Welcome and Introduction

THE LECTURE CAPTURE SPACE has evolved significantly over the past year or so. Among major players there have been moves toward interactivity and an increased focus on learning outcomes via quiz integrations, better analytics, and other add-on tools (Echo360 and Techsmith are two companies that have made strong moves in this direction). Most vendors have ramped up video resolution and quality to accommodate the increased capabilities of our current hardware. There were more and better integrations with LMS’s (mainly through the LTI standard), and more support for mobile devices. One of the most interesting changes we have seen is that a number of lightweight software capture tools like Kaltura CaptureSpace and Collaj that boast a tight fit with media management systems are carving out a new niche in what previously has been a solidly appliance-driven market. Some hardware manufacturers like Extron have also developed integrations with popular media management platforms. Polycom, meanwhile, was a bit of a lone wolf in moving away from an appliance-based capture model toward one centered on their (or other vendors’) video conferencing codecs.

Kavin Rowe teaches a New Testament class in Westbrook Building

Duke’s Divinity School was a big user of DukeCapture in 2014-15. Many students in preaching classes, for example, used the system to record themselves giving sermons as part of class assignments.

As part of these shifts, many vendors are working hard to replace the term “lecture capture” with terms like “academic video” that call to mind flipped classes, supplementary teaching modules created outside class, and recordings that are more highly produced and edited rather than automated recordings of a lecturer standing at the front of a room. However, despite their best efforts, the term “lecture capture” continues to stick around, just as “sage on the stage” recordings continue to persist (as they do here at Duke) as highly utilized tools for class review.

Since 2005 Duke University has offered enterprise lecture capture to members of the Duke community through its Office of Information Technology under a service called DukeCapture. This program is available to anyone at Duke through software for Mac, PC & iOS devices and through scheduled recording software installed as part of room AV in approximately 120 classrooms across campus. More information about the DukeCapture program can be found here:

http://oit.duke.edu/voicevideoweb/video/dukecapture/index.php

OIT’s Academic Media Technologies group conducts periodic surveys of leading enterprise capture platforms, evaluating products from the perspective of issues critical to Duke. If advances in a competing platform outweigh the benefits of staying with our current solution, this work will position us to make a transition in an efficient way. At this time, DukeCapture’s subscribers remain pleased with our current vendor (Panopto), and we do not anticipate switching during the coming year. The main reasons for our current satisfaction with Panopto include:

  • Evolving product feature set compares favorably with competing solutions
  • The company values Duke’s input on product direction.  We track feature requests and meet periodically to discuss priorities, timelines, and processes for implementing improvements.
  • Highly responsive support for incidents, with detailed tracking of issues via Zendesk ticket system and proactive followup by Panopto staff on tickets
  • Scales well to meet our current level of demand
  • Local hosting of storage and servers has worked well for Duke
  • Though Panopto’s costs have risen in conjunction with the company’s growth and improvements to their product line, our research has found that Panopto still offers competitive pricing relative to competing systems