Frequently
Asked Questions
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Who
should be contacted for more information or assistance in
utilizing one of these classroom capture technologies?
Questions
regarding the use of these applications and/or requests to
record presentations may be directed to Michael Arenth, Assistant
Director for Instructional Media Services at arenth@pitt.edu.
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How are
the captured/archived presentations distributed (i.e., how
can these presentations be accessed)?
Through
the use of Hitachi’s ShareWizard
Pen and MultiMediaNotePad software. Janus
allows the instructor’s slide and annotations to
be archived for later use. Captured slides/annotations
may be saved in standard formats, such as HTML or PDF,
or left in their native format. These slides/annotations
may then be made available to students for later review
over the internet or network. Smart Notebook files
can be convert to PDF or Html files.
Tegrity
and MediaSite presentations may be accessed in a variety
of ways. First, students may participate (real time)
in classes via the internet. Next, students may use the
internet to access the archived presentations residing
on the Tegrity or MediaSite server. Finally,
if the instructor elected to transfer the presentation
to CDs and distribute those CDs to the class,
students would need the CD and a computer with Windows
Media Player to view the presentation.
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Approximately
twenty-five (25) classrooms have Janus functionality built-in
to them and there are approximately six (6) portable Janus
resources that may be setup in almost any classroom. In addition, the University’s
School of Engineering has four (4) classrooms that utilize
40 inch plasma screens with a touch sensitive Matisse overlay
purchased from Smart Technologies. This configuration
accomplishes the same goals as Janus.
The University
supports two Tegrity Instructor Carts. These “carts”,
which include the Tegrity workstation, video camera, lavaliere
microphones, and Hitachi LCD EM Panel, are portable resources
available in the following campus buildings: Alumni Hall,
David Lawrence Hall, Posvar Hall, and the Law School Building.
As the MediaSite Capture Stations
are portable, MediaSite presentations can be created in almost
any classroom on campus.
Any questions
regarding whether or not a specific classroom is equipped
or can be equipped with one of these technologies may
be directed to Michael Arenth, Assistant
Director for Instructional Media Services at arenth@pitt.edu.
Tegrity and MediaSite are both
multimedia learning technologies designed to capture what happens
in a classroom. While these applications are similar, the following
is a list of subtle differences between the features offered
and how they have been implemented at the University.
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Post-production: Tegrity
provides limited post-production editing capabilities, such
as the insertion or removal of Tegrity slides. Post-production
editing is not a MediaSite supported feature.
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Text Area: The
lower left corner of the Tegrity screen is a dynamic text
area that is synchronized upon the slide being displayed.
The corresponding section of the MediaSite screen is also
a text area; however, this section is static and does not
change during the presentations. As
such, Tegrity supports closed captioning, while MediaSite
does not.
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Annotations: During
playback, the annotations made by the instructor are more
smoothly viewed in Tegrity than MediaSite. The reason
for this fact that MediaSite “captures” a
snapshot of the instructor’s entire screen every
few seconds. As such, during playback, the annotations
may not appear to be as smooth because the user is not
viewing a continuous timeline with respect to the captured
images.
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Display: While
Tegrity only captures/displays the presentation/application
that has been selected within the Tegrity framework, MediaSite
displays the instructor’s entire desktop. As such,
it is easier for the instructor to navigate between applications
with MediaSite than Tegrity.
Implementation/Model: The
Tegrity model includes one workstation to both capture
and display the presentation, while the MediaSite model
includes separate workstations to record and present the
lecture. Any PowerPoint slides or other materials
prepared by the instructor do not need to be loaded onto
the same workstation as the MediaSite application. This
affords the instructor the freedom to utilize his/her personal
workstation or the classroom’s built-in workstation to deliver the presentation.
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Availability: The
MediaSite Capture Station is more mobile than the Tegrity
Cart. As such, Tegrity is available in four campus facilities,
while MediaSite can be utilized in almost any classroom on
campus.
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- What
if students do not have a high speed connection to the
internet?
Tegrity
and MediaSite allow the instructor to proactively address
the issue of high speed connectivity. Presentations
are captured at predetermined bandwidth levels. If
a user does not have a high speed connection, the
user may select a lower
bandwidth recording. The lower
bandwidth presentations contain the same information,
but the quality of the audio and video is not be as high.
Alternatively,
the Tegrity/MediaSite presentation may be burned to a CD
or downloaded to a workstation. Placing the Tegrity/MediaSite
presentation on a CD allows the instructor to record at
a high quality level, while still allowing students to
play back the same high quality recording even if they
do not have access to a high speed internet connection.
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