Lessons in Video Web streaming isn’t just for lecture capture. Learn how administrators are using it for everything from public relations to professional development. By Ellen Ullman October 2009

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Professors at Lubbock Christian U wanting to record a class have all of the needed tools at their fingertips.

THIS SUMMER, LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (TEXAS) switched from an internal mail system to using Microsoft Live. Prior to the move, IT Director Robert Smith sent e-mails to the more than 3,000 users, explaining that they would have to archive their e-mail files and then restore them to the new system once it was operational. But Smith did an essential thing to ease the transition—he included a link to the LCU website, where the students, faculty, and staff could watch video instructions.

The first recording showed how to archive e-mails, contacts, and calendar information. Once the new system was operational, Smith made a new video that showed the steps necessary to set up a new e-mail account and import all of the archived content.

“It was a great example of the saying, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words,’” explains Smith. “The transition was much smoother than we could have expected.” Because the school uses Panopto CourseCast to do all sorts of video streaming, it took only a few minutes for Smith to upload the video and audio files. In fact, the IT department received less than 200 help requests, and most of those were from people who did not watch the videos.

It is not surprising that LCU used web streaming to handle this type of task. Higher ed institutions across the country are using online video more and more. While lecture capture has always been the most obvious use of the technology, administrators, faculty, and staff have begun using it to interview job candidates, grade compositions, and preview classes, to name a few applications. Putting videos online—which was once an expensive, difficult, and time-consuming process—has become as easy as pushing buttons.

In the mid-’90s, when people first began streaming video, you could wait 15 minutes for the video to load, and a lot of times it would stop in the middle, replay, or skip right to the end. By the late ’90s the technology had significantly improved, but there was very little content, as the process of digitizing the material was still difficult.

Today, recording a lecture and putting it online is a lot easier. Sonic Foundry, Panopto, Echo360, and other companies have created systems that essentially automate the entire process. “Professors in a MediaSite room don’t have to do anything special—other than combing their hair and wearing a microphone,” says Sean Brown, vice president of higher education at Sonic Foundry.

Eric Burns, founder and chief technology office of Panopto, agrees: “Our major development goals were to make it blindingly simple and to not impact work styles. We want professors to capture everything that goes on in a class.”

Lecture capture is, of course, only a piece of what colleges can do with this equipment. “Once universities realize the capabilities, they see all the other things they can do,” says Mike Fardon, education vice president of Echo360. When his company signs on a new client, a rep will discuss some of the ways the products can be used. Echo360 says that university clients have been highly creative, especially once they start looking for gaps in staff training, student orientation, and special events.

In September, Echo360 hosted a webinar for Australian universities about continuity planning in the face of swine flu. The webinar encouraged the 25 attendees to use lecture-capture technology for emergency preparedness and other communication efforts.

At LCU, web streaming started as a bit of a lark. “A few years ago, we decided to record the president’s state-of-the-university speech and see what would happen,” says Bill Kopf, director of distance learning. He posted the speech, and an awful lot of people downloaded it. Within a month, Kopf had to increase the size of his server because so many people wanted to try video streaming. “We ended up reworking our budget so we could hire a student to help faculty members make recordings,” he says.

To record a lecture, a professor needs a computer with both Panopto Recorder and Panopto CourseCast on it, plus a webcam. Accredited academic institutions can get Panopto software for free (with support that includes video documentation, how-to information, and help by e-mail or phone). Kopf has a $10,500 prepaid premium support plan including on-site support and training, installation and backup, and other services. “There are times when, for example, a file becomes corrupted or we encounter a software, hardware, or server issue we can’t solve,” he says.

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