EchoSystem 5 Adds Classroom Capture Software, Heat Maps

  • By Tim Sohn
  • 04/09/12

Echo360 has released EchoSystem 5, an update to the lecture capture and blended-learning platform that adds live webcasting features and new software-based classroom capture.

EchoSystem provides the tools for colleges and universities to create, manage, and share lectures through learning management systems. It offers the option of using a hosted environment or the college or university's back-end infrastructure. EchoSystem provides the choice of using on-demand or live webcasting and software. There are four capture options: SafeCapture HD, Classroom Capture, Personal Capture, and Media Import. Students can bookmark sections in lectures and have conversations with other students on the discussion boards.

Other features include:

  • Creation of lecture schedules organized by instructor, classroom, date, and time; and capturing through a Web interface or room control system;
  • Capture of multiple types of multimedia including visuals from document cameras, audio, and video;
  • A lecture capture monitoring tool;
  • Conversion of audio, video, and images to rich media and podcast formats;
  • Adding copyright information, logos, video intros, and watermarks later; and
  • An indexing feature, which lets the instructor add keywords to lectures, so they can be searched in the cloud.

The new features in EchoSystem 5 include:

  • Classroom Capture software, which is scalable for an entire school or one class and doesn't require any dedicated appliances;
  • Support for two USB cameras or document cameras with Classroom Capture software;
  • Heat Maps, which use red, orange and blue colors to identify areas where more focus may be needed and which lectures are creating the most discussions;
  • Pause and resume buttons; and
  • Support for Apple OS X Lion.

There are several licensing options for EchoSystem 5, depending on what features the college or university is looking for. Echo System5 lets students watch lectures on both Android and Apple IOS platforms.

For more information, visit the Echo360 Web site.

About the Author

Tim Sohn is a 10-year veteran of the news business, having served in capacities from reporter to editor-in-chief of a variety of publications including Web sites, daily and weekly newspapers, consumer and trade magazines, and wire services. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @editortim.

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