Here in the U.S., the holiday season is in full swing and 2011 is just days away. So maybe that's why I waxed nostalgic when I received this request last Wednesday from a senior lecturer in London.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would be grateful if you could provide the webcast link again for the keynote presentation at the Syllabus Fall 2003 conference, held Dec. 8-10, 2003, in Cambridge, Mass. by Mr. Strauss. The links below do not appear to be active anymore. I show this webcast to my students and past experience showed that they appreciated it.

Thanks in advance,

Panos Hahamis, Senior Lecturer
Course Leader - MA in Public Services Management

Business Information, Management and Operations (BIMO)
Westminster Business School
University of Westminster
London

Hmm. 2003? As in seven years ago to the day?

I'll admit I was skeptical. We've been through multiple versions since then, not to mention staff changes, server changes, building changes. Even the conference changed its name (you know it now as Campus Technology, and yes, we are still providing their conference webcasting services). Without anyone to stand up for this little catalog of 2003 content, what were the chances it would still be hosted on our servers, much less that it would have metadata such that we could locate it quickly?

Oh, but it was. In less than five minutes, our hosting manager had located the conference recordings, and the catalog and its four event webcasts were all still live. And get this – based on the reporting, all four were still being watched!

It made Panos’ day. It made my day. And in appreciation, he agreed to answer some questions about how this all came to pass.

ESA: Hi Panos, you recently contacted us about a presentation that was originally recorded in 2003. How did you first become aware of that presentation?

PH: Back in 2004-2005, when I was a Masters student myself, a multimedia tutor showed it to us, but I cannot recall in which capacity and/or context.

ESA: Why did you decide to start using it in your class?

PH: I am teaching the Networking and the Internet module to undergraduate students. Part of it is rich media on the internet, utilizing web technologies. I thought to use the Mediasite webcast Sonic Foundry captured as a good example, highlighting both the tools/technologies, as well showing them what is the ‘future’ of IT/web. I first showed it in 2005, and it received a very positive response from the students.

ESA: Why have you continued to show it over the years?

PH: The webcast in question, the luncheon keynote by Howard Strauss, Manager of Technology Strategy and Outreach at Princeton University, is quite prophetic, as it was recorded in 2003 and predictions made then are happening every day since. I’ve used it every time I teach this course.

ESA: What would you tell someone who was thinking about deleting their presentations from previous years?

PH: To keep webcasts of this kind as they are quite rich in content and educational!

The only negative to this whole exchange? Howard Strauss isn’t around to enjoy the story. He passed away in September 2005. EDUCAUSE gave him their highest individual recognition award posthumously, “for visionary, entertaining and provocative thought leadership in the world of higher education information technology.”

But, particularly at this time of year, I love knowing that in an undergraduate business course at the University of Westminster, and on our servers here in Madison, his inspiring work lives on.

On Tuesday, December 14, we're lucky to host Najib Manea, PhD, an Instructional Technologist and the Program Director of UNM Valencia's Teaching and Learning Center, in our Lecture Capture Best Practices webinar series. At 11:00 a.m. CST (convert to your time zone here), he'll present, "1200 Lectures in 12 Months: Campus-Wide Classroom Capture at the University of New Mexico-Valencia." As always, it's free. Just register here before we go live. In one year, the University of New Mexico Valencia recorded over 1200 presentations and 1800 hours of instructional content. This small, regional school on 150 acres of rural land overlooking the Rio Grande Valley is capturing more than 10 classes a day, streaming over 10 hours of content a day, with just 2 full time employees. The campus now provides lecture capture in almost every course, working from scratch to retrofit the infrastructure in these technology-enabled rooms to support academic webcasting. How did they do it? Najib Manea, PhD, will tell you. He's created one of the most prolific lecture capture programs in the U.S. for a campus this size. And he did it without overwhelming the instructional support team, sacrificing quality or negatively impacting the faculty experience in the classroom. Join him for this live presentation as he discusses:

• How they paid for lecture capture at this scale?
• What were the requirements for launching this aggressive program, and why the selection of Mediasite was core to building their foundation for online learning?
• When they involved campus administration and faculty in the decision-making, and how they overcame faculty resistance to being recorded?
• How they made decisions about cameras, mics, bandwidth and other educational technology within the classroom, and what they would have done differently?
• Why, based on evidence of learning impact, he believes lecture capture will be one of the cornerstones of pedagogical advancement over the next decade?

More about Najib:  He received a B.S. from Yarmouk University/Jordan 1996, M.A. Extension Education 2001, M.S. Computer Science 2002, and a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies/Computer Science from New Mexico State University/ Las Cruces 2007. Current research interests include learning objects, classroom capture, and technology integration & adoption. Here's that link again to register. If you are looking for proof that your choice of lecture capture technology has a direct relationship on how - and how fast - you scale, this is one webinar you won't want to miss.

Last month we were ecstatic to host Emilie Barta in our ongoing Best Practice Webinar series. Her 30-minute webinar, "3 Ways to Give Your Virtual Audience a Voice" generated over 100 tweets in 1 day (see the transcript from the webinar, hashtag #hybridevent), and sparked great conversation online during and after the live webinar.

Here's a summary of what she presented, and if you'd like to watch the webcast on-demand, you can tune in here.

Hybrid events are increasing, but attendees want to do more than watch

Travel costs, time constraints, and a down economy can prevent participants from attending conferences physically. As a result, more event planners are implementing a hybrid event or conference model, successfully blending live and virtual meetings to draw in both local and distant participants.

But rather than allowing them to be passively present, Emilie said “you must engage the virtual audience so they feel included in the event, especially if you are charging admission.” Emilie described the three types of events emerging today: the traditional live face to face event, virtual events which take place entirely online, and hybrid events, which merge both on-site and online content.

Tech tools, social media and virtual host - 3 ways to give remote attendees a voice

Her three tips for online audience engagement? Tech tools, social media and a virtual host allow a hybrid event to be interactive.

Tech tools include webcasts (like Mediasite), webcasting services like Sonic Foundry Event Services, chat, online Q&A and polling.

According to Emilie, social media, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and conference community networking websites, merge the on-site and online conference presence for both types of participants and create an archive of knowledge generated at the event.

Last up, and the one that is perhaps most near and dear to Emilie's heart: a virtual host acts as tour guide and spokesperson for the virtual audience. The host can conduct “red carpet interviews” that provide extra value during breaks in the live event, acts as a color commentator filling in important background information that remote attendees may not be seeing through the live video stream. But most importantly, the host acts as the voice of the virtual audience during the live event.

Today's online (and engaged) attendees = tomorrow's on-site enthusiasts

And, according to Emilie's experience with more than 20 years in the field, “If the virtual audience is successfully engaged, a large percentage will convert into face-to-face the next time the event happens.” Her statistics indicate a conversion rate of upwards of 40 percent.

A very compelling reason to engage, and listen, to what your remote attendees have to say.

Here's that link again to watch on-demand.

If you attended any of the educational technology conferences in the last few weeks, you probably heard at least one consistent theme: how do we measure the impact of technology on learning? We heard this while streaming live sessions at EDUCAUSE and Sloan-C, exhibiting at STEMtech and capturing on-demand presentations right now at WCET.

That theme is also a primary focus for both the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative on "Seeking Evidence of Impact" and Gates' Next Generation Learning Challenges "Blended Learning" area.

That question has long been on our minds, too: how do we measure the impact of technology - or in our case, lecture capture via Mediasite - on learning?

As a start, we just introduced a new ebook as a companion to our Lecture Capture 101 webinar last month. The free ebook, "Third Party Research Evaluating the Impact of Mediasite Lecture Capture on Retention, Recruitment and Student Satisfaction," summarizes over five years of studies from school across the United States. These colleges and universities conducted their own independent research projects and assessments, and were kind enough to make those findings public.

Pamela A. Havice, Ph.D. and William L. Havice, Ph.D., DTE, are two of those people who shared their findings. Back in 2006, they conducted research at the Eugene T. Moore School of Education at Clemson University. They've recently completed a new study, and next week they are going to discuss the results as part of our best practices webinar series. As always, our webinars are free. Just register before we go live.

Lecture Capture's Impact on Undergraduate Learning, Satisfaction and Retention
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
11:00 - 11:45 a.m. CST (convert to your time zone)

The digital revolution has ushered in a generation shaped by the integration of technology into everyday life. While research abounds on how this generation uses technology, research and reflection on the effective integration of technology into our learning environments is still sparse.

Pioneers in both the use and the evaluation of educational technologies, Drs. Pamela and William Havice, professors at Clemson University, seek to fill that gap. Recently, they completed a study that analyzed how a distributed learning environment - with lecture capture by Mediasite at its core - affected the satisfaction and engagement of traditional, face-to-face undergraduate students enrolled in a research project course.

Did the students really like the distributed learning environment? Were they more engaged? Did the students feel that lecture capture assisted them in their learning? Join the Havice's for a live webinar as they answer these questions and share their findings, including:

• What impact the distributed learning environment with lecture capture had on students' satisfaction
• How the lecture capture course modules help students stay engaged in the material
• How the distributed learning environment impacted student behavior during face-to-face class time
• Why a constructivist learning environment (laying out the resources through lecture capture and letting student's build their own knowledge) promoted self-motivation and deeper engagement

Pamela A. Havice, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Clemson University. She has been an integral part of developing a distributed learning environment for the delivery of the Student Affairs/Counselor Education program. Pam's primary areas of research include distance and distributed learning applications, multicultural issues, and faculty and student development. In her 30 years in higher education, she has published numerous articles, book chapters, professional presentations and an edited book on distance and distributed learning.

William L. Havice, Ph.D., DTE is Professor and Associate Dean in the College of Health, Education, and Human Development at Clemson University. In this role, Bill oversees undergraduate studies and academic support services for the College. For the past 32 years, he has been actively involved in teaching, researching, presenting, and publishing on technology. He has numerous published articles, book chapters, professional presentations and an edited a book on distance and distributed learning.

This is definitely not a webinar to miss. Drs. Pamela and William Havice are a perennial favorite on the edtech conference speaking circuit, and this is the first time we're lucky enough to host them in Madison.

Here's that link again to register. See you online Tuesday.