eLearning

Lecture Recording Enhancement 2017

Duration: 
January 2017–December 2017

The University of Queensland currently uses Echo360 for lecture recording. Echo360 is moving to a cloud-based offering, and UQ will therefore be upgrading to the new cloud-based Echo360 solution for summer semester 2017/2018 and beyond.

What’s new?

Most existing features will remain with lecture capture and personal (desktop) capture functionality; however the new system also includes user interface improvements, and reporting tools to measure student engagement before, during and after the teaching activity occurs. 

  • Instructor dashboard providing detailed stats regarding student activity and engagement with the delivered material;
  • Content management system to facilitate sharing of content between teaching staff, including tag and search functionality.
  • Improved personal contextual notes for students within the presentation;
  • Improved student bookmarking of content;
  • Improvements to the current peer to peer Q&A.

Guides for the new and improved features will be made available on the tools page.

Personal Capture: For staff using PCAP, an updated version will be required after the cut-over to the new system.  Staff using centrally managed computers will be able to access this new version via the software centre.  Instructions for downloading PCAP for other devices are also available in the instructor guides.

How was the change communicated?

Regular eLearning Update articles regarding the change, benefits of the new system and Echo360 guides available:

How will I access lecture recordings?

The new system will be integrated into the existing lecture rooms in the same way as the existing lecture recording solution. The lectern functionality will not change.

Lectures recorded using the new system will continue to be automatically linked within the Blackboard course site. There will be some small workflow changes to the way in which instructor’s access lists of recordings. More information about these changes is available in the eLearning lecture capture guides section.

Previously recorded material on the existing system will remain accessible to staff and students until the end of 2018, in line with eLearning procedure 3.80.06 Availability and Archiving of Concluded Course Site Materials in Blackboard. Course Instructors can link to these recordings in their current course, but are advised to download recordings they wish to keep or re-use from the existing system and upload it to the new system throughout the year. 

Guides will be made available for this on the eLearning guides page.

Testing summary:

Starting in semester 1 2017, 10 lecture theatres were equipped with new recording machines, operating alongside the existing system. The current system is still being used by Instructors and students, however the new machines are testing the recording, upload and playback quality of the cloud service, as well as integration with Blackboard and other UQ systems. In semester 2, further testing will take place to align Syllabus Plus with the recording devices, as well as documenting the changes to the application, and ensuring the Blackboard integration remains as similar to the current system as possible.

Between November 19 and 22, prior to the start of summer semester, all 255 existing devices in use throughout UQ will be cut-over to the new system, for use in summer semester and beyond.

Training and Support

Throughout semester 2, eLearning Systems and Support will begin to develop guides and training modules for staff, to accommodate the change in interface and the additional features. These will be available on the eLearning webpage guides.

Deployment of new system in Summer Semester

Cut-over to the new system will begin on November 19 2017, so that summer semester courses will be the first to experience this new service. Summer semester is a low risk deployment due to lower user numbers. For example, summer semester 2016 had ~150 courses and ~3400 unique student Blackboard enrolments, whereas semester 1 2016 had ~1720 courses and ~44,656 unique student Blackboard enrolments.

Thus, deployment in summer semester allows for a stronger support response for Instructors who require it and allows the eLearning Systems and Support team to identify common issues and FAQs to assist in the broader deployment for semester 1 2018.

While change is expected to be limited, eLearning Systems and Support will communicate Instructors to offer support in using the new system. All instructors will be contacted directly and provided with links to guides and support resources.

Contact

For questions about the Lecture Recording Enhancement Project, please contact Elizabeth Wardrop in eLearning Systems and Support.