The flipped classroom is such an amazing idea, honestly… I’m jealous. Finally, some really smart people got together to prove that the concept of “Homework” is actually counter-intuitive to learning. In this blog post, we will discuss how the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California is “flipping the classroom one video at a time.” But what is the flipped classroom? And how does this concept help students learn by bringing the hands-on “homework” classwork back into the classroom?

Lecture Capture Tools for Distance Learning

The “Flipped Classroom” is a proven form of blended learning which flips the traditional educational process. Instead of sending students home with homework each week, teachers bring engagement into the classroom by doing the homework in class. In this way, students can learn at their own pace, at home, using online learning management and multimedia tools. At the University of Southern California, the faculty and staff have placed high importance on the production quality for the lectures they produce to build out their online course resources.

As you can imagine, the need for lecture capture solutions has grown significantly as teachers prepare to create video content to supplement student learning. As the demand for video content has increased, the University of Southern California decided to create a studio space where professors could go to have professional videos created. Gary San Angel is the Distance Education Operations Specialist, we interviewed to learn more about his program designed to “Flip Classrooms, One Video at a Time.”

Wirecast Lecture Capture

Outside of the studio, Gary often works with teachers in classroom and auditorium environments. Using the remotely controllable PTZOptics NDI cameras, Gary has developed a functional plan to extend the schools capabilities. Working with the schools information technology department Gary has secured a static IP address on the university’s extensive network for the PTZOptics camera. This allows Gary to easily send out the camera to any location on the schools network and record a lecture. Gary pairs the PTZOptics camera with a small audio mixer used to capture audio. Sometimes the audio mixer features a directional microphone and other times Gary uses a wireless lapel. Either way, Gary is able to record broadcast quality 1080p video connecting the PTZOptics cameras using NDI with Wirecast. Inside Wirecast, Gary is able monitor the presentation and setup multiple camera presets. Gary has also used the NDI scan converter to capture video from PowerPoint presentations to be included in each recorded lecture. Wirecast provides the video mixing capabilities to setup picture and picture layouts.

Finally, you can download a high-level PowerPoint presentation outlining the Distance Learning Program at USC here – https://ptzoptics.com/USC

Sincerely,

Paul Richards

Chief Streaming Officer

PTZOptics

[email protected]

Audio Title: Flipping the Classroom w new Lecture Capture Tools at USC

Video Duration: 0:07:13

Distance Learning Green Screen Room at USC

Transcript

Paul Richards: Hi everybody. Paul Richards here with PTZOptics. I’m here with Gary San Angel, from the University of Southern California at the Keck Medicine School and Gary has been using our PTZOptics NDI camera models in a very interesting way and I wanted to ask you a little bit about that.

Gary San Angel: Sure. So what’s really exciting about the PTZOptics NDI camera is it’s really kind of revolutionizing the idea of doing lecture capture. In traditional lecture capture, you have an AV person who goes out on site, who records or you have to like really spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to upgrade a room.

Now with the PTZOptics NDI camera, we can literally install this or put it on a tripod, have a little mixer. I have some pictures where we were actually doing a test a few weeks ago and literally controlled this camera like miles away, as long as you’re set on the network.

So this camera was in another auditorium and in our master control, I was able to feed this camera and record both the content and the video using NDI, which is so awesome. I mean I love it. It’s great.

Paul Richards: So you’re using Wirecast, I understand, which is a very popular video production software. It also allows you to live stream and record. In fact we’re recording right now on Wirecast with these two cameras and I wanted to ask you a little bit about the networking side of things because I know the University of Southern California certainly has quite a large network.

Gary San Angel: Yes.

Paul Richards: And we had to work together a little bit to make sure that all the IT requirements worked for NDI and you were able to actually get an NDI stream work for four days continuously.

Gary San Angel: Yes. So one of the key things, especially in a network, as security-driven as USC is, we really worked with our IT to make sure A, we had a static IP. So you got to have a static IP to make this work, so it doesn’t fall off the network. Two, through the help of PTZOptics and also through the new tech Access Manager, we were able to get this working for four days straight.

Paul Richards: Wow.

Testing new Distance Learning Tools for LMS

Gary San Angel: So that’s really exciting and really good news for us because it was an initial thought in my mind. This should work, you know. But then when you put it out in the field, we saw it does work, you know. So that’s super exciting to us and our IT is beginning to understand a little bit more about network protocols for NDI. So there needs to be some homework given to them around it for – and some buy-in and understanding. So once we got that, it all squared away. We really made some progress.

Paul Richards: So we ended up giving the camera static IP address. We used the NDI Access Manager to make sure that the computers had static entries for the IP connectivity …

Gary San Angel: Yes.

Paul Richards: … over your network and of course the due diligence. We worked with the Information Technology Department and made sure that they were on board with the NDI HX, the high-efficiency video that will be going over the local area network, which is obviously very important and can be – you know, it has to go through all the right procedures at a university level like this.

So let’s talk about what you’re actually doing with the video content that you’re creating here in the studio and that you’re doing around the campus.

Gary San Angel: So one of the things that we do every month is creating a development series for the SC CTSI which is the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute. So we do a number of career development recordings and one of the things that I’ve been testing is to see how we can use NDI as a means of elevating our ability to have a lot more mobility, because of this robotic camera, in terms of shots, as well as the use of NDI being able to control that from miles and miles away is unbelievable.

I mean it’s crazy to be able to think that you can have this kind of control and quality within this small camera. So I’m really excited about it. I’m excited about the potential to really save hundreds of dollars in resources, in funds, to build out studios or even spaces with just a minimal sort of run and gun PTZOptics camera, a small mic mixer, which is what we attach to it and a little shotgun mic. You can obviously have a lav connected to a speaker and really do some amazing lecture capture recordings with this little camera.

Paul Richards: Yeah, and it must be really convenient for you because now you had your studio here at the Keck – I guess this is Building 2100. But this is a massive campus. So to be able to send a camera out or have one in place already and not have to spend maybe – it could take you an hour to get from one side of this campus to the other.

Gary San Angel: Yes, absolutely and with LA traffic, yes. You add another helper [0:05:38] [Phonetic] onto that.

Paul Richards: So it’s really nice that you can leverage that network that’s there.

Gary San Angel: Yes.

Paul Richards: And get very low latency, high quality recordings from your office. So you can be more productive. I mean – and have a great connection. So I think that’s awesome. Thanks for taking the time to watch this video. This has been Gary San Angel from the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine here using the NDI camera showing that at a higher education level, with a little support from IT, you can really do a lot.

Gary San Angel: Absolutely. And with the new technologies that we have, we’re just super excited about NDI and working with the PTZOptics camera. This is such great stuff. So get one. Seriously it’s amazing.

Paul Richards: Thanks for taking the time to watch this video, everybody. Click that “Subscribe” button if you like to see more interviews like this and share this with somebody in your school or higher education institution that should learn more. Take care everybody. Bye.

[End of transcript]