Track 3
Alternative Technologies for
Capturing Classroom
Presentations
Nick Laudato, University of Pittsburgh
Mark McCallister, University of Florida
Kevin Abbott, University of Notre Dame
Copyright © 2003 Learning Technology Consortium, Nicholas C. Laudato, Mark McCallister, and Kevin Abbott. This work is
the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational
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A collaborative of nine universities with
common interests and challenges in the area
of teaching and learning with technology
● Indiana University ● University of Delaware
● University of Florida ● University of Georgia
● University of North Carolina
● University of Notre Dame
● University of Pittsburgh ● Virginia Tech
● Wake Forest University
www.learningtechnologyconsortium.org
Framework
Time
Local
Distant
Location
Synchronous
Asynchronous
Agenda
 University of Pittsburgh

Commercial Solutions: Janus, InterWrite,
Tegrity, MediaSite Live
 University of Florida

Low Cost/Infrastructure Flexible-Input Video
Solution
 University of Notre Dame

Low Cost/Infrastructure Manual Solution
 Questions
University of Pittsburgh
Nick Laudato
University of Pittsburgh
 Founded in 1787
 Five campuses
Titusville
 Eighteen Academic
Centers
 Graduate, undergraduate,
professional, and
continuing education
Pittsburgh
programs
Johnstown  30,102 Fall-term FTE
Greensburg
 4,411 full- and part-time
faculty members
Bradford
Janus – Capturing Whiteboards
The Janus Model
Hitachi (Wacom)
LCD Panel
Hitachi
StarBoard
Software
Altinex VGA
Splitter
Janus Deployment at Pitt
Super-Janus: Plasma SmartBoard
Instructional Application: Virtual
Whiteboard
Instructional Application: Screen
Annotations
InterWrite School Pad
 Mobile graphics pad
 Can act as a mobile
mouse
 Enables annotations
on the computer
screen
 Enables virtual
whiteboard
applications
 Uses wireless
Bluetooth
technology
Tegrity
Instructor’s
Desktop
Audio and Video
of Instructor
Pointer
Area for Closed
Captioning
Index Navigation
Tool
A/V Controls
The Tegrity Model
Tegrity Distribution
MediaSite Live
The MediaSite Live Model
MediaSite Live Distribution
Supplementing Tegrity/MSL
Include
VHS/DVD
Video
Integrate
with ITV
Issues and Considerations
 Goal is to capture “live” presentations,
but presenters want to do postproduction edits

Tegrity provides limited editing
 The typical class is too long (2-3 hours)
Limit to from 10 to at most 20 minutes
 Provide instructional designer assistance

 Video/Visual content and accessibility

Tegrity enables closed captioning
Issues and Considerations
 High quality recordings require high
bandwidth

Consider distributing content via CD and
accessing via “off-line content” in Bb
 Some “cognitive overhead” comes with
the technology

Provide an operator to assist instructor
 Budget and/or charge back for costs of
replacement technology and operator
Some Estimated Costs
LCD Touch Panel
VGA Splitter
Video Camera
Copy Stand
Presentation PC
Capture Hardware
Server License
Client License
Maintenance
Janus
Tegrity
MSL
$2,000
$200
N/A
N/A
$2,000
$2,000
$200
$900
$4,500
N/A
$2,000
$200
$900
$4,500
$2,000
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
$14,000
$12,000
$1,700/5
20%
$25,000
$6,000
N/A
20%
University of Florida
Mark McCallister
 Founded in 1853
 Located in Gainesville
 Seventeen Colleges
 Graduate, undergraduate, professional,
and continuing education programs
 34,000 Undergraduate students
 13,000 Graduate students
 3,700 full- and part-time faculty members
University of Florida
 Conversion of introductory Statistics and
Writing to streaming-lecture format
 Other streaming courses at UF include:
Business undergraduate and graduate
courses
 Engineering courses
 Many individual courses and individual
components

University of Florida
The Classroom
 34-seat
table/chair
classroom
 Data projector,
camera, wireless
microphone, document
camera, computer
University of Florida
 The Courses

STA 2023: Introduction to Statistics


ENC 1101: Introduction to College Writing


2300 students in Fall 2003
1339 students in Fall 2003
ENC 1102: Argument and Persuasion

657 students in Fall 2003
University of Florida
 The Logistics
Output format from classroom is NTSC video
 Transmit across campus by fiber or tape for
encoding/streaming at remote site
 Transport tape to TV station for playback
 Post-production or not is choice of instructor

University of Florida
 The Delivery
Residence Hall Cable
 Local Cable TV
 On-Demand Streaming

University of Florida
 The Costs

Classroom ($12,500 total)
Projector ($4000)
 Camera on fluid-head tripod ($800 to $3500)
 Computer with video-out ($1000)
 Document Camera with video-out ($2000)
 PIP Video Switcher ($1000)
 Monitors for Instructor and Camera Operator
($500)
 Wireless microphone ($500)

University of Florida
 The Costs (Transport
Mechanisms)



Analog fiber: $2700
plus fiber cost
MPEG-2 codecs:
$18,000 or less per
pair
Staff to transport
DVCAM tapes
University of Florida
 The Costs (Logistics
and Servers)

Logistics


Personnel, including
camera operator,
encoding technician
- $2500
Streaming Servers

Racks, switches,
RAID arrays, NAS
and streaming
servers - $27,000
University of Florida
 The Benefits & Savings
Reduced large lecture hall usage
 Students have on-demand access to
lectures
 90% of statistics students choose to watch
online
 Makes it possible to spend effort on lab
sections and discussions

University of Notre Dame
Kevin Abbott
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
 Founded in 1787
 Located in Notre Dame, Indiana
 Five Colleges
 Graduate, undergraduate,
professional, and continuing
education programs
 8,000 Undergraduate students
 3,000 Graduate students
 1,600 full- and part-time faculty
members
The Notre Dame Approach
 The Notre Dame Approach allows those with
small budgets or a need to quickly capture a
class the ability to do so easily with little or no
infrastructure and experience required.








Asynchronous learning, both Local and Distant
Low-cost
Manually intensive
Flexible
Easy to learn
Primarily for class archival in large classes
No live capture and distribution
Little infrastructure needed
Who Is Using This at Notre
Dame?
 Executive MBA Program


Students only on campus once a month
Needed courses delivered when not on campus
 Physics




International study abroad program
Required course
7 students spread throughout Europe, 6 on campus
Needed same day access to class
 Economics

Archival for large intro classes for review and those
who missed class
What Steps Are Required for
This?
 Record



PowerPoint Narration used for recording
Wireless Lavalier Microphone used for audio input
Mobile Drive used for saving recording
 Process



Save PowerPoint slides as JPEG files
Edit audio files if needed with Sound Forge
Insert slides and audio files into Software
 Output

Serve files through http or streaming server
What Tools are Needed?
 Record
PowerPoint > Record Narration
 UHF Wireless Lavalier Microphone
 40GB Mobile Drive

 Process
For Flash – Flash MX 2004 Slide Feature
 For Windows Media – Windows Movie Maker
 For QuickTime – LiveSlideShow 2.0

How Do You Do This?
Record
Process
Output
How Much Does It Cost?
Summary
Record Process
$ 220
$ 655
655
0
655
80
Flash
Windows Media
QuickTime
Total
$ 875
655
735
Detail
Office XP
$ 150
Wireless Lavalier
330
Mobile Drive
175
Studio MX 2004
$ 220
LiveSlideShow 2.0 $ 50
QuickTime Pro
30
Notre Dame Examples
Flash
Windows Media
http://www.nd.edu/~kabbott/diyexamples/
QuickTime
Questions?
Nick Laudato
Pittsburgh
Mark McCallister
Florida
Kevin Abbott
Notre Dame