An education in AV technology: the annual EduComm conference covered podcasting, distance learning, and classroom planning

University Business, August, 2006 by Jean Marie Angelo, Tim Goral, Ann McClure

Back at home, students listen to professors' podcasts before coming to class, so that time with other students can be spent engaged in in-depth discussion. "Students even upload podcast presentations and send them to each other before class," Wolfgang explained.

Wolfgang added that good buzz about the program helped to build excitement and encourage people to use the new technology. It helped that David Letterman learned about the program when it launched in 2002 and included some gag material and jokes about it in his Law Show monologue.

Next, Wolfgang and other IT leaders created what they call a community of iDreamers. These are the faculty and staff members who talk regularly about new capabilities and possible productions. The iThinkers group is made up of executives who are aware of the technology. Since excitement for new programs often comes from the top, it is important that this group embrace the technology. "You have to create a positive environment on campus. Someone has to carry the flag," he observed.

Lastly, GCSU has created a new kind of learning community on campus--a virtual one that allows students to bond with each other without having to live in the same residence hall. This group of students meets face-to-face every week for lunch.

Given that the program is now four years old, there are elements that are being tweaked and fine-tuned, explained Wolfgang. GCSU began its program by giving an iPod to each of the IHE's 5,000 students. But there are separate schools and courses that have also provided iPods to students, which means that some students on campus have more than one device. GCSU may switch to a model where students rent the devices are given only to students at a certain level of study.

Captured

"Classroom capture" was a session buzz topic, with presentations from vendors such as Sonic Foundry, Tegrity, and Anystream. The ability to record classroom presentations has come a long way since the days when an AV technician was required to operate the recording equipment. Now, automated systems can start and end at preset times, as well as sense the presenter's location as he or she moves through the room. Its use in distance learning was discussed, as well as its value for student review and teacher evaluation.

Presenters from Temple University (Pa.) showed how Anystream's Apreso Classroom system has made recording and distributing classroom content quick and easy, with automated delivery to the school's Blackboard system, e-mail, and FTP within one minute of end time. Technology-friendly Temple signed on as part of the Apreso pilot program two years ago and now counts on it as a widely used teaching tool, capturing nearly 1,700 hours of class material this year. in fact, Temple's Fox School of Business and Management now mandates "TUCapture," as it is known, for all classes.

Temple has surveyed more than 10,000 students from more than 120 courses regarding satisfaction, relevance, and efficacy of the capture system. The results were impressive: 80 percent believed that TUCapture improved student learning, while 70 percent said it improved classroom teaching. A third of the students said they got higher grades because of the capture system.