10 Features to Look for in a Lecture Capture Solution

It’s important the lecture capture solution you choose integrate with your school or district’s learning management system (LMS). This allows students to access all digital course content (including videos) through one familiar interface. Be sure the product you choose is compatible with most major LMS’s including Blackboard, Instructure Canvas, Moodle and Desire2Learn. This will future-proof your technology investment should your district move to a different learning management platform. Pictured here is Collaaj,which automatically publishes videos to any learning management system.

Choose a solution that allows you to edit video clips. You may want to cut out any mistakes you made while recording or eliminate excess content. You may also want to zoom in on a specific part of the video or zoom out. Pictured here is theMediasite editor. You can see options for trimming the clip and adding in a fade as a transition.

You might want to consider purchasing a lecture capture solution that has the ability to automatically publish videos directly to sites like YouTube without having to download and post the video yourself. Pictured here is Opencast Matterhorn, which publishes videos to YouTube, iTunes and iTunesU.

If students are watching videos, they are most likely doing it on a mobile device. Make sure the product you choose creates content that is easy to watch on a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Pictured here is Camtasia, a mobile-friendly lecture capture solution.

Most teachers will want the ability to make notes or draw on the videos they create in order to highlight important information for students. Make sure the product you purchase allows for annotation. Pictured here is Tegrity. You can see where the instructor has added notes to enhance the video.

Some lecture capture solutions, like Panopto, feature the ability to schedule recordings. If you know you want to record a specific class, you can schedule the platform to capture content ahead of time. That way, teachers do not need to remember to set up for the recording every time.

It’s helpful for educators to be able to embed assessments in their videos. This is especially true in a flipped classroom where a teacher may want confirmation that students are watching the content posted online. Most popular learning management systems now include this capability, but you should always ask about this feature before moving ahead with a purchase. Your teachers will thanks you!

Depending on what your goal is with lecture capture, having a system that allows for custom branding may be important, especially if wish to post or promote videos on social media platforms for others to see. Pictured here is Echo 360, which allows schools to customize templates and add a school logo to videos.

Some lecture capture solutions, like Kaltura, provide the user with video analytics that give you an idea of how many people are watching your videos and which topics are most popular. Such usage statistics may be valuable in calculating ROI for your purchase.

If your school has an AV control system or smart room monitoring software, you might want to look into a lecture capture solution that can integrate with your existing systems. Pictured here is Presentation2Go, which integrates with AMX and Crestron control solutions.