CLIPP Board

Panopto Lecture Capture Workshop 2011

For those of you not familiar with Panopto, they are a company that make a lecture capture system called “Focus”. At Aston this is also known as Aston Replay. We have used the system now for several years and generally we are very happy with it. So much so that last year we actually hosted a SCHOMS event that was centred around lecture capture, with Panopto invited to talk to the delegates about their product.

Workshop time has come around again and Panopto have organised a “Lecture Capture Workshop” at the University of Birmingham. Members of CLIPP will not only be in attendance but Paul Gorman will be giving a short presentation about some research we have been working on related to Aston’s usage of lecture capture.

Here’s what Panopto have to say about their event:

Location:   University of Birmingham

Date:         Wednesday 19th October

Time:        10.30am – 4.30pm

Register today! (Note that our ‘South’ user day will be held on 2nd November at University of Southampton – if you are interested in this, please contact us here too and we will be in touch)

Networking opportunity for users of Panopto

The University of Birmingham is kindly co-hosting this event with us. It will give users of Panopto an opportunity to discuss technological and pedagogical issues relating to using Panopto’s software and will provide an opportunity for you to network with other universities.

Introduction for those new to lecture capture

If you are a university that is interested in learning more about Panopto’s lecture capture, this event will provide an ideal opportunity for you to hear from other institutions and talk to Panopto about how our platform works.

The day will include talks by Birmingham and Aston universities, as well as product updates from Panopto.

Lunch will be provided and there will be plenty of time for round table discussions. Faculty members who have used Panopto or are interested in it are also encouraged to sign up.

Register your attendance today – email us, confirming the name of your institution, number of colleagues attending, along with their names and job titles.

Once you have registered, we will send you a final agenda and more details. Meanwhile, we look forward to hearing from you and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions.

Lecture capture – doing it well and at scale

Queen Mary, University of London.
June 16^th 2011

Earlier in the month I attended the ALT event Lecture capture – doing it well and at scale at Queen Mary, University of London. Lecture Capture is something that CLIPP has been involved in for three years now; having piloted Mediasite and Echo360, we now run Panopto, branded as Aston Replay for our students, and have it installed in all of our centrally booked lecture theatres.

After brief introductions from the exhibitors, Eoin McDonnell from QMU kicked off proceedings talking about their experiences of rolling out lecture capture, focusing on staff attitudes and anxieties to lecture capture. 13% of lecturers responding to a survey said they were ‘violently opposed’ to lecture capture and of those, 100% had accessed lecture recordings from other universities. Students at QMU viewed the recorded sessions as a backup to the real thing – they still want lectures.

Lecture Capture at Aston, 1980s style

Kris Roger from London School of Economics spoke about how lecture capture at LSE started out with a single VCR as a  response to a request from a lecturer to needing to implement a scaleable solution across the institution. Aston has a long history of using video, meaning we started out with more than one VCR (see right for a shot from the archives).

The next two sessions were people who’ve built their own solutions. Dr. Marco Zennaro and Dr. Enrique Canessa, from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, demonstrated a system that was developed in house at ICTP called openEyA – a  low cost solution running from an Ubuntu based netbook. At the time of writing, they have 7565 recorded hours of physics and mathmatics lectures available to view online. Dr. Neil Berry, University of Liverpool, demonstrated the use of capturing audio and computer screen during a lecture to provide recordings of Chemistry teaching.

Juliet Hinrichsen and Amanda Hardy from Coventry University discussed issues around staff development, and have a wealth of OER available on their website. While we have a lot of support materials available for staff, we don’t have many for students to get the most out of Replay which is something we will address over the summer.

Graham McElearney closed the day by talking about copyright. In a nutshell, if we didn’t make it, didn’t buy it, and it hasn’t been given to us then it isn’t ours to use. There are also limits on what can be recorded, while a lecturer is entitled to show a clip from a TV programme in a lecture room, they can’t record it.

The key thing that I took away from the event is that lecture capture will highlight any weaknesses already present in processes, a common example given was a lack of communication (a decision was took centrally to record lectures, but the first time the lecturers knew was when they received an automatic email telling them their recording was ready). Here at Aston, we don’t centrally control the recordings, we give the freedom to the lecturer to choose what and when to record. The main complaint we get is users have to log in twice to make a recording – once to the PC, and once to the recording software. This is down to the way PCs in our lecture theatres are configured and is something we’re keen to fix.

The Twitter backchannel at events is invaluable, providing extra content and encouraging discussion. I’ve collated some (ok, a lot) of the tweets about the event on Storify, and next time I’m at a similar event I’ll make sure I’ve got a laptop, rather than rely on my mobile phone.

Assorted New Tutorials

I have been fairly busy this summer creating new screen casts for our core supported systems here at Aston. Over the last week or so I have been getting them on-line so here’s some quick links to the new or updated tutorials that I have made so far. If you have any questions about them or requests for other ones then leave a comment on this post and I will see what I can do. Enjoy.

Aston Replay/Panopto

For Staff/Presenters
The following tutorials are intended for any staff or presenters who wish to learn more about how to use lecture capture.

1. Provisioning a Blackboard moduleThis tutorial will show you how to link your module in Blackboard to Aston Replay/Panopto. This must be done before you can record any presentations.
   Watch Tutorial
2. Making a Recording using WindowsTutorial about using the Aston Replay/Panopto Recorder application.
   Watch Tutorial
3. Managing your FoldersThis tutorial will show you how to change the folder settings for your modules. This includes how to manage access, podcasts, student notes amongst other features on a folder by folder basis.
   Watch Tutorial
4. Managing your Recordings\SessionsThis tutorial will show you how to change the settings for your recordings. This includes how to manage access, adding a pdf, edit name and description amongst other features on a recording by recording basis.
   Watch Tutorial

For Students/Viewers

The following tutorial is intended for any students or viewers who wish to get the most out of their lecture capture viewing experience. Staff members using lecture capture are encouraged to put the link to this tutorial in their Blackboard module in a student accessible area. Follow the link to the tutorial, then copy and paste the address into the external link tool in your module.

• Getting the most from your viewing experienceThis tutorial explains how to get the most from the Aston Replay experience, from the point of view of a viewer. It includes accessing content, the web interface, using search, making notes and more.
  Watch Tutorial

EndNote

Introduction
Setting Preferences
Searching The On-line Database
Configuring Google Scholar
Searching Your Library & Smart Groups
Using EndNote With Microsoft Word
Editing A Style Template

Elluminate

Scheduling an Elluminate Session Tutorial

Panopto Recorder On A Stick + FAQ Update

So although Panopto is a great system, one of the previously unavoidable issue we have had with using it was that if we had visiting speakers giving lectures/presentations that we wished to record and they wanted to use their own laptop, we would have to install the recorder on their computer. I feel their is a few issues with doing this.

1. I think its a little intrusive to have to insist on installing a piece of software on someone from outside our institutions laptop.
2. Although its very quick to install, it still takes time that you often don’t have.
3. We have to remember to un-install the software so as not to breach any licensing conditions and maintain the spirit of the agreement, which again can take time, often when a guest speaker just wants to get going.

My colleague Adam read on the support site that we could create some “stand alone recorders” that could be simply plugged into a laptop and the executable run from the stick. All you do to create such a thing is to copy the Panopto Recorder folder (“C:\Program Files\Panopto\Panopto Recorder“), from an installed version of the recorder and paste it to the memory stick.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been trying this out, and with a good deal of success. It hasn’t been 100% successful but every time it works its less hassle than installing the software. The one main thing to remember is that the target computer has to have to have .NET 3.5 sp1 installed. I think there may be some others quirks though, that we haven’t identified yet, as one of the machines it did not work on categorically had the correct version of .NET. This has only happened once though and so I would highly recommend having a go at making some stand alone recorders.

On a different tack but still Panopto related I have updated the Aston Panopto FAQ today in relation to an number of issues, see point 7 and 12.

Aston Students Appreciative Inquiry Research Event

Yesterday student researchers at Aston, from all Schools and at all levels of study, presented results from their Appreciative Inquiry research into Assessment and Feedback and Inclusive Learning and Teaching within the institution.  This project was supported by the Students’ Guild and CLIPP. Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to gaining effective engagement of staff with important issues.  It achieves this through focusing systematically on what the staff are doing well in relation to the issue under consideration.  It is a powerful tool to effect change and often used in business – to make improvements from consideration of existing good practice.

The recruited student researchers attended a workshop about Appreciative Inquiry and its use in Higher Education by Dr Anne Wheeler.  Students worked together to formulate key topics of discussion for the focus groups and interviews with students in their schools of study.

Rehana Yasin Vice President (Education & Welfare) has had a key role in this student led project, we asked her for her views regarding this initiative.

Why is the Students’ Guild using appreciative inquiry?

When campaigning to be elected as Vice President of Education and Welfare I was aware that Assessment and Feedback was an issue at Aston and had been so for a number of years, my predecessors had raised this issue via different forums available within the University, however this did not seem to have a great impact.  When I came into the position I wanted to look at different ways of getting more information about assessment and feedback and after attending the first curriculum and learner development working group it became apparent that Dr Anne Wheeler had a similar interest and introduced the idea of using Appreciative Inquiry.  We felt that two key areas to focus on should be assessment and feedback and inclusivity especially because of the diversity here at Aston and wanted to hear about students positive experiences.

What appealed to me was that Appreciative Inquiry looked at the issue in a more positive way and moved away from a problem focused approach.  Instead of focusing on what wasn’t working and what the causes of the problems are, we are focusing on what is working so we can build on our strengths across all disciplines within Aston.   It was felt that appreciative inquiry was constructive and that staff would be more receptive especially because the data was collected by students themselves and that this would help induce a culture change within the institution.

What does the Students’ Guild hope to achieve from using appreciative inquiry?

The main purpose of this project was to share and publicise examples of good practice at Aston so that others can aspire to be like those schools who are leading the way in terms of effective feedback and inclusive practice.  The data gathered so far is only the first steps in Appreciative Inquiry.  The students have only completed the discovery phase where we appreciate and value good practices.  The rest is up to the staff and we hope that they will help continue with the inquiry through the dream phase; taking part in envisioning ‘what might be’ in their own schools and the design phase where staff collaborate in co -constructing ideas to strengthen their own practice .

The event and presentations were well received by Aston teaching staff and video capture of the event and presentations will be online shortly and further data analysis and the results will be made available online. If you would like to know more about appreciative inquiry or would like Dr Anne Wheeler to run a workshop in your school of study then please get in touch.

Aston Course Cast Tutorials

I have spent the last month or so creating training materials for Panopto’s CourseCast lecture capture product. They are all screen casts that were made using the screen recording software BB Flash Back (which incidentally we have a site license for, contact ISA desktop support for more information). They primarily cover the basics of the system, as our implementation at Aston. Some of the tutorials are specific to how we want to use the system, some are not, so if you are outside of Aston please be aware that not everything in the screen casts will be applicable to you. They are mostly aimed at the staff that will be creating and managing content but I have created one for the users of the content so they can get the  most from their experience. The tutorials are listed below and can be accessed via:

www.aston.ac.uk/clipp/media-learning-technologies/audio-visual/aston-replay/tutorials/

• Provisioning a Blackboard module
  This tutorial will show you how to link your module in Blackboard to CourseCast. This must be done before you can record any presentations.
• Making a Recording
  5 minute tutorial about using the Recorder application.
• Publishing to Blackboard
  A tutorial about how to publish your presentations into Blackboard using the in built tools.
• Publishing & Sharing to Any Location (Basic)
  This shows you a simple way to publish/share your content when NOT using Blackboard.
• Publishing & Sharing to Any Location (Advanced)
  This tutorial will give you some idea of the advanced features in relation to publishing/sharing content and access control.
• Downloading a Presentation
  This tutorial shows how to download your presentation and provide a downloadable version for your students.
• Attaching a PDF
  This tutorial shows you how to attach a PDF to your presentation.
• Getting the most from your viewing experience
  This tutorial explains how to get the most from the features and tools within the lecture capture presentation.
  

You can also find an overview and a FAQ in the staff ICT guides on the main Aston web site.

ps. If you have any ideas for other tutorials for CourseCast please leave a comment below.

Optimizing Classroom Audio for Streaming Online

There is another free webinare this week from Mediasite about ways to record better sound in classroom situations. As we are going through lecture capture pilots at the moment and there are a number of lecturers out there that record the audio of their lectures I thought this may be quite a helpful one. Details below:

“Can you repeat the question?”: Optimizing Classroom Audio for Streaming On-line Instruction.

Tuesday, December 8th | 11:00 – 11:45 a.m. CST.

***Please note that this event takes place 7:00 – 7:45pm UK time.***

For more information and to register head over to the seminar page at Sonicfoundry.com

Campus Technology 2009 Selected Presentations

Campus Technology magazine run a yearly conference, that took place at the Boston Conference Centre July 27th-30th this year. As the name suggests it is concerned with teaching technologies and how they can help lecturers teach students. There are a number of key note speeches, work shops and presentations by people talking about their experience and benefits of using technology in teaching.

This year Sonic Foundry sponsored the capture of the presentations and have made them available on-line. Check out the catalogue of selected presentations.

Below I have highlighted a number of presentations that I think are most relevant to developments at Aston.

Mapping Mediasite Catalogs: Pro Tips for Organizing and Publishing Multimedia Presentations

This webinar is probably of more interest to admins than users. Unless of course you are a user who is really unhappy with the way your admin arranges your media site catalogues. Details below:

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
1:00 – 1:45 p.m. Central

As a Mediasite user, you know part of the beauty of the platform is the automatic publishing to a Mediasite Catalog. But even with that automation, you still have a ton of options – and decisions to make – about how you configure your server folders and online Catalogs.

Sonic Foundry’s John Pollard, Mediasite Product Manager, and Shane Tracy, Director of Event Services and Training, return to the mic to help you make the most of the vast flexibility that Mediasite offers in terms of publishing. If you’ve ever wondered how other users organize their content, and why, this is a presentation you won’t want to miss.

During the session, they will discuss:

• The difference between Mediasite server folders, Mediasite Catalogs and Linked Catalogs
• Suggestions for organizing your server folders with real-life examples
• Publishing strategies using Mediasite Catalogs
• Setting up Mediasite Catalogs and linked Mediasite Catalogs, including sorting and shortcuts
• “Before you start” tips that may save you time (and potential heartache)

Register online at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/webinar/

Diverse2009 – Presentation Recordings

All of the sessions at Diverse 2009 were recorded using Echo360. This post brings together all of the presentation recordings for the Diverse 2009 conference. Anything that has a description in red are the sessions I attended and therefore can recommend.

Keynote presentations

• Carol Skyring
  • Visual communication: from Zoopraxiscope to YouTube
• Obadiah Greenberg
  • Broadcast your university: YouTube and the global classroom
• Jon Baggaley, Claus Knudsen
  • The video-conferencing haves and have-nots: an online conversation between Professor Jon Baggaley and Dr. Claus Knudsen

Masterclasses

• Alison Walker, Stuart Henderson, Maldwyn Jones
  • Models of good practice in video conferencing for learning and teaching
• Mark Childs, Imran Ali, Nigel Thomas
  • Using lecture capture systems

Pedagogy and assessment

• PA1: Geraldine Jones, Gabriele Edwards
  • Student digital media productions, take 2: assessment choice
• PA2: Carla Cornelissen, Ruth Romijn
  • The use of video in an interactive learning environment
• PA3: Jeroen Bottema, Tom Visscher
  • Video reflection in digital portfolios
• PA4: Hans Bronkhorst
  • Training distance learning tools at a distance
• PA5: Yvonne Crotty
  • The importance of assessment for learning when creatively using digital technology and web 2.0 technologies in a research based masters programme
• PA6: Eduardo Perez
  • The pedagogical role of asynchronous communication in face-to-face and distance education: a comparative study
• PA7: Palle Qvist
  • Video exams and the external examiners: results from a questionnaire
• PA8: Alena Hradilova, Libor Stepanek
  • The use of videoconference recordings database in academic writing classes
• PA9: Maria Hadjipavlou, Chris Comber
  • Video conferencing in initial teacher training: does it make any difference in the construction of student teachers’ pedagogical knowledge?
• PA10: Clive Holtham
  • Achieving the potential of web-conferencing:  lessons from media synchronicity theory
• PA11: Koos Winnips, Gert-Jan Verheij
  • Didactic models for the use of videolectures
• PA12: Roy Williams, Regina Karousou, Simone Gumtau,
  • Beyond text: interactive and collaborative reflective practice
• PA13: Mark Hoeksma, Ries Sieswerda
  • Learning from practice to improve practice in various African cultures
• PA14: Tricia Thorpe, Jane Williams
  • How should we create video resources to enhance teaching and learning
• PA15: Bruce Nightingale
  • Much Ado About iPods: digital literacy and teaching Shakespeare

Tools and content oriented applications

• TC1: Dov Campbell, Kyle Beatty, Dan Crowley, Mary Fran Torpey
  • Strategies and tools for successful video-based projects
• TC2: Frans Ward, Ivo Reints
  • SURFmedia & SURFmedia Core: platform, architecture and features
• TC3: Mark Childs
  • “I just don’t get it!” structuring learning in immersive virtual worlds
• TC4: Erik Boon
  • Zoep: the engine
• TC5: Stephen Hull
  • Improving the quality of visual media in education, or anyone can make a movie
• TC6: Jan T.Goldschmeding
  • Zoep: all your streaming content is only one click away
• TC7: Paul Bonnett
  • The JANET Videoconferencing Service – milestones and new VC features for UK education
• TC8: Ton Uffink, Hans Maier
  • The use of an interactive screencasts
• TC9: Sophie Alder & Carl Flattery
  • Symbiosis (learning science through dance and learning dance through science)
• TC10: Michael Liebe, Mathias Fuchs
  • Ludic interfaces
• TC11: Johan Oomen
  • Video Active: European television heritage online

Projects and cases: implementation and sustainability

• PC1: Olaf Schulte
  • The Opencast Communit
• PC2: David Seume
  • iPhone: cool tool for learning?
• PC3: Jean-Marc Dubois, Agnès Larcher, Philippe Isidori
  • WebTV and strategic development: an opportunity for our University Media Centre
• PC4: Margunn Rommetveit
  • The student as a facilitator in group based video conferences
• PC5: H. Lori Schnieders, Sheila Buckingham
  • Using Skype for supervision of distance field placement with counseling and pre-service student teaching graduate students
• PC6: Hana Katrnakova
  • Communication technologies and acquiring academic and professional
    communication skills: an interactive learning infrastructure and new methodology
• PC7: Deborah Arnold, Catherine Demangeon
  • Prolonging the enjoyment of light: VITRA and the contribution of audiovisual media to virtual training in glass art
• PC8: Kristi Jauregi, Lex Hermans
  • Video web- communication and 3D virtual worlds: two distinct environments which may contribute to enrich academic contexts for teacher training and foreign language learning and teaching programs
• PC9: Stewart Nixon, Catherine Chambers & Nicholas Watson
  • iTunes U at The Open University: developing an editorial framework and scaleable production workflows: a case study for an online platform
• PC10: Mathias Fuchs
  • Virtual knowledgespaces

People and technology: societal aspects

• PS1: Sally Reynolds, Mathy Vanbuel, Nikki  Cortoos, Helle Meldgaard, Ciaran McCormack
  • Results from the 2008 MEDEA Award
• PS2: Tess Maginess
  • Mentalentity: a preliminary evaluation of a film-based mental health project with rural men
• PS3: Grant Barclay
  • Video: a fairy godmother in adult education?
• PS4: Maria Hayes
  • Drawing with light
• PS5: Tim Boundy
  • The cultural and educational use of the JANET Videoconferencing Service by UK museums, galleries and archives
• PS6: Rudi Knoops, Sandy Claes, Veronique Vandekerchove
  • Enhancing the educational experience of a museum collection