Lecture Fail? Long Live the Lecture!

There has been a lot of talk lately on the lecture and whether it is better to flip the classroom and have students watch videos of lecture material and use class time for interaction with the instructor and group activities. Is the classroom lecture dead? You decide.

Jeff Young has posted an enlightening series in The Chronicle where he has challenged students to post videos of what they think of lectures (mostly boring) and challenged faculty to respond, again by posting Youtube videos.

This response from David Miller at the University of Connecticut illustrates how instructors can transform boring PowerPoints into engaging lecture presentations.

True, it takes time to create engaging lectures. Need some help? Contact us at the Office of Academic Technology.

Get Ready for Panopto: Record lectures in class or from your desktop

The Office of Academic Technology is about to offer Panopto, a flexible and easy-to-use presentation capture platform that lets faculty or staff capture, edit, stream, archive and share recordings that preserve critical knowledge.

Register for our Webinar on Friday, February 11 at Noon:

 In the mean time, explore these actual Panopto recordings from several higher ed institutions:
Speaking Tour Series with Closed Captioning: Lawrence Lessig, Founder, Creative Commons, Professor of Law at Stanford University
Panopto sponsored the Sara Fine Institute's hosting of Lawrence Lessig, a renowned author and political activist. This is another good example of the power and utility of integrated, searchable closed captioning.

Interactive Whiteboard Recording: Northwest University
When SBI helped Northwest University outfit their classrooms with interactive whiteboards, they conducted a series of training sessions for faculty so that they could learn how to effectively use the new classroom technology. No one missed the training sessions because they were recorded with Panopto Focus!

	Podium Lecture: Nick Laudato, CIDDE, University of Pittsburgh Nick Laudato introduces the original version of Panopto Focus to the University of Pittsburgh system. This example demonstrates good videography, audio quality and overall high production processes.
	Desktop Presentation: Carnegie Mellon University This is a great example of a simple desktop recording. Professor Lee used an off the shelf DV camera to record an introduction to his incoming students.
	Two Camera / Hi-Resolution Recording: Carnegie Mellon University, Genetics Class Lecture Many professors depend on chalkboards or other non-digital presentation tools, and this is where our our multi-camera, high-definition support comes in handy.
	Focus Case Study: Miami-Dade College Mark Nestor, CIO of Miami-Dade College's Medical Campus, gives an overview of lecture capture technology, including a run-down of Panopto Focus use at MDC.
	How-To Video: Lebanon-Cornwall School District We love this example. It is an innovative use of Panopto Focus to create a quick-and-dirty "how to" for use of projector systems. We use this internally!

University of the Sciences is Going Google!

The University of the Sciences will be rolling out Google Apps for Education soon. This optional resource will give all faculty, students and staff a state-of-the-art communication and collaboration platform to supplement our existing e-learning infrastructure. We will have the ability to share and collaboratively edit documents compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We can create unlimited Wiki websites (Sites in Google parlance) and stream videos from our own private branded YouTube-like site.

All content resides in our own protected domain and will require a login and password. Content is not exposed to the public through search engines.

View this 30 minute recorded webinar to get oriented to the features of this new offering:



Stay tuned for additional posts as we prepare for the official roll-out.

Angel Introduction Screencast Series

Thanks to Eva Agbada, Department of Information Science, J.W. England Library, we can now offer a series of introductory screencast videos on the Angel Learning Management System. You can find links in the Angel Academic Technology Group under Content. The first two dealing with "Getting Started" and "Logging In" are also available on the Angel Home page under Announcements.

Remember for Angel support, use the Access USP Angel Help Desk.

Screencast: Basic Introduction to Angel

View this 30 minute Basic Introduction to Angel:

For help with Angel, visit the USP Angel Help Desk.

Screencast created by Eva Agbada
Department of Information Science
J. W. England Library
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Fall 2009