Eastern New Mexico University Turns to Lecture Capture for Distance Learning Programs

Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU), located in Portales, NM, is using lecture capture technology to produce and offer distance learning courses to graduate, undergraduate, and high school students.

ENMU is using Mediasite, a lecture capture solution from Sonic Foundry, to create its online learning classes. The school deployed the solution in 2012 after receiving monies from a Title V grant. The institution has outfitted five classrooms with Mediasite recorders and also uses the recorder to capture events that take place outside the classroom.

The university acquired Mediasite as a way to provide courses to non-traditional students—those working or raising families—as well as those living in rural areas, said ENMU Curriculum Development Specialist Roy Marquez in a statement from Sonic Foundry.

"Considering we’re in New Mexico, a lot of our students live in rural communities," explained Marquez, in the prepared statement, "and Mediasite helps us reach out to them and provide that support and that warmth, the things they’re used to having in a traditional classroom setting. It bridges that gap."

In the first semester of deploying the new solution, more than 4,000 students—approximately 70 percent of the enrolled student body—took "at least one online course via Mediasite," according to the statement. Before the Mediasite implementation, ENMU distance learning students had to drive to a site where they would watch video of the recorded class session.

ENMU is using its new lecture capture recorder for a number of other initiatives, including a flipped classroom pilot, hybrid classes, asynchronous distance learning, a dual enrollment program for local high school students, and to record special school events and guest lecturers.

About the Author

Kanoe Namahoe is online editor for 1105 Media's Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].

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