EVALUATION OF LECTURE CAPTURE APPLIANCES

Lecture capture is the process of recording an instructional presentation and rebroadcasting that recording for academic purposes. Lectures can be recorded both via hardware or software solutions. Either solution is designed to record both the instructor’s presentation materials - be it a PowerPoint slide deck or other computer content, or visual presentation such as biological dissection - and an audio narration from the instructor, as well as - optionally - video of the instructor.

In 2016, Oregon State University undertook an evaluation of lecture capture equipment from top manufacturers in a "shoot out" to determine those which offered the most complete suite of features. Of primary interest in the evaluation was the equipment's ability to operate independent of any single vendor's delivery platform, the device's ability to record multiple sources separately, ability to integrate with control systems such as those from Crestron and AMX, and streaming capabilities. Ultimately six devices were tested on 27 different criteria and given a total score from 0 to 100, with each criterion weighed for relevance related to current lecture capture needs.