SUCCESS STORY

The University of Sheffield

Looking specifically at lecture-style teaching, in 2017-18 we had 89% recorded. Today we are seeing 99.59% being recorded.
Chris Clow
Product Manager (On Campus Education)
IT Services department at the University of Sheffield
Lecture Capture - University of Sheffield
Customer
About
The University of Sheffield is an institution of higher learning ranked top-100 in the world for the excellence, impact, and distinctiveness of its research-led learning and teaching. The University is also active in the Sheffield City Region and the surrounding community.
MARKET
Higher Education
Echosystem Solution
EchoVideo

EchoVideo Meets Student Demand for Lecture Capture

The University of Sheffield is constantly looking for new ways to improve its product offering, and students indicated that recording lectures would be a great way to do so. Starting in the 2017-18 school year, the University implemented an opt-out policy that meant all lectures would be captured via Echo360 by default. EchoVideo helps administrators manage all of the captured lectures while promoting accessibility through features such as automated speech recognition (ASR) and notes time-synced to lecture content.

The University of Sheffield is constantly looking for new ways to improve its product offering, and students indicated that recording lectures would be a great way to do so. Starting in the 2017-18 school year, the University implemented an opt-out policy that meant all lectures would be captured via Echo360 by default. EchoVideo helps administrators manage all of the captured lectures while promoting accessibility through features such as automated speech recognition (ASR) and notes time-synced to lecture content.

Echo360's e3 Formula in Action

All students deserve the same educational experience, whether they’re enrolled in large classes or small seminars. EchoVideo makes education more accessible by capturing all lecture content regardless of class size.

Equity

The University of Sheffield offers EchoVideo capture technology to all classes held in classrooms equipped with the technology, allowing the vast majority of lectures to be recorded. Captured content is automatically transcribed using ASR, enabling visual learners to read along with the video of their professor’s lectures.

Engagement

Transcriptions created by EchoVideo are added to a searchable database, promoting engagement by allowing students to easily find specific snippets they want to review. Recorded content also helps learners engage with the material however and whenever they like.

Evidence

The University of Sheffield measures the success of EchoVideo in part by the percentage of lessons recorded. In 2017-18, 60.19% of all potential teaching was captured. In the first semester of 2022-23, that number increased to 89.3%. Instructors also use engagement metrics built into EchoVideo to measure which portions of lectures are most frequently revisited.

3 Key Takeaways

Automation is Important

The University of Sheffield automates the process of making content available to students with EchoVideo. Everything is uploaded without admin involvement, and instructors are empowered to modify recordings and assign them to students without going through someone else.

Buy-In is Essential

As professors have seen how much students get out of lectures captured by EchoVideo, they become more likely to embrace it themselves. This has led to a steady increase in acceptance by the University of Sheffield staff and more access to recorded content for students.

Mobile-Friendliness

Content captured by EchoVideo looks great on any device including the smaller screens of smartphones and tablets, allowing students and teachers at The University of Sheffield to access it whenever and wherever they like.
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How to Create a Corporate Training Video to Make eLearning Easier on EchoVideo

Videos are not a new development in the corporate training industry. In fact, training video has been used since employers realized they have a strong incentive to help employees learn. Videos combine visuals and audio, engaging multiple senses to promote learning. They save time and money because a business doesn’t need to hire an instructor every time they want to hold a training seminar. Videos give employees more control over the training process, inspiring them to put forth their best efforts. All of these reasons why video is so effective have been known for years. 

 

The bigger question isn’t what makes video so effective but why creating a corporate training video has stagnated. Once upon a time, instructors would record live lectures on a camcorder and play the resulting VHS tape for a group of employees. DVDs and cloud storage have replaced VHS tapes, but many companies are still creating training videos by recording content to play back later with minimal quality control or editing options. They aren’t thinking of the unique needs of their learners, shy away from innovation, and assume that it’s somebody else’s responsibility to make training worthwhile for their team.

 

 

Blended Learning Paths

Every student has unique educational needs and EchoEngage gives instructors the tools they need to personalize their learning experiences. Teachers can give self-paced assignments to an entire class or a smaller group of students who need a refresher. Students can complete these assignments whenever and wherever they wish, giving them more control over the educational process. Naturally, students will attend scheduled class meetings as well to recreate the traditional classroom experience. Any great K-12 learning management system should deliver comparable flexibility.

 

Audience Participation

K-12 teachers know that audience participation drives educational outcomes, and a great K12 learning management system needs to facilitate that. With EchoEngage, teachers can incorporate real-time polling into lessons and allow students to respond with their choice of devices. Gamification elements appeal to a student’s competitive side, and a built-in virtual classroom supports breakout rooms for collaborative work. Students can even ask for help anonymously if they don’t understand something. Teachers frequently report more engagement using these tools than they did in their physical classrooms.

 

Fair Assessments

While grades aren’t the end goal of education, a great K12 learning management system has to help students pursue success. To that end, EchoExam allows instructors to easily create assessments with 14 different types of questions including bi-modal items and dynamic content that allows teachers to adjust the difficulty as needed. Teachers can also scramble question orders automatically to protect the integrity of exams. Most importantly, EchoExam makes it easy for teachers to review scores for individuals and the class and intervene as necessary. In short, you’ll always have the evidence you need to help students succeed. 

 

Unparalleled Accessibility

Don’t you hate that feeling where you know the information you’re looking for is there somewhere but you can’t seem to find it? K-12 students encounter that problem every day, but EchoVideo offers an innovative solution. Using Automatic Speech Recognition technology, captions can be added to any video to promote accessibility. Better yet, captions are added to a searchable index so students can quickly find whatever they need to review. A great K-12 learning management system should empower students in ways that cannot happen in a traditional classroom. 

 

Efficient Course Creation

Classroom instructors are busy people and a great K-12 learning management system should streamline as much of their workload as possible. EchoAuthor allows teachers to create courses with an intuitive interface offering dozens of block types and interactive templates. Individual course elements can also be saved outside of the course, allowing instructors to quickly add them to other courses where they would be relevant. Once courses are finished, they can be shared by embedding on an iFrame or downloading in xAPI or SCORM formats. That kind of flexibility is precisely what teachers need. 

 

Pursue student success with the Echosystem

We’re confident that the Echosystem experience framework is the best K12 learning management system on the market, but you don’t have to take our word for it. Instead, request more info today to see what it could do for you!

 

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Best-In-Class Learning Management Solution

Question Types

With over 14 different question types, you can match the assessment to the material at hand. Use traditional test question types such as true/false, multiple-choice, multiple response, numeric response, matching, completion, short answer and essay to review, re-teach and reinforce learning.

Reporting & Analytics

Ensuring that learners understand the information presented and how it can impact their success is key. Assess, track and analyze learner performance. Get results immediately and view valuable reports at the individual level, or for the class or group as a whole. Provide results in real-time, or at a later time as preferred.

Dynamic Bimodal Versioning

With dynamic content, generate multiple iterations of exam questions to test the same concept. Use bimodal to toggle between multiple-choice and short answer question types, immediately changing the item difficulty level.

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I Want More Engaging Interactive Lectures in My Classroom

To learn more about how Echo360’s Echosystem can help you conduct more interactive lectures that truly engage each student’s attention, contact us today. We’re excited to share all the features of the Echosystem that can help.

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The Echosystem is our dynamic model of customized solutions that correspond to the relationship, environment, content, and assessment required:

Create, capture, manage, store and search video with the most powerful platform anywhere.
From in-person to virtual to flipped classrooms, we have the tools to engage your learners.
Creating effective and engaging materials for your learners has never been easier -or more impactful.
Create multi-modal assessments and generate analytics within seconds.

We make it easy to bring learning to life — anywhere.

Echo360 is driven to enable inspired learning experiences for everyone, anywhere through the high quality of solutions, tools, and standards we set for our work and ourselves. 

Hybrid Learning

Ensuring our solutions and tools are effective in all kinds of learning environments.  

Video Management

Unleashing the end-to-end learning potential of video, from creation to administration.  

Engagement Outcomes

Designing and delivering effective engagement tools that produce results. 

Reporting & Analytics

Providing empirical evidence of engagement, progress, and opportunity areas through easy-to-use dashboards. 

LMS Integration

Integrating seamlessly with the most widely used Learning Management Systems in education and business. 

Accessibility

Committing to meeting or exceeding standards that ensure learning equity. 

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Enabling inspiration and access to students, wherever they are.

Echo360 delivers an innovative model for engaged learning in the post-Covid age.  We offer coherent and compelling learner-centered experiences regardless of place and time, so all learners have the opportunities to learn.