Description of System

Imagine this scenario

A lecturer walks into their next lecture, turns the microphone on and delivers a lecture. An hour or so later, without any human intervention, an appropriately titled link automatically appears on the web page of that unit adding the just finished lecture to the list of all the lecture recordings for that unit.

A student, logs into that unit's web page from anywhere in the world and clicks on this new link to bring up a window with a streaming high-resolution recording of the lecturer's computer synchronised with the audio from the lecture and watches it while typing notes in Word. Another student jumps on the bus and pulls out their iPod or mobile phone and discovers the latest audio and video podcasts of their lectures already downloaded and waiting for them to view.

A video image can also be captured by the document camera in the lecture theatre which, like an OHP, projects a presenter's hand written or printed notes up on the big screen, but also automatically records a video stream as they write or notate those notes. No extra personnel or setup is required for this to occur in an appropriately equipped venue and the only possible change a lecturer needs to make from delivering a traditional lecture is to ensure they use the microphone and use the document camera or a Powerpoint slideshow instead of an OHP or whiteboard.

iLectures at Curtin

This is now the reality here at Curtin University in 40 lecture theatres which have all been equipped with Automatic Digitisers as part of the Curtin iLectures Project. Staff using other venues can upload or send in an audio or video tape or DVD recording of their lecture or tutorial to Central AudioVisual Support (CAVS) in building 309 where the staff upload the recordings into the iLecture system. At the time of writing over 630 units from Business, Nursing, Engineering, Humanities and other schools, multiple seminars and conferences have used or are currently using the system with almost 14,000 lectures, seminars and conference sessions recorded and have been viewed almost 400,000 times. See Examples of these Curtin iLectures for more info.

The iLecture system has seen continued growth in usage by staff and continued dramatic increase in the levels of usage by students. We are now recording up to 200 hours of lectures and seminars each week. The number of lectures recorded in 2007 (3,300) is over 200% that of 2006 (1,500) and the number of lecture recordings viewed by students is up over 330% from 45,000 in 2006 to 150,000 in 2007.

Note that these figures represent students selecting a format from a pop-up menu, clicking thru a copyright notice and finally viewing the hour(s) long audio or video stream, so it is a far more reliable metric than web page hits. These figures do not include podcast iLecture formats, so the real total is higher again.

Lecture Enhancement not Replacement

It needs to be stressed that the iLecture system should not however be viewed as a replacement for traditional face-to-face lectures. On the contrary, good teaching practice involving engagement and dialog with lecture participants precludes a recording and playback system from being able to ever fully duplicate a live lecture. However, as an extension to traditional lectures and as a mechanism for improving the flexibility and reach of such, this system boasts many advantages. Students with sight, hearing and learning disabilities are also particularly enabled by the system with UWA totally eliminating the need to hire note-takers for their Equity students.

Curtin iLecture System Status

A team from Central Audio Visual Services is continually expanding the system at Curtin with 40 Lecture venues now equipped. with automatic iLecture systems. Professional development workshops and seminars for staff on incorporating the iLecture system into teaching and learning activities at Curtin have been running for a while and a Staff Guide for using the system is available from the iLectures website. Now that just about all main lecture theatres are equipped with iLecture syatems, smaller lecture rooms and case study rooms are next on the agenda. Costs to install an iLecture Automatic Digitiser in an existing venue ranges from about $5000 up depending on configuration and existing AV equipment in each venue.