Echo360 and Lecture Tools: Piloting a student
engagement platform for UWindsor
OUCC Conference
28 April, 2014
Nick Baker
Acting Director, Office of Open
Learning
Join the presentation in Lecture
Tools
http://bit.do/OUCCEcho360
Overview
•
•
•
•
Windsor and Provincial context
Selecting a solution
Intro to Echo360 and Lecture Tools
Considerations, challenges and
unexpected outcomes
• Demo of the system and trying it out (time
permitting)
What challenge are we trying to
address?
• Enhancing student engagement and learning,
especially in large classes
• Reducing cost to students
• Clicker use declining (with no replacement)
• MTCU Ancillary fee policy
• Class sizes increasing
• Trying to increase quantity & quality of
distance and hybrid courses
– Positioning ourselves to take advantage of the
OOI funding & MTCU directions
Provincial Context
• Productivity and Innovation Fund (PIF)
Grants
– Multi-institutional and institutional
• Total of $45m shared across colleges and
universities
• $1.32m funding across 7 projects
• 3 Institutional projects - $500k
• Money had to be spent by March 31, 2014
University of Windsor
Institutional PIF Grants
Proposal Title
Navigating Large Foundational Classes:
Providing Scalable Infrastructure for NextGeneration Blended Learning Classrooms to
Enhance Student Learning Outcomes, Access
and Choice
Leading the Leaders: Developing Metrics and
Management Mechanism for Embedded
Educational Leadership Initiatives
Enabling Cost-Effective Data-Driven Decision
Making: Shoestring Analytics
Funding
$349,925
$100,000
$49,468
Large Classes PIF
•
•
•
•
•
Technology
Echo360 lecture capture system
Lecture Tools Student Engagement
System
Classroom upgrades
Electronic Course Outline System (ECOS)
ePortfolio system
Instructor support
•
•
•
•
Funds for development support
Instructional/curriculum design support
Technology support
Hardware
ECHO360
What is Echo360?
• Integrated student engagement platform
– Classroom lecture capture
– Personal lecture capture
– Rich Media Tool
– Learning analytics
– Lecture Tools (clickers on steroids!)
http://goo.gl/urTkE1 (Echo)
http://goo.gl/ffvlDl (LT + Echo)
Why Echo360?
• Feature set
• Price
• Integration with existing systems (Crestron,
Sakai etc)
• Existing expertise
– e.g. Wowza server for streaming media, Linux
• Streaming and recording
• Integration with Lecture Tools – powerful
additional functionality
Echo360 Active Learning
Students review class
materials and collaborate with
peers online to master
content
Teachers create and record
study materials with
embedded polls and quizzes
Teachers engage with new
interactivity, can monitor and
adapt to student activity
Students review and respond
to prepare and provide
feedback
BEFORE CLASS
Students ask questions,
take notes, flag issues, and
respond to in-class questions
No Clickers Required!
DURING CLASS
Teachers receive real-time
reports on student
engagement and
comprehension
AFTER CLASS
Slide Reference: Echo360, 2013
Multiple Recording Solutions
SafeCapture HD Appliance
• Hardware based capture
• Full integration with room A/V environment
• Ideal for auditoriums, smart classrooms, etc.
Classroom Capture Software
• EchoSystem capture software
• Automated classroom capture using existing
technology investment
Personal Capture Software
• EchoSystem capture software on laptops/desktops
• Create modules and tutorials from anywhere with
an internet connection
Media Import
• Capture content using 3rd party tools
• Easily ingest content into EchoSystem with
consistent look/feel/branding/security
Slide Reference: Echo360, 2013
Capturing options
• 2 x video streams + 1 audio recorded
– e.g. PC, external laptop, webcamera, VC
cameras, document camera, electronic
whiteboard, digital microscope…anything that
can go through projector!
•
•
•
•
HD Capture appliance
Software Capture (no Mac, no streaming)
Personal Capture
Media Ingest
Media Import: Easily Upload Content
from External Sources
Slide Reference: Echo360, 2013
HD Appliance - Video
• Any VGA, DVI-I or HDMI enabled device
– H.264 standard
– 240kbps – 3.2Mbps
• Digital (HDMI) or analogue (composite)
input
• Configurable output frame rate
• Output to stream (via Wowza server) +
asynchronous “Echoes”
HD Appliance - Audio
•
•
•
•
•
•
Stereo, mixed-mono, mono
Capture in AAC
Pro-level or consumer level signals
Balanced or unbalanced
Stereo RCA or bare wire
Control integrated with Crestron
controller/touch panel
Software capture
•
•
•
•
Site licence
Same as Personal Capture now
Schedulable (personal capture not schedulable)
Room AV input to PC
– Epiphan DVI2USB device
– ART Pro USB Dual pre-amp & computer interface
• No streaming, No Mac (Personal Capture does
though)
• User must be logged in to start scheduled capture
Automated and Intelligent Workflow for Lecture
Capturing
Record, Produce, Manage and Publish Instructional Media
Slide Adapted from Echo360, 2013
Processing videos
• Internal HDD on Appliances for temporary
local storage; PC HDD
• Push to ESS and Media Server via SFTP for
processing
• Raw files stored on server, processed to
‘Echoes’
– Raw = 60% of storage; delete these after 30 days
& keep Echoes
• Processing time = real time + small %
• Processed in order received by server
Publishing videos
• Either released/published automatically or
released manually by instructor
– Instructor can edit multiple times until raw files
deleted (non-destructive editing)
– Multiple formats for same recording can be
published
• Publish to LMS and EchoCentre
• Can make recording publically available
• Can publish to other locations e.g. iTunesU,
RSS, webportal
Viewing recordings
• Access through LMS or EchoCentre
– LDAP (requires Active Directory for full
functionality), CAS, Shibboleth, Trusted
System authentication
• Access on PC, Mac, iOS, Android,
tablet/phone (app or browser)
• HTML5 interface
Echo Centre
https://e360system.uwindsor.ca:8443/
Scheduling recordings
• Schedule recordings based on
– Term, Course, Section, Instructor
– Campus, building, room
• Automatically schedule with integration to
SIS (and/or other enterprise systems)
– Start automatically at scheduled time
(appliance), or after log in (software)
• ‘Opt out’ at the moment
• Ad Hoc
Other considerations
• Can brand recordings automatically with
institutional look and feel
• Can brand at the faculty or department
level
• System Admins can change almost
anything without additional assistance
from Echo360
• 24/7/365 support from Echo
LECTURE TOOLS
What is Lecture Tools?
• Web-based student engagement platform
• Similar to clickers but much more powerful
– Searchable repository
– Notes system
• Developed at UMich and sold to Echo360
• Currently Flash-based with app for iOS
(moving to HTML5)
• Can be integrated to LMS (LTI) (gradebook,
access etc)
What is Lecture Tools?
• Very easy to use, upload files, add interactive
slides, reorder etc.
• Drag and drop functionality
• Flat images of slides (no animations)
• Learning analytics (lite)
• Student notes, discussion forums,
bookmarks, searchable lectures
• Student questions (anonymous or not)
• http://goo.gl/D61ljt
Accessing Lecture Tools
• LTI integration to Sakai –
challenging but works
• Passes through roles but still
need to create a password first
time
• Students see list
of lectures by
date
First Use in CLEW
First Use in New CLEW Site
Outside of CLEW
Outside of CLEW
• Upload a file containing the following:
email address (mandatory), optional Last
Name, First Name. No column headers,
one student record per line
• Save as a .csv file
Student Access by Direct Link
Presenting in Lecture Tools
• Can import previous presentation or upload
new
– File types to upload can include .ppt, .pptx, .pps,
.ppsx, .pdf
• ‘Objectives’ slide can be created in the
system
• Animations will be lost when uploading PPT
• Edits to slides need to be done in program
they were created in, NOT online
• Delete, hide or rearrange order in Lecture
Tools
Preparing a presentation
Question types
• Multiple question types
inserted easily into
presentation
• Behaves slightly
differently on app
(especially Image Quiz
& visible characters)
• Results can be sent to
gradebook in LMS
Developments coming in
Echo360/Lecture Tools
• Android App
• Integration with Echo360 as a single
student engagement platform
• Improved analytics
Next steps
• Installation in classrooms over summer
• Personal Capture rollout
• Lecture Tools trial in selected large
classes
• Integrate with systems (LMS, SIS, etc)
Challenges & Considerations
• Time restrictions on spending money
• Large project team
• Room AV setups different across campus
– Different reqs for appliance and software
• Integration with existing systems (LMS,
SIS, HR) and level of integration
• Ongoing administration
Unexpected outcomes
•
•
•
•
•
Increased deep collaboration across units
AV upgrades
AV inventory
New ways of managing AV in classrooms
Policy review and development in a range
of areas (e.g. security, archiving,
copyright, appropriate use of IT, IP, course
mode definitions etc.)
What are we trying to achieve?
• Going beyond one-off development
• Encourage development of new coherent
credentialing programmes
– Attract new students
– Allow more current students to graduate/succeed
• Significant redevelopment of existing courses
to DE/hybrid mode
• Redeveloping courses that are significant
blockers for existing students
What is the end game?
• Mainstreaming DE/Online/Flexible/Hybrid
learning and teaching
• Building capacity in faculty, enabling new
practices
• Sustainable offerings and practices
• Increasing quality in DE & blended offerings
• Improved reputation
• Providing more flexible options for all
UWindsor students (and instructors!)
Summary
• Very simple to use, varying levels of
automation possible
• Expected high value return
• Lot of work, but worth it
• Need strong AV engineering, server,
firewall/security teams
• Evaluation of outcomes longer term project
• Expect to see change over 2-3 years
Contact
Nick Baker
Acting Director, Office of Open Learning
Erie Hall 1111
email: nbaker@uwindsor.ca
ext. 4925
Connect with us
• In person…
– Erie Hall 1110-1112
• Phone…
– Ext 2008
• On the web:
– Office of Open Learning Official Website (under
construction): www.uwindsor.ca/openlearning
– Open Learning Windsor Blog:
http://ctl2.uwindsor.ca/openlearning/
• Social media:
– Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/UWindsor.OfficeOfOpenLearning
– Twitter: @UWinOpenLearn