Wharton School of Business

The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania is committed to building and sharing the knowledge needed to excel in the evolving global arena, and Mediasite helps it accomplish this goal.

About two years ago, the university began testing different rich media systems and selected Mediasite as “best of the breed,” according to Alex Milne, senior director for public technology at the university. Mediasite connects Wharton’s international community to the school’s main campus in Philadelphia.

In late 2008, in response to the global financial crisis, Wharton designed a class to address the many facets of the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. Milne’s team realized that this class would be a great way to showcase Mediasite by disseminating important information about the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 around the globe.

The initial offering of the financial course reached over 1,000 people between the west coast campus in San Francisco, California, and the Philadelphia campus. Then, it added a worldwide alumni group of over 40,000 registered users from around the globe. With the help of Sonic Foundry, the school increased access to over 50,000 users on five continents. 

"The instructors were so deeply immersed in their areas of expertise that it was just a stunning reaction, in near real-time, to one of the most incredible financial events of the last 100 years. Mediasite was very valuable in delivering that information," Milne said. "The professor was happy to open the content up to students in other areas. We adjusted quickly because we knew the information would lend itself nicely to the rich media format."