And We’re Live: What You Need to Know about Live Webcasting and Lecture Capture

Why go live? Brian Smith asks why not. As the Video Operations Supervisor for University of Florida, he’s been doing live streaming on campus for 11 years, with hundreds of live webcasts under his belt. And he believes going live was integral to the success of lecture capture on campus.

He’s overseen high-visibility, live webcasts for everything from homecoming parades to trustee and senate meetings, from commencement to alumni events to presidential search sessions. Even live webcasts with three Supreme Court justices and two governors.

And while the swine flu epidemic kicked off the lecture capture craze over fears that nearly 50,000 students would miss school for over a week, the university continues to go live with more material each day.

Research groups like the Clinical and Translational Science Institute are webcasting so researchers around the state can participate in live briefings, and the College of Medicine is doing online courses, psychiatry grand rounds and family medicine lectures. All live.

Join Brian Smith as he shares what you need to know about live webcasting and synchronous lecture capture:

• What do you look for in a reliable webcasting system when live is a requirement and failure is not an option?
• Are there differences between live webcasting from a smart classroom vs. hundreds of campus event venues vs. off campus sites? And what are the best practices for making sure all go live without a hitch?
• Why is live webcasting a self-fulfilling prophecy, driving more demand to go live? And does social media play a role?
• Is instructor involvement, and resulting faculty feedback, different for live vs. on-demand webcasting?
• Who manages the infrastructure, training and support for live webcasting on campus, and what can be automated?
• How can reporting of both live and on-demand views justify the cost of not just webcasting, but entire courses or events?