NC State Receives Three Awards at 2010 Rich Media Impact Awards Ceremony

At Sonic Foundry’s 2010 Rich Media Impact Awards ceremony on April 15 in Madison, Wisconsin, North Carolina State University was named a finalist in two categories and won the Prolific Use Award. Sonic Foundry’s sixth Rich Media Impact Awards, an annual recognition of excellence in the practical and creative integration of Mediasite in business, education, health and government, recognized NC State for the great accomplishments they have made using  rich media webcasting. NC State was the first organization ever to be named a finalist in more than one category. Sonic Foundry (www.sonicfoundry.com) is the global leader for rich media webcasting and knowledge management, providing support for more than 1,600 customers.  Its patented Mediasite webcasting and content management system quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of rich media presentations that combine audio, video and accompanying graphics for live or on-demand viewing.

Members of the Mediasite user community nominated organizations for their achievements in improving information accessibility, cost savings, efficiency and productivity through Mediasite. This year’s finalists join more than 100 organizations from around the world that have been recognized since 2005.

“The impact of this awards program becomes increasingly evident as our customers put stronger rich media programs into place year after year. Each nominee is to be commended for their achievements, particularly in light of these uncertain economic times,” said Rob Lipps, executive vice president of Sonic Foundry. “Initiatives like these are instrumental in creating a culture of learning, and we are proud to honor them and their accomplishments.”

NC State’s Rich Media Impact Award nominations were a collaborative effort between DELTA and their campus partners involved in instruction using Mediasite.

Prolific Use Award Winner
Recognizes an organization that has dramatically scaled its rich media program to achieve broad deployment across its enterprise, or a large number of presentations or presentation views.
Launched as a pilot in fall 2004, Mediasite was used as a tool for capturing and delivering Distance Education (DE) course content at NC State.  The technology caught on quickly and currently almost 600 presenters have recorded over 10,000 presentations. Statistical data indicates these presentations have been accessed over 205,518 times during the last academic year. During the first two months of 2010, we have seen over 60,000 views, which will put us on pace to exceed our number of views in 2009.  Initially, we hoped to use rich media to augment DE courses, but found rich media could be merged seamlessly into overall content delivery. Due to positive feedback from faculty and students across campus, the demand to use rich media for lecture or content capture on campus continues to grow each semester.

Excellence in Education Award Finalist
Recognizes a higher education institution that enhanced learning and outreach through rich media.
Due to Mediasite’s ease of use, faculty members at NC State are excited and eager to use rich media to record and enhance their courses.  The use of Mediasite in these courses makes students feel as if they are in the classroom and provides a more interactive and personal learning experience. We are excited when faculty members are able to use a tool like Mediasite to solve many objectives in their course. To hear how the faculty at NC State is using Mediasite in their courses, please review the nomination.

Government Award Finalist
Recognized a local, state or federal government initiative that implemented rich media for training and outreach.
The College of Engineering is excited about the work they are doing with military depots across the United States and supporting our troops overseas. With Mediasite, they have been able to influence knowledge and learning throughout the world as we fight wars.  They have been working with colonels, majors and generals on a course on continued improvement for the Institute for Defense and Business.   Without this technology, the College of Engineering would not be able to present rich media to soldiers around the world.

View an on-demand webcast catalog of the finalist submissions.

About Rich Media

Rich-media Webcasting makes it easy for you to share your multimedia presentation online, either live or on demand. The live presentation is streamed directly to the attendee’s desktop. You are able to participate in the presentation as if you were there – see and hear the speaker, view the presentation, ask questions and take polls.

The on-demand version of the presentation allows viewers to participate at the time that is best for them – 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The viewer is able to see and hear the speaker, viewing the presentation as if he or she attended. The chapters feature lets viewers quickly navigate through the presentation to view only the sections that are of interest to them.

A rich media webcast presentation, either live or on demand, provides a wider reach, reduced travel and downtime, increased retention, increased morale and lowered cost. For more information on webcasting, or on using Mediasite in your course, please contact Laura Stephenson.