From Classroom to iTunes U

Media Capture 3 of 3: Workflow & Delivery from Academic Technology on Vimeo.

The Workflows

If you’re reading this, you already know there are a myriad of ways you can create workflows for moving content.  I’ve spoken to several other schools that serve content many ways.  Some push the video into an FTP space where students push the files to iTunes U.  Some use other media servers and push the files to the Web.  Some stream.  Some use Woolamaloo to push to iTunes U.  Some use Automator.  Some Podcast Producer.  There’s also the OpenCast project and enterprise YouTube as options.  If you want to spend some more money, Tegrity is a solution we were very impressed with.  TechSmith just released Camtasia Relay which looks promising as well.  Whether it’s fully-automated like Berkley with cameras in classrooms that automatically turn on, record, and post with no interaction of faculty, to full-service models that use tape, workflows are definitely not one size fits all.  But in our business, they are necessary evils.

Putting the Pieces Together

Not only to we have to create workflows, we have to consider the UI for students, experience for faculty to get academic buy-in to get content to students, and make sure that it integrates with whatever back-end systems and infrastructure your campus has.  Oh, then there’s the budget issue.  If you can get the stars to align, you MAY be able to make things work.  Here is what we have set up in the “server room”:

• Active Directory
• Blackboard 7 (upgrading to 9 this summer)
• Vanderbuilt Bb Building Block for iTunes U customized by our software team
• Hosted iTunes U
• Leopard Server with PCP integration
• New Intel iMac lab and one 8-core Mac Pro

#1  Tape to iMovie/FCP to iTunes U

This scenario we import the Mini-DV tape into either iMovie (quick and dirty) or Final Cut Pro.  We create titles in Photoshop, export them as .jpg, and insert them into the timeline.  Either way, we export to m4v and upload the file to iTunes U.

Screencast Example

Classroom Capture from a classroom from our YouTube Channel:

#2:  Podcast Capture

We’ve tried this scenario and tested it with minimal success.  In a controlled enviornment, we’ve hooked up a MacBook via Firewire to the camera rig and hard-wired the MacBook to the network.  Then connected Podcast Capture to the rig, selected a class from an already existing workflow, and recorded using the naitive app.  It worked for recordings less than 5 minutes.  Posted directly to iTunes U.  However, it has not worked in a longer lecture scenario.  The problem with this is if the file doesn’t upload properly, the recording is lost.  We learned this the hard way.  So we always back up everything with tape.  This was mildly successful with speech classes in our COM department for students doing 3-5 minute speeches.  Mildly.  I’ll explain in scenario #3.

#3  Quicktime Pro with PCP

With Podcast Capture not reliable for us at this stage, we tried using the Firewire scenario hooked up to the camera rig (tape backup), and recording directly to QT pro.  This provides a .mov file on the desktop that can be uploaded to PCP.  This gave us a better success rate with short 5 minute speeches.

Uploading Options

We use a variety of uploading options.  None of them reliable.

• Woolamaloo |  Download Mac |  Download PC
  
• Woolamaloo Automator Actions for iTunes U |  Download
  
• Podcast Producer native app
• Podcast Producer Web app [was a free download but apparently Apple bought it and it's not available any longer for free]
• iTunes U Web interface

I’ll spend some time writing later about the iTunes U upload problems we’ve had.  Any of you who use iTunes U are more than welcome and encouraged to share your successes and failures.  So, these are what we’re doing at a high level.  I can provide anyone more details and open our house to all.  We want to partner with anyone who desires to share and provide the best tools for our students to learn.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a huge shout-out to Rich Wolf from University of Illinois at Chicago for writing these great apps and providing them free.  Thanks a bunch, Rich.  Keep up the great work.  Now that I’ve provided an overview of our process and workflow, what is yours?  Am I behind, or should I be presenting to you?  Let the conversation begin.