My Mediasite Tools Allow New Opportunities to Record Class Content
While overseas in the Republic of Georgia, Professor and Associate Head in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Greg Byrd used My Mediasite to record lectures and easily upload them for his students to see while in his hotel room many miles away from campus.
According to DELTA Director of Media Production Services Leisa Bolles, “My Mediasite is a suite of tools available to faculty and staff that allows the creation of content, basic editing of the content and easy sharing of the content.” The tools include the My Mediasite Desktop Recorder to allow faculty to record anywhere on a computer or mobile device, My Mediasite Portal to manage content and the My Mediasite web-based editor to perform basic edits before publishing.
My Mediasite became available to all faculty and staff beginning Fall 2014 after a pilot phase that began in January of the same year. In just two years, My Mediasite boasts 23,815 users — with 700 of those being faculty and staff who create content. Nearly 10,000 presentations have been created with 531,631 total views (as of October 2016).
For Byrd, recording content while overseas was very beneficial because he did not have to overload his students with material before he left but could simply record and upload videos through My Mediasite while he was gone. “I could do everything from there [My Mediasite]. I was gone for about a week or so, and it was just great,” said Byrd.
Other professors such as the Director of Professional Development in the Career and Development Center Marcy Bullock are using My Mediasite for a different way to teach their courses.
Bullock is using My Mediasite as a way to engage students and expand upon knowledge already learned during class time. She flipped her classroom so that students watch lectures on My Mediasite prior to coming to class and during class were able to discuss and engage in activities based on the My Mediasite video.
“This gives [students] the added flexibility of being able to do their pre-class work at a convenient time for them,” said Bullock.
In Biotechnology Teaching Professor Carlos Goller’s courses, students are viewing My Mediasite content to review concepts learned in class. “For students, My Mediasite provides yet another resource, another way of receiving and reviewing content,” said Goller. He added he uses My Mediasite videos as a supplement that benefits students.
“My Mediasite to me is a really convenient tool to record either narrated PowerPoints or even entire lessons quickly and conveniently from the office, and I can make them available to my students really quickly,” said Goller.
My Mediasite also gives faculty the ability to upload content that has been produced on other platforms. Any type of animation or flash video previously recorded may be uploaded directly into My Mediasite.
“People who have recorded classes already can upload those lessons into the My Mediasite portal,” said Bolles. My Mediasite gives faculty a safe place to store their content and gives them control of who can access the content. Faculty and staff are able to make certain videos accessible to their students during a specific semester.
A major tool for faculty is the immense amount of analytics received from each video. According to Bolles, professors are able to view how many times a student logged in and watched the videos and if they had to rewatch certain segments.
This knowledge gives faculty the ability to make sure students are really understanding the material. If they see a large number of students rewatched a certain portion of the video, faculty may decide to further explain that material in future videos or lectures. Bolles said, “Once faculty know about the analytics, they are “in” because of all the data they can see.”
For Bullock, the analytics were very important to her because she can see which students are taking advantage of gaining the information. “I can actually look at when they logged in, what parts of the video they found most interesting and spent the most time on and that’s very useful,” she said.
For faculty just starting out using My Mediasite, there are multiple resources for them to learn how it works. According to Bolles, the My Mediasite User Community on Moodle contains video tutorials as well as a full knowledge base and a user forum. The Community gives users access to training materials and also gives administration staff a place to distribute information and news.
The My Mediasite User Community gives faculty a place to ask questions which may be answered by other faculty. It is monitored by administration staff but mostly allows users to communicate with one another and create a sense of community amongst themselves.
Bolles and her team members want faculty to be aware of My Mediasite and its many benefits. “My Mediasite empowers faculty to reach students anytime, from anywhere,” she said.
In the upcoming spring semester, there will be two My Mediasite workshops held between January 4 and February 8.
Related Links:
Bullock and Goller further explain their experiences with My Mediasite
