CIT Accomplishments and Plans - Computing at Cornell - Cornell ...

15
Online Videos of Classes
and Seminars
Campus has seen increasing interest
in methods to easily record classes
and seminars and then distribute
them online with minimal processing .
In response to this interest and to a
supporting initiative by FABIT, CIT, and
the College of Engineering, a classroom
capture pilot project was implemented .
A classroom video capture
system (Echo360) was installed in
four differently sized and designed
rooms, where it recorded a variety
of lectures . The pilot team evaluated
the system, usage by presenters,
support requirements, post processing
required, usability of output, end-user
audience experience, and the overall
need for automated classroom capture
technology at Cornell .
In the case of a seminar series in
Upson, which included presentations
by candidates applying for jobs at
Online video classroom
capture lets students watch the
instructor and presentation at
their own pace .
Cornell, automated video recording
was very valuable . The recordings
were critical for faculty to have an
opportunity to review candidates
even if they weren’t able to attend the
seminars . Students in Dr . Pat Cassano’s
Nutritional Epidemiology distance
learning class (with Weill Cornell
Medical College) came to expect the
recorded lectures and would ask for
them to be posted online .
The ECHO 360 was used mostly for
seminars and colloquia . Recording
could either be scheduled or started
manually, and the output was
automatically indexed, enabling
viewers to skip to a particular part of
the presentation . Faculty and students
were satisfied with the quality of the
recordings for lectures .
Despite a generally good reception
from faculty and students that used the
system, demand for classroom capture
did not increase throughout the pilot .
As a result, the project will continue to
be evaluated to determine if broader
campus deployment and support of an
automatic classroom capture system
is worth the investment to Cornell at
this time .
From left, John Pfleiderer, Greg Bronson, and Tom Every
demonstrate classroom capture technologies .
cybertower.cornell.edu
CyberTower Updates
Improve Experience
Faculty Support Services worked
in conjunction with the School of
Continuing Education and Cornell
Adult University to launch an improved
CyberTower, the online link to Cornell
faculty and their research . In response
to user interests, CyberTower has been
redesigned with simpler navigation,
and technological upgrades such as
closed captioning, video that can be
viewed full screen without loss of
quality, and other new features .