Xiamen University Malaysia acted fast to keep its classes going in the face of the Coronavirus (now called COVID-19) outbreak. The university last week chose Mediasite as its preferred blended learning solution for about 2,000 students in China. Its 200 professors will create online lectures with Mediasite.
Sonic Foundry International’s office in China has been working with regional colleges and universities on lockdown where students and professors inside and outside of the country are required to stay at home and not able to return to school.
These schools are using the personal capture software My Mediasite to let professors record lecture videos from their home offices and stream them to students. This spans the time, distance and space constraints that are dramatic factors when outbreak preparedness is introduced on today’s scale.
Other institutions, like a university in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China that is a long-time Mediasite user, are going 100 percent online. For at least the next few weeks, all 800 of its professors from around the world (half do not live in China) will use My Mediasite to create lectures for 140,000 students to watch in their Moodle learning management system.
These universities are among the many turning to online lectures as part of their pandemic and academic continuity planning to avoid the spread of the disease between and beyond campuses. According to a Fortune article “How is China experiencing the coronavirus outbreak? Almost entirely online,’ China’s Ministry of Education has directed all schools to “stop classes, but don’t stop studying.” Students are turning to online tools to continue studies.
[Also read: Fortune: For universities that have come to rely on China the Coronavirus poses an unprecedented risk]
Online learning has a tremendous ability to help classes continue running with minimal interruptions and minimize the impact of absences and closures. As faculty create these online classes, they’ll build a repository of on-demand educational videos to deliver to students in their homes, accessible anytime.
We are glad to be a part of institutions like Xiamen University Malaysia’s outbreak preparedness plan, helping keep virtual doors open during this difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the situation.
Additional reading:
Coronavirus Outbreak: Public Health Announcements for the Masses
Coronavirus Outbreak: The Show Can Go On with Online Events
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