Roles Involved in Coursecasting

Based on ideas generated at Opencast planning workshops, below are some of the roles that may be involved in a course capture, processing and distribution system.  For each role, I posted some concerns or requirements for each role that were brought up at the workshops.  Feel free to add to or revise this list.

Instructor/Faculty Member

Generally speaking, this is the presenter, speaker or author of the content.  In some organizations, Client, Contributor or Course Team is more appropriate.

• Want the process as automated as possible and without interference
• Want to be confident talk is being captured
• Recording can't interfere with teaching style
• Want to link/cite/annotate other podcasts for my courses
• Want to attach slides, pdfs, etc. to video at specific moments
• Want powerpoint capture
• Automated titling, tagging
• Want content identified within a lecture and semester
• Want training
• Want to easily be able to opt-in for podcasting
• Want to be able to edit my podcasts
• Want to be able to remove/unpublish my podcasts
• Want the best quality podcast
• Want to link video/audio to course syllabus
• Want to create a new podcast from several other podcasts
• Be able to check page hits/downloads, who is viewing my lectures
• Want to know when I'm cited in other colleagues' podcasts
• Want to use my podcasts to market myself
• Want collaborative tagging by peers to enrich the material
• Know that the technology is adding value to the student experience
• Want to be able to add and organize supplemental materials
• Want to be able to schedule the release of my media

Learner

• Want high quality video
• Want to be able to use multiple devices, formats and OS
• Want to be able to view lectures offline
• Want to be able to find things quickly and easily
• Want to access recordings with minimal delay
• Want to see slides clearly
• Want to be able to respond to lectures, ask questions, rate content
• Want to be able to mark and share parts of the video that are key concepts
• Want to know what the "must see" parts of the lecture are and skip the "administrative" parts
• Want synched transcriptions, indexed search, to be able to play at point of word in transcription
• Want automated chaptering of videos
• Want to be able to search across multiple lectures and other institutions for content
• Want to be able to bookmark key points in a lecture
• Want to be able to do collaborative tagging/annotation, want to see what fellow students found valuable
• Want closed captions
• Want to link parts of the video with resources that expand beyond what is being explained

IT Staff

These are the people that need to install and maintain technical aspects of the system.  May be centralized Information Services staff or more local, departmental staff.  May also include developers who need to develop customizations against a solution.

• Infrastructure should scale easily and cost-effectively
• Want a robust system with little downtime
• Don't want to be a podcast genius to install the software
• Need to make sure I have enough storage
• Want well documented code
• Want standardized formats, uniform development platform
• Want to be able to leverage technology I know well
• Want a Low cost capture and delivery infrastructure
• Want an automated capture schedule with variable start time
• Want to be able to easily monitor backend system for failure
• Want to monitor encoding and delivery performance
• Want accessible archive solution to retrieve content for republishing or encoding

Administrator (program manager)

This is the person responsible for operations and running of the system. The responsibilities and scope of this role varies widely from institution to the next, but generally involves scheduling and monitoring activities relating to capture and processing, managing metadata, quality control, media editing, responding to inquiries from instructors or users of media, and managing distribution and access to media.

• Want to offer digital sign-off for media release
• Want to integrate with existing LMS
• Want to achieve ADA (acecssibility) compliance
• Want to be able to feature or highlight content
• Want distributed administration
• Want to be able to upload in batch and in multiple formats
• Automatic creation of metadata
• Want an easy way to trim, cut, edit video
• Want to be able to upload to multiple distribution channels with a single process
• Want to be able to unpublish a lecture across all distribution channels
• Want to be able to update metadata on all distribution channels
• Want ease in scheduling course/event recordings
• Want to be able to invite instructors to podcast
• Want access to statistics
• Want to be able to measure effectiveness/learning outcomes
• System needs to support our business process

AV Staff/Media Producer

Generally concerned with capture of courses and events, possibly video editing, and ability to input into a system.

• Want one standard setup for technology in the classroom
• Want to be able to mix different media types within a session
• Want to be able to capture from multiple inputs
• Want a display of upcoming production schedule

Instructional Support/Trainers

Provides training and support for instructors and faculty in course capture and the impact on teaching and learning.

• Want to help instructors put media into their course sites
• Want to demystify Intellectual Property Rights
• Want to use videos to highlight best teaching practices

Sponsor

• Want to be able to install the most equipment for the least money
• Want to be able to add a banner or intro video
• Make sure instructors agree to terms and conditions
• Want to ensure the investment in infrastructure improves teaching and learning (ROI)
• Don't want to get sued for copyright
• Want to leverage physical resources across multiple institutions if possible

Lawyer/Legal

• Want to know if podcasts contain copywritten materials
• Need to be able to check rights clearances
• Want audit paperwork for release forms
• Need to be confident we are meeting accessibility laws
• Need to apply identity/branding to content

Public Affairs

• Want a set of "top picks" that I can show to donors
• Need to apply identity/branding to content

Archivist/Curator/Librarian

• Need a permanent unique identifier for media
• Need recordings to be accessible for a long time (may become historically relevant) and in the highest possible resolution
• Need fast and good search scenarios
• Need to provide did redundance
• Need categorized universal nomenclature, naming convention categories