Louisiana Tech University
Challenge:
The 2020 school year during a pandemic looked markedly different for Louisiana Tech University, but campus leaders were confident they had the perfect mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning tools to provide the same quality education its students expected.
A Mediasite user for nearly a decade, the university already had the tech infrastructure in place in the spring during the initial COVID shutdown. But with less than 10 percent of its classes fully online at that time, the university needed to scale up quickly.
Solution:
Fast forward one week and 100 percent of classes were remote-ready, and all faculty received trained on how to use tools like Mediasite’s personal capture software. Instructors used a mix of Mediasite lecture videos and real-time Zoom calls to not only maintain teaching and learning but actually improve student outcomes. Courses took place in a variety of ways including face-to-face, online and hybrid. Instructors created video lessons with Mediasite from their offices or homes for students to watch prior to class. Then, students met in real-time via Zoom for small group, collaboration.
“Tools like Mediasite improve access to education for our students,” said Tom Hoover, CIO, Louisiana Tech University. “We scaled up Mediasite campus-wide within one week in the spring, and it has and will continue to be a great retention tool for students. It creates equity in the classroom and better outcomes for those who have difficulty working in a traditional class environment.”
Louisiana Tech University instructors can manage all their video content in one secure and searchable place in Mediasite. An integration with Mediasite and Zoom lets instructors decide what calls should be sent to Mediasite. The recordings are automatically uploaded into the appropriate course folder in Mediasite alongside their other valuable videos and then distributed to students directly in their LMS.
Plus, the Zoom recordings benefit from the full functionality of Mediasite – accessibility tools like closed captioning and transcription, robust search, video and caption editing, anytime and anywhere publishing, interactivity tools to track viewer engagement and back-end analytics.
“Being able to automatically and easily ingest our Zoom content to Mediasite will let our students access all the educational videos in one common interface. Plus, they can search for keywords in the recorded Zoom files and Mediasite will pinpoint exact parts of the lecture,” said Darrell Eddy, IT Coordinator and Network Administrator, Louisiana Tech.
Results:
Mediasite video use doubled in the spring and summer compared to the prior semester at the university – instructors created nearly 22,000 lesson videos alone during that period. Student viewing data signals that they are heavily relying on Mediasite as a valuable study tool.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen in a month or two but having products like Mediasite is a tremendous help. Instructors can record lectures ahead of time or record a synchronous Zoom call and put it into Mediasite for students,” said Daniel Schales, Director, Infrastructure & IT, Louisiana Tech. “This gives students the option to review the material as many times as they’d like.”
