U Michigan Library Adds Video Streaming Service
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 09/14/15
The University of Michigan is one of the newest institutions to adopt a service that
delivers streaming video to colleges and universities. Kanopy said it has added
377 new higher ed customers for the 2015-2016 academic year. Other new customers include the
University of California, San Diego; Howard University; and
Dartmouth College.
U Michigan's library introduced Kanopy to its community in August. Although the
service boasts 26,000 documentaries, training films and theatrical releases in its collection, U Michigan focused its announcement on 600 videos
in the area of the arts.
Users are able to browse videos by subject or title. They can also create playlists and video clips. Streaming can be done on a PC with
Flash, a Mac, iPads, iPhones and other mobile devices. The movies can be projected in classrooms, embedded into authenticated Web pages,
including learning management system courses, and watched by any number of simultaneous viewers.
Institutional customers pay only for the videos their users watch. Payment is activated only after a given film is viewed four times over
the course of a year.
Among the many collections included in the service are BBC
Active, Criterion Collection and
PBS.
"Kanopy's streaming video model has provided UMass Amherst with significant pedagogical as well as economic value," said Scott Stangroom,
acquisitions librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a customer since 2013.
"Kanopy's interface is aesthetically beautiful and intuitive to use. The dashboard analytics display is the best I've encountered, allowing for
easy, in-depth and meaningful usage analysis."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.