Highlights from Fall Digital Lecture Pilot

Highlights from Fall Digital Lecture Pilot In an effort to improve lecture recording and distribution, Information and Educational Technology piloted a digital lecture recording and distribution system during fall 2005. Four classes participated in the pilot, three from the Psychology Department and one from the Nutrition Department. According to the Report on Fall 2005 Pilot and Winter 2006 Developments: "During winter 2006 quarter Computer Lab Management (CLM) and Mediaworks saw dramatic growth in the number of users of this system. Currently 13 classes use the campus podcast system with nearly 1,200 current users accessing digital lectures." The report goes on to note that a challenge to a full-scale deployment of the digital lecture system is the limited availability and installation of digital recorders. Classroom Technology Services is working with the Registrar to purchase and install permanent digital recorders in ten additional lecture halls over summer 2006. The rooms selected were those that currently have cassette recorders. More information about podcasting and the pilot can be found online at podcast.ucdavis.edu, or contact Rodd Kleinschmidt at 752-8121 or rkleinschmidt@ucdavis.edu.

Highlights from the Fall 2005 Pilot

  • During fall 2005, MP3 lecture recordings were downloaded by up to 61 percent of the students in a given course. The most popular downloads were two review sessions.
  • Excluding review session recordings, the download average among the four pilot courses was 25 percent of enrolled students.
  • Both digital MP3 recordings and cassette recordings were made of every lecture for Psychology 101. The MP3 recordings were downloaded by 43 percent of the enrolled students. Only 2.4 percent of the enrolled students checked out cassettes (7 out of 296), with one student accounting for half of these checkouts.