Purdue Implements Classroom Capture for Campus and Distance Learning

Purdue University has selected Winnov's Cbox 3 to record classroom lectures and enhance its distance learning programs. The Cbox 3 lecture capture appliance is used at Purdue's School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Purdue has implemented Cbox 3 to record classroom lectures, which are made available online for on-campus students to review later. Using the appliance Purdue also burns the same classroom recordings onto CDs, which are sent to international Doctor of Pharmacy students in locations that lack dependable broadband connectivity.

"The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Purdue is always seeking out new, innovative ways to deliver the same superior learning experience to our non-traditional and international students that our on-campus students receive," said Mark Sharp, director of Hook Telecommunications Center at the school. "Our students are now watching webcasts of lectures, and our professors changed nothing in how they teach. The Cbox 3 has significantly improved the quality of our online courses, and has made my job of getting the courses out to our non-traditional and international students much easier."

To operate the appliance, a presenter plugs his or her computer into the device. For live video capture of the presenter, the box includes six video inputs, including support for up to three PTZ cameras. The Cbox 3 records audio input, video input, slides, animations and whatever else is being shown on the computer. Text is recorded on the fly, and the software running the appliance uses the text to create both chapters and a table of contents. These allow users to navigate through a presentation.

The viewer skin is brandable. The recordings work on PCs as well as portable media devices, such as the iPhone, and can be run as a live stream or archived.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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