Accordent Chosen by University of Northern Iowa for Campus-Wide Lecture Capture Platform
Accordent Capture Stations used for undergraduate and graduate education and grant-based K-12 programs with NSF and DoD. The University of Northern Iowa has selected Accordent Technologies to provide a campus-wide automated lecture capture system that enables students and K12 teachers to meet academic and certification goals by playing back course content from their Internet-connected computers. The system enables professors to easily create and deliver online multimedia materials to help students review important concepts presented during class or keep up with studies when missing a lecture is unavoidable
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) October 26, 2007
Accordent Technologies today announced its selection by the University of Northern Iowa for a campus-wide automated lecture capture system that enables students and K12 teachers to meet academic and certification goals by playing back course content from their Internet-connected computers.
The system, which included an initial roll-out in classrooms at the College of Natural Science, Sociology and Behavioral Sciences, and the College of Education, enables professors to easily create and deliver online multimedia materials to help students review important concepts presented during class or keep up with studies when missing a lecture is unavoidable. Faculty are also using the system to capture student presentations, in addition to having students come to class having already watched and listened to the course content. In the latter case, faculty can then use class time for a variety of other interactive activities.
The Accordent Capture Station integrates with projectors, document cameras, control systems and overhead projectors in the classrooms to enable the automated capture and online publishing of video synchronized with visuals presented during lectures. Materials are published to the University of Northern Iowa intranet and also made available within the campus WebCT/Blackboard learning management system where students can easily replay them by clicking the Web link.
"With Accordent, we've taken a traditionally difficult and complex process of capturing, encoding, synchronizing and publishing video, PowerPoint slides and jpeg images to the Web -- and simplified it so it's very easy for professors to use without our assistance," said Rick Seeley, Instructional Technology Research and Development Manager, University of Northern Iowa. "No one has to touch the system; instructors simply log on to a Web page, type in the class name, and the system does the rest."
The Accordent rich media lecture capture platform also is used to support a variety of grant-funded programs designed to extend learning opportunities in advanced subjects for the nation's Pre-K12 school teachers. These include a program funded by the National Science Foundation offering K12 instruction and certification in the University's renowned Center for Education in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.
Teachers watched the presentations and acquired the content using the Accordent system and then chatted in a chat room or e-mailed questions to the faculty member during the lecture. Another program funded by the US Department of Defense, extends certification opportunities for mathematics to K12 teachers stationed at US military bases worldwide. The system also allows the parents of students on these bases to watch and experience various instructional strategies and learning concepts in order to best help their children in the learning of mathematics.
"The rich media system is a strategic technology initiative for UNI, and one that has inspired our faculty to re-think the way they teach," said Marilyn Drury, Director, ITS Educational Technology, University of Northern Iowa. "Instructors are creating multimedia materials to help students be better prepared for class and raise the quality of interaction and debate. Others are encouraging students to create presentations as self-assessment tools for their personal electronic portfolios. It's an iterative process that's already yielded a great deal of creativity and innovation."
The Accordent Rich Media Communications Suite is the only automated, end-to-end infrastructure for creating, distributing, managing and measuring the effectiveness of multimedia presentation assets. The company's rich media creation products include its flagship Accordent PresenterPRO™, a live and on-demand webcasting solution with interactive features, such as polling, surveys and moderated Q&A; the Accordent Capture Station™, an easy-to-use, room-based appliance that enables anyone to webcast and record high-value presentations that take place every day in the world's meeting rooms, classrooms and boardrooms; and Accordent Engage™, a behind-the-firewall, enhanced audio webcasting system that enables multimedia webcasting from the desktop.
The company's media management platform is the Accordent Media Management System™, the first centralized online communications management infrastructure for ingesting, organizing, searching, publishing and securing multi-level access to Accordent presentations and other multimedia communications - including archived web - and video-conferences.
About Accordent Technologies, Inc.:
Accordent Technologies provides enterprise-wide rich media communications solutions that enable world-class organizations to inform, train and engage their audiences online. More than 1500 customers worldwide, including Unisys, JP Morgan Chase, Ford, Harvard and National Institutes of Health, rely on Accordent solutions to create, manage, distribute and measure the effectiveness of their multimedia presentation assets. Accordent has earned distinction for its award-winning products and long-standing commitment to the success of its customers and partners. Learn more about Accordent's exceptional solutions at www. accordent. com.
Accordent Capture Station, Accordent PresenterPRO, Accordent Engage and Accordent Media Management System are trademarks of Accordent Technologies. Other trademarks that may be mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.
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