Earlier this year Kaltura released its fourth annual “State of Video in Education” report. This is an international study that examines the evolving use of video in education. The main trend identified was a significant increase in video use for remote teaching and learning.
The report was reviewed in an article on Digital Journal (see: “The evolving use of video in education”). To find out more about interactive technology and its application we spoke with Kaltura’s Dr. Michal Tsur.
2nd degree connection – Co-founder & President, Kaltura, Inc
Digital Journal: Please can you explain what Kaltura does.
Dr. Michal Tsur: “Kaltura’s mission is to power any video experience and workflow. We are the leading video technology provider with video solutions for any organization. As a recognized leader in the EdVP (Education Video Platform), EVP (Enterprise Video Platform), OTT TV (Over the Top TV), and OVP (Online Video Platform) markets, Kaltura has emerged as the fastest growing video platform, and as the one with the widest use-case and appeal.
“We work with the largest telcos and media companies in the world to deliver engaging cloud TV services, we also power video based communication, collaboration and knowledge management tools for hundreds of large enterprises and work with hundreds of educational institutions to power teaching and learning experiences. We also provide tools for developers to embed our video technology and VPaaS in both new and mature platforms.
“The company is also the initiator and backer of the world’s leading open-source video-management project, which is home to more than 100,000 community members.”
DJ: You’ve recently conducted a survey about the State of Video in Education. What were the main findings?
Tsur: “Well, the most important finding is one that’s consistently held up for the four consecutive years we’ve run this survey — video is huge for education, and it’s only continuing to grow. 99 percent of institutions report they have teachers regularly incorporating video into their curriculum. 93 percent believe video increases satisfaction of students with their learning experience, 85 percent believe it increases student achievements, 70 percent think video increases the sense of affiliation of alumni with the institution, and 78 percent say it makes the on-boarding of new employees smoother.
“This year, we did see some interesting increases. 66 percent of respondents say their institutions are using video for remote teaching and learning, up from 28 percent in 2016, a 135 percent increase. More than half are using video for student assignments. Last year, only 10 percent said that more than half their student body was actively creating video. Now, 21 percent report that, a 110 percent jump.
“Another place we found interesting results was around lecture capture. It makes sense. Affordable, one-click lecture capture software is becoming more available, even as students demand more and more of their lectures be available on video. Last year, 33 percent reported using lecture capture tools. Now, 59 percent do. We also wanted to look into how much of the lectures on campus were being captured. Right now, only 38 percent of institutions are capturing more than a quarter of their classrooms on campus. But we expect that to grow, because 47 percent would really like to extend this to cover at least half the classrooms on campus. When we asked why, the biggest response (46 percent) was that student demand was driving the increase in lecture capture (followed by professor requests, at 32 percent).”
DJ: What types of institutions took part in the study?
Tsur: “All kinds! We had participants from around the world (North, Central, and South America; Europe; Australia and New Zealand; Central, South, and East Asia; the Middle East; and Africa). We had higher education institutions, K-12 institutions, educational technology organizations, educational foundations and nonprofits, and further/continuing education institutions. Participants included instructional designers, IT, faculty, media/video production teams, administrators, marketing, library staff, and even students. The biggest groups, though, were higher education institutions from North America.”
DJ: What are the advantages of remote learning in education?
Tsur: “There are a lot of advantages, both for traditional and remote students. At the most basic level – today’s students are accustomed to video in every aspect of their lives, and expect no less in their education. Today’s students are more likely than ever to need flexibility. As modern jobs are increasingly knowledge-based, education is increasingly important. But students today aren’t just traditional full-time students living on campus. Today, they may be pursuing education while working, raising children, caring for family members, or fulfilling other responsibilities, and they need access to high-quality, personalized education that they can still attend when and where their schedule allows.
“Remote learning allows them to participate on demand, on any device. (Even the full-time students benefit from this as well—they can keep up even if they have to miss a class for illness, job interviews, sports, or other life events.) It can also be tremendously beneficial for the institution, allowing them to broaden their reach to student populations they could never have reached before.”
DJ: How is the student experience evaluated?
Tsur: “There are many ways to evaluate experience. Viewing metrics allow you to tell how long students watch a video, and how many of them watch to the end. Engagement metrics around interactive elements like video quizzing can help measure how much active attention they’re paying to the material. You can also measure how class performance changes from year to year, as you add video to the classroom. Finally, course evaluations give students a chance to express their opinions about their experiences. Our survey clearly showed that institutions are increasingly using video as an assessment and evaluation tool, and our video quizzes, for example, can feed right into the students’ grades within the Learning Management System.”
DJ: How far do you see video technology advancing?
Tsur: “The sky is the limit! We’re already seeing some really interesting things emerging in terms of interactive, branching video; AR and 360 VR; predictive analytics; and other AI-based technologies. It’s become so easy for students and teachers to capture video, and the younger generations are increasingly used to turning to YouTube to answer their questions on how to do just about anything. So as these more advanced technologies become increasingly available, I think we’ll see video just getting increasingly common, smart, and interactive. I think there’s also a big trend towards personalization. As predictive analytics becomes more mature, I hope we’ll see more guidance and early interventions based on students’ interactions with learning materials so that more students can succeed.”
DJ: What other projects are you working on?
Tsur: “We’re doing a big push on accessibility at the moment. Accessibility has always been very important to us, but this year we’ve been going farther than ever before to ensure that we make it easy for schools to deploy both tools and content that meets the needs of all of their students.”
DJ: What other technologies do you see helping to change education?
Tsur: “Anything interactive and engaging is going to be huge. We’ve already started with interactive video quizzes. I think it’s going to be very interesting when branching interactive videos become more common, so that the viewer’s choice determines what happens next. VR and 360 also has huge potential, given how immersive an environment it can create. Also technology and bus models that expand access to knowledge and learning are transforming education and video tools are prominent among them.”
DJ: What other technological trends interest you?
Tsur: “Personalization, definitely. I think we’re going to increasingly see more individual learning paths, with analytics that monitor how students are performing and help correct faltering paths. That’s one of the reasons we’re so excited about Caliper and xAPI; collecting data in useful ways is the first step to using that data to help a lot of people. It is also interesting to see video used across campus for almost anything – from admissions to marketing to new students, through teaching and learning, campus events and sports competitions, and even alumni relations and community building. Truly, it’s simply a given nowadays for video to be part of virtually every experience and facet of our lives.”
As traditional education undergoes a transformation to virtual classrooms companies like Kaltura are steering the way with online courses and remote lectures by integrating advanced video technology.
