News

U North Carolina Law Students Get Echo360-Captured Podcasts

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/12/09

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is creating podcasts from its School of Law with the use of lecture capture application Echo360. The software has been deployed in 10 classrooms so far.

"Classroom podcasting with Echo360 is a good example of a value-add technology for students, faculty and the university," said Doug Edmunds, assistant dean for IT at the School of Law. "Whether it's large lectures or smaller, seminar-style classes, Echo360's lecture capture technology is transparent and works across the institution."

The school generates podcasts with both audio-only and slide-enhanced lectures to allow students to refer to a lecture and study difficult concepts on demand. Many of the more specialized recordings are also made available to the public through the university's iTunes U site.

"The favorable response from students has encouraged more faculty to use Echo360," Edmunds said. "With students wanting to take their learning experience beyond the classroom, more and more professors are recording their classes."

According to a 2007 survey by the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALIopolis) of students who attended podcasted law courses, 82.5 percent said they'd like future law school classes to use podcasting. One out of five respondents said they listen to most of the podcasts generated in a course, and one out of two reported that they listen to some of the podcasts. Three-quarters of respondents said they listen to the recordings on a computer or through a browser. The remainder tended to use an MP3 player or Apple iPod.