1. Nick Baker Acting Director, Office of Open Learning
3/31/2017
Echo360 and Lecture Tools: Piloting a student engagement platform for UWindsor
OUCC Conference
28 April, 2014
Nick Baker
Acting Director, Office of Open Learning

2. Join the presentation in Lecture Tools

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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

6. University of Windsor Institutional PIF Grants
Proposal Title
Funding
Navigating Large Foundational Classes: Providing Scalable Infrastructure for Next-Generation Blended Learning Classrooms to Enhance Student Learning Outcomes, Access and Choice
$349,925
Leading the Leaders: Developing Metrics and Management Mechanism for Embedded Educational Leadership Initiatives
$100,000
Enabling Cost-Effective Data-Driven Decision Making: Shoestring Analytics
$49,468

7. Large Classes PIF Technology Echo360 lecture capture system
Lecture Tools Student Engagement System
Classroom upgrades
Electronic Course Outline System (ECOS)
ePortfolio system

8. Instructor support Funds for development support
Instructional/curriculum design support
Technology support
Hardware

9. Echo360

10. What is Echo360? Integrated student engagement platform
Classroom lecture capture
Personal lecture capture
Rich Media Tool
Learning analytics
Lecture Tools (clickers on steroids!)
(Echo)
(LT + Echo)

11. 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

12. Echo360 Active Learning BEFORE CLASS DURING CLASS AFTER CLASS
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 ask questions, take notes, flag issues, and respond to in-class questions
No Clickers Required!
Teachers receive real-time reports on student engagement and comprehension
Students review and respond to prepare and provide feedback
BEFORE CLASS
DURING CLASS
AFTER CLASS
Slide Reference: Echo360, 2013

13. 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
KEY MESSAGE: In addition to the EchoSystem capture appliance, there are three other recording options available native to the EchoSystem that help institutions capture instruction in classrooms and beyond. All four options are fully integrated and managed with a single backend.
__________
But let’s say you have classroom computers that your institutions has already invested in. That’s OK with us.  EchoSystem Podium capture software - the same that runs on the EchoSystem capture appliance - is also an option.  It is completed automated, can be scheduled and all the production and publishing of the instructional media happens without manual intervention. (IF WE ARE IN A COMPETITIVE SITUATION, MAY WANT TO MORE DIRECTLY ADDRESS THAT WE ARE NOT A HARDWARE ONLY CAPTURE SOLUTION) Outside of the classroom, we have two options.  First is personal capture, which allows instructors to record their computer screens from their desk, office, home.  It records video via a webcam, and is perfect for creating learning modules and tutorials that introduce or clarify a topic. Media Upload allows your institution to ingest external media created with popular consumer and professional-grade cameras and screen cast software.  Perfect for recordings that augment lectures researchers in the field or even student presentations. Again, all four of these options are available for your institution to choose from and managed with the same backend solution.  Its easy for your instructors, easy for your staff.
Media Import
Capture content using 3rd party tools
Easily ingest content into EchoSystem with consistent look/feel/branding/security
Slide Reference: Echo360, 2013

14. 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

15. Media Import: Easily Upload Content from External Sources
The current EchoSystem 2.6 release already supports the creation of ad hoc teaching content through its Personal Capture module depicted at the top of this diagram. Personal Capture, or PCAP, allows users to capture user-generated learning objects on their individual PC or Mac and automatically publish this content into the standard EchoSystem packaging and publishing workflow. For the new external sources shown on this slide, EchoSystem 3.0 supports an exciting new feature called External Media Ingest that allows these and other forms of content to be easily moved into the EchoSystem environment as usable instructional content.
Slide Reference: Echo360, 2013

16. 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”

17. 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

19. 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

20. Automated and Intelligent Workflow for Lecture Capturing
Record, Produce, Manage and Publish Instructional Media
Slide Adapted from Echo360, 2013

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. Echo Centre

25. 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

26. 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

27. Lecture tools

28. 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)

29. 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)

30. 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

31. First Use in CLEW

32. First Use in New CLEW Site

33. Outside of CLEW

34. Outside of CLEW
Upload a file containing the following: address (mandatory), optional Last Name, First Name. No column headers, one student record per line
Save as a .csv file

35. Student Access by Direct Link

37. 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

38. Preparing a presentation

39. 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

40. Developments coming in Echo360/Lecture Tools
Android App
Integration with Echo360 as a single student engagement platform
Improved analytics

41. Next steps Installation in classrooms over summer
Personal Capture rollout
Lecture Tools trial in selected large classes
Integrate with systems (LMS, SIS, etc)

42. 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

43. 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.)

44. What are we trying to achieve?
3/31/2017
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

45. 3/31/2017
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!)

46. 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

47. Contact
Nick Baker Acting Director, Office of Open Learning Erie Hall ext. 4925

48. Connect with us In person… Phone… On the web: Social media:
Erie Hall
Phone…
Ext 2008
On the web:
Office of Open Learning Official Website (under construction):
Open Learning Windsor Blog:
Social media:
Facebook: