May 2006 IT News

During summer term 2005, Instructional Media Service (IMS), a part of the Office of Information Technology, collaborated with the Technology Assisted Curriculum Center (TACC) on a pilot project in video streaming. Working with the U's Communication department, IMS acquired digital video segments of student presentation assignments in a Communication course. The segments were encoded and streamed to Communication students via WebCT, an online courseware system, through TACC. The project was well-received by both the course instructor and students.

In autumn semester 2005, IMS and TACC provided streaming support for two courses — one for the Communication department and one for the School of Business with a total of 11 sections. Again, feedback from faculty and students indicated that having the assignments available through WebCT allowed students to view their individual or group presentations and to review other materials easily and on their individual schedules. Faculty indicated that more students actually viewed their assignments.

Typically, IMS would consider this level of use very good growth for a new service. However, in spring term, the collaborative efforts between IMS and TACC expanded even more markedly to include courses for Math and Mechanical and Chemical Engineering as well as Communication and Business. Sixteen sections in eight separate courses used streaming to deliver instructional assignments to students.

During the course of the 2005-2006 University of Utah academic year, nearly 700 students accessed more than 8,000 clips which totaled more than 220 hours of material. The materials included student performance assignments, recorded demonstrations and other course materials.

Several events were also streamed for campus and community access. These included lectures for the Frontiers of Science lecture series, the Leakey Foundation Lecture and several events for the Office of Diversity, which were encoded for video streaming on the Office of Diversity web page.

Late in spring term, podcasting was added to the streaming services. It allows audio and video content to be downloaded to video iPods.

IMS is preparing for streaming media growth by continuing to increase the number of classes and events streamed each semester as those requests are presented.  IMS will continue to work with TACC and the Marriott Library to develop additional delivery methods (i.e., podcasting) within the currently used management system.  IMS is also part of the campus Media-on-Demand committee and is working with the Committee to establish campus best practices and resource sharing procedures.

For more information or to discuss streaming options, contact Tyler Smith, IMS Classroom Services Manager, at 5-7134 or .