Online education is no longer a future topic with AREC’s Media Capture System
By Sithembiso Xaba
Technology innovators, now’s the time to look at online education in detail and make the necessary adjustments.
With online education, students are allowed to participate in lectures remotely from anywhere in the world. Classes can go uninterrupted. Meaning, students don’t need to cancel their course applications and universities don’t have to lay off their staff. This is a crucial advantage as an increasing number of universities and schools are taking note of this and are adapting accordingly.
Some turn to video conferencing software, while others choose to study and work remotely with AREC’s Media Capture System. Conferencing software applications allow teachers to connect with students and hold lectures using very basic devices. Students can ask questions in real time, in the same manner which they do in a lecture hall. However such software is limited in:
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Maximum number of participants
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Content sharing abilities, and
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Potential connection problems.
Participants also need to make sure that their microphones and cameras are disabled, otherwise they’ll distract everyone participating in the lesson. This is already a nuisance with just a few participants, and it becomes a true problem when loads of them are not turned off.
On that scale, setting up takes plenty of time for both students and lecturers. These are some of the main concerns among education practitioners who rely on video conferencing to conduct lessons.
Fortunately, these concerns are covered by stand-alone, specifically designed products, from AREC. Investing in this complete solution has a few and effective benefits:
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Flexible arrangement of lectures. They can be streamed online, recorded for offline use, uploaded to VOD platforms and servers, all at the same time. This saves time for both lecturers and students. Full courses can be recorded in advance and shown to different groups of students, leaving lectures time to address specific questions in Q&A sessions.
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Students have access to a database of lecture recordings, giving them a way to revise material anytime during their course.
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In terms of content sharing, AREC allows users to show and use up to 4 video sources at the same time – such as; a computer with slides, a document camera, a lecturer camera, tablet, and more (depending on the model of Media Station chosen).
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Lastly, connection quality and other participants don’t impact the lectures either – video quality can be adjusted for different networks, and students don’t interrupt each other.
A great number of universities and schools worldwide, and in South Africa, have already protected their present and future work with Media Capture Systems.
To know more about them, or find out how our systems can help your organisation, please contact our representatives or visit our website and we will happily assist you.