Abstract:

The college classrooms of today are often present on the computer monitors, iPads, and Smart Phones of the school’s students. In order to keep the students engaged, professional educators need to utilize the technologies of the digital age to capture and maintain the interest of the students (Salazar, 2010). When students are in the traditional face-to-face classroom environments, the use of educational technology can be instrumental in student engagement and learning (Lisenbee, 2009). The use of Smart Boards, a technology interactive whiteboard, is one tool that educators can use to increase engagement in the classroom. The ability to present content on a SMART Board and capture the lecture for online learning is step further into the digital age for most universities. By combining strong curriculum with educational technology, universities can utilize the assets of their faculty expertise to educate students in both on-ground and online venues.

The use of the Internet is a powerful educational tool when it provides multimedia technologies for its students (Dey, Burn, & Gerdes, 2009). Capturing and delivering the lectures of a university’s professors on the web allows students to engage the learning at their convenience and pace. Enhancing the lecture capture with the use of SMART Boards can provide a multi-sensory learning experience for the instructor as well as the student. When a lecture utilizes an instructor’s presence and voice with written content (e.g., PowerPoint), the multimedia content engages the cognitive structures of the students in a positive manner (Dey et al.). The study results presented by Dey et al. suggest that students prefer to see their instructors during a lecture and their learning outcomes are enhanced by lecture capture technologies.

National University (NU) is conducting a pilot project that utilizes SMART Board technologies with lecture capture software. The project’s goals include the integration of SMART Boards in on-ground classrooms, capturing lectures for immediate student use (e.g., reviewing content), and developing a video library of lectures for embedding in online courses. This presentation will provide an overview of the project and a review of its status.

Keywords:

SMART, digital, lecture capture, universities, educational technology, multimedia, multi-sensory, student engagement.