definitely a YouTube success story that also highlights the quality of the research work taking place at the university.
