The system, one of the largest in Europe, gives students access to video and audio recordings of many of their lectures and other teaching activities, providing a flexible learning experience. It uses the Mediasite platform, developed by Sonic Foundry.
Students can now use the system to return to and review previous lectures that may have been on a particularly complex topic or to simply use it for revision purposes.
Professor Neil Morris, Director of Digital Learning at the University of Leeds, said: “The new technology gives students the chance to learn and study at their own pace and will let them revisit course content at any point in the year.
“This campus-wide deployment of new digital tools has been rolled out to ensure that students can access and benefit from the new system from the beginning of term.”
The University has invested more than £2m to set up the new system, which will record up to 50,000 hours of teaching activity every academic year. About 250 teaching spaces in the University have been equipped with the technology which was installed by Universal AV and AV2000. Once lectures have been captured, they will be made available within the University’s virtual learning environment (VLE).
The new technology has been produced and overseen by Sonic Foundry using its Mediasite webcasting platform. Mediasite Recorders capture the audio and visual content in teaching rooms for students to watch live or on-demand within the VLE. In addition, a desktop capture software tool, My Mediasite, gives faculty and students the ability to create and share presentations from desktops or mobile devices.
Gary Weis, Sonic Foundry CEO, said: “This year Sonic Foundry has worked closely with the University of Leeds to introduce a smooth transition to its campus-wide lecture capture and video content management initiative.
“Students learn at different paces and using Mediasite provides a flexible and personalised approach to learning to a generation of students that expects an abundance of technology in the classroom.”