Lecture video capture for the masses

Abstract

Earlier work had shown the positive learning impact of the ability to review class lecture videos. Prior video capture systems used university provided infrastructure such as video technicians and post-production facilities. However, such capture is expensive; forcing schools to carefully choose the courses that can be video taped. We show that technology advances can allow every faculty member to make a modest effort and video tape their lectures, perform simple post processing and disseminate the contents either through their own web servers, using podcasts or via services such as Google video. Consumer grade HD cameras remove the need for accurate tracking of the faculty member and chalkboards; one stationary camera can frame the entire chalkboard. Desktop computers are powerful enough to perform the required multimedia operations. The faculty can also add pedantically useful annotations; a step that is unlikely to be performed by the video technicians. Many students own iPods, PSPs, laptops and other devices that allow them to watch the video at their convenience. We report on the tools used, the associated network cost and our experiences with video recording an undergraduate Operating Systems (Spring 2006). For the twelve month duration from Feb '06 - Feb '07, the OS course consumed over five days worth of our external network link bandwidth. The network cost in distributing all the lectures taught in our university can be prohibitive.