Facilitating Remote Learning in Education

By Dan Burford | Senior Business Manager, Holdan

Before COVID, most educational establishments were already using lecture capture, and were experimenting with flipped classroom delivery. The pandemic has made both teaching practices very much the norm. But the mechanics of delivery have become more complex - it’s not just a case of using YouTube or Facebook.

Lecture capture is exactly what it sounds like - recording classroom lectures as videos for students to review after the class. A flipped classroom teaching approach uses lecture capture to reverse the traditional learning environment. Most of the ‘teaching’ happens outside of class, while the class is used for practical learning. During the pandemic, the ‘class’ element of learning was restricted, and remote learning was forcibly adopted.

The market responded with a plethora of video recording and streaming products. Yet for these to be integrated efficiently into curriculum delivery, two other elements need to be considered: what Learning Management System (LMS) the education establishment is using and their Video Content Management System (VCMS).

Most medium-large sized educational faculties these days use an LMS that is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and cloud-based. Unlike YouTube or Facebook, a LMS gives an education establishment a secure framework. It is a platform to house, deliver and track all training content.

Popular LMS platforms in the UK include Moodle, Blackboard and Canvas. Prior to 2015, Moodle was by far the dominant platform, accounting for 90% of all new implementations for this market, but in recent years Canvas has made rapid progress.

An LMS is typically designed to manage and track data. However, it cannot ingest video, organize video assets, or process videos to make them indexable and searchable. For these functions, you need a Video Content Management System (VCMS). These systems help manage and facilitate the delivery of one-to-many, on-demand video using internet protocols. The VCMS manages recorded lectures, additional classroom videos, and even third-party media assets in a secure, searchable video platform that integrates with the LMS. Major players in the UK VCMS market include Kaltura, Panopto and Yuja.

The last piece of the video delivery jigsaw is the encoder. While it is possible to use a laptop and encoding software, education establishments require a more scalable solution. From an administrative point of view, managing a fleet of in-room laptops can at best be difficult. It can also quickly become prohibitive if the AV setup includes anything more than USB webcams and microphones.

Epiphan has been particularly successful in the education market because it takes an appliance approach. For a busy teacher, a dedicated appliance like Epiphan’s Pearl is much easier to use and allows them to focus on the lecture, instead of the video capture technology. All Pearl products can be used for live streaming, local recording and multi-camera switching.

Tight integration with VCMS systems means that teachers enter their credentials using the built-in touch screen to authenticate to the platform. The Pearl will then automatically upload recordings to the user’s VCMS folder, saving administration time after lectures and other streaming or recording events.

Creating a dedicated encoding appliance that is easy to use really helps streamline the video production process. Seamless integration with industry standard management platforms makes it much easier for non-technical faculty staff to meet the growing demand for online content, both during and after the pandemic.