How Your Education IT Clients Are Using Video
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Education is transforming. Brick-and-mortar classrooms open up to rich media content, subject matter experts, and to one another via technological and pedagogical trends of the past decade. Greater access to the Internet, the explosion of mobile devices, and the appreciation — and even dependence upon — technology is common among both students and educators. Cisco Technologies predicted in 2012 (http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/ciscovideoes.pdf) that video was poised to be the major contributor to this shift, “acting as a powerful agent that adds value and enhances the quality of the learning experience.”
Recently, at “Student and faculty engagement with steaming video: Beyond the hype,” Elisabeth Leonard, executive market research manager at SAGE Publications, presented research conducted by SAGE comparing the ways faculty and students use video. The results were published as a white paper titled Great Expectations: Students and Video in Higher Education.
The SAGE research found that approximately 60 percent of the classroom video use by students is done at the request of faculty either prior to class for a flipped classroom, during class as part of faculty instruction, or after class as a supplement to lecture. Students also reported that they accessed videos voluntarily when they feel a need to supplement a lecture to fully comprehend the material, or when their interest level is heightened and they want more information or a different perspective on the subject.
Students also reported that they use videos to boost practical skills and they often include them in their own presentations. From the faculty perspective, important characteristics of streaming video include access to unlimited, simultaneous usage, ease of use for students and easy integration with online course software. Faculty also would like clarity regarding public performance rights, an aspect of video that confuses many of them. Educators reported using short clips of under five minutes to refocus student attention in the classroom, while videos are often part of the assigned homework for flipped classrooms. Educators also use video to boost media literacy skills and to instruct on practical skills.
Furthermore, streaming goes beyond the classroom. Colleges and universities are also using video to accelerate learning, increase prospective student engagement, improve knowledge sharing, and reduce the cost of doing business. Examples are SUNY ITEC and Buffalo State College, which are using streaming tools to drive effective video strategy.