Wake Forest U Aims To Reduce Note Taking with Classroom Capture

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 06/30/08

Students taking a course in venture capital at Wake Forest University have, over the last semester, benefited from the use of Recordant audio-capture technology that allows Web-based archiving, searching, and playback of course lectures. The university said one of the goals was to get students to close their notebooks and focus on comprehension, secure that they'd be able to access the captured lectures later on.

The course, "Venture Capital: From an Entrepreneur's Perspective," was taught by J. Bren Varner, program director of the school's Center for Entrepreneurship, and John Abraham, general partner at Kodiak Venture Partners and a Recordant investor.

Recordant's solution digitally recorded the audio from each lecture and guest presentation on a single Personal Recording Device (PRD) before uploading to Recordant's server, which provided permission-based user access via the Web. Students were able to log-on and review the audio from each presentation and search for keywords and concepts.

"We used [the service] to reduce the pressure that students feel to take accurate notes during lectures and presentations, asking them to close their laptops and concentrate on comprehension of the lecture material," said Varner. "They can do this safe in the knowledge that the lecture is available in searchable form, online... Feedback from our students has been particularly positive and it has been a pleasure to allow those who, through no fault of their own, have missed a lecture, to review it online and submit papers with their fellow students."