Higher Education Faces a Storm of Change with Video at the Center

I think it’s fair to say that higher education is experiencing a storm of change, battered on one side by economics and by technology on the other. Early this year Jeff Selingo, editorial director of 高等教育编年史, 写了一篇文章他称这个系统“被打乱了”.” He cites several recent innovations in online education that demonstrate how technology is a disrupting force in education.

One thing Selingo points to is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s new MITx程序, which aims to offer certificates to students who complete that university’s free online courses. 另一个是苹果重新推出的iTunes U, which is fueled by the company’s new—and free—iBooks Author app that enables educators to create integrated online courses that package together audio, video, 课堂讲稿, and interactive materials optimized for iOS devices. Already there are dozens of complete courses available without cost in the iTunes U catalog.

Online video is most definitely one of the core technologies making these disruptive innovations possible. If we see this disruption as a storm, then I think that video is actually at the eye. 视频提供了关键的生命线, connecting traditional classroom teaching to the online environment, while also letting instruction escape the bounds of the brick-and-mortar school.

To 流媒体 readers and industry veterans these points might seem obvious, 我可能听起来像是在拉拉队. 但我的观点不是鼓吹. Rather, I wish to make it clear that this moment of disruption is also one of great opportunity. It is an opportunity to participate in and benefit from the reimagining of education, 这也是一个错过的机会.

此时此刻, a school or college that doesn’t have a video strategy is not ready for an online learning strategy. It doesn’t matter if your school is using a learning management system (LMS), 让学生写博客, 或者使用在线协作工具. That’s because your students, and a growing number of your teachers, want to use video. They want to share clips, create demonstrations and lectures, and submit video assignments. 仍然, odds are that your existing LMS or collaboration tool doesn’t support these uses well, 如果有的话.

Many schools have taken to Google’s collaboration Apps. 但你试过分享视频吗? Sure, Google also owns YouTube, but there’s no real integration with Apps. Users can’t collaboratively work on videos with the same degree of privacy and ease that they can edit a spreadsheet.

Trying to use video in a major LMS platform such as Blackboard simply can be an exercise in frustration. 的确，在线视频平台, 比如创作, offer plug-ins and building blocks that integrate with an LMS. Yet that also means a school has to adopt an online video platform in the first place, which is certainly a component to having an actual video strategy.

不过, having a video strategy is more than selecting a video platform or lecture capture system. 在选择平台之前, the leaders of a school or program really need to figure out what exactly they want to do with video. 更具体地说, they need to assess how teachers want to use video now and how they might use it in the very near future.

They need to find out what their students’ expectations are and aim not just to meet them, 但要超越它们. 让我们面对现实吧, 今天的新生的期望——观看, 拍摄, and editing video on their iPads—seem light-years away from what today’s seniors had available to them just 4 years ago. 更重要的是, 学生是焦点, and their needs and expectations should matter more than the needs of administrators and IT directors.

The objective is not just to keep up with the competition and survive the disruption. The objective is to bring education to more students while using the advantages of online technology to control costs and enhance learning. 工具在这里. 是时候使用它们了.

This article was originally published in the April/May 2012 issue of 流媒体杂志 标题为“视频颠覆者”."