Recently, I had the chance to spend a couple days Down Under with an inspiring group of people using video and Mediasite in creative and practical ways. The very first Mediasite Australia/New Zealand Summit brought together more than 50 enthusiastic Mediasite users to share and collaborate around how video is transforming their organizations. With the Gold Coast as our backdrop and Southern Cross University as our gracious host, this group readily shared their ideas and best practices. Here’s a glimpse of how these individuals and Mediasite are changing the educational experience and everyday workplace across Australia and New Zealand.
Bringing the Operating Room to Surgical & Medical Students
Dr. Andrew Renaut, surgeon and surgery professor, founded VideoSurgery 10 years ago to provide surgical trainees, medical undergraduates and health professionals live and up-close access to surgical procedures without compromising patient quality of care in the OR. With Mediasite, operations are live streamed to VideoSurgery’s secure website. VideoSurgery also provides video webcasting services for surgical conferences.
Uniting a Nationwide Workforce
Tony Hill & Charlie Reid are responsible for the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ digital media infrastructure that supports 3500 staff across 10 ABS locations. With a growing push for ABS staff to be able to work remotely or from home, video and Mediasite have become a cornerstone to keeping everyone connected. This includes all of their L&D and training content, staff presentations and promotional videos as well as live broadcasts which consistently draw 1000+ viewers.
Moving Beyond Flipped Learning with Young Bilingual Students
Piata Allen and Mark Dashper at University of Auckland are pioneering video use with primary grade students of a bilingual program where core subjects taught in both English & Maori. Bypassing the typical flipped model where teachers create videos for use outside the classroom, they opted to give video creation tools, in this case My Mediasite, straight to the students. In Maori, students record short videos explaining what they are learning which supports self-reflection and language improvement, enables peer- and teacher-review and allows them to share their success and progress with family.
Turning Massey University Faculty SMEs into Stars
Matt Alexander and Massey’s National Centre 
for Teaching & Learning team are shifting the school’s focus from the technical aspect of capturing course content to mentoring faculty in their preparation and delivery techniques to create more engaging content. Proven best practices of storyboarding, scripting, using props and embracing the 6-minute learning nugget have elevated Massey subject matter experts to faculty stardom.
Scaling Reliable Video Capture Campus-Wide
Ashley Fisher at the University of the Sunshine Coast and Michael Assim at Southern Cross University both demonstrated strategic and practical approaches to scaling lecture capture on their campuses. By focusing on recording automation, integration with Blackboard and maximum availability, they’ve seen corresponding explosions in both faculty adoption and student use.
