Next week begins the 2014 SCHOMS Annual Conference, and here at Panopto we’re pleased to be a Gold Sponsor of the event.

SCHOMS — The Standing Conference for Heads of Media Services — brings together a range of senior professionals from UK Higher Education institutions to support excellence in teaching and learning practice through implementing innovative classroom technologies, advise on cutting-edge AV equipment, and promote new ways of thinking about the design of learning spaces.

Popular throughout the agenda at this year’s event are themes from the final element of the organization’s mission — inspecting the impact of different types of learning spaces on students and the effect of the physical environment on pedagogical approaches.

We’ve recently shared our own thoughts on the 24/7 library culture that has developed at a number of institutions, and the transformation of the ‘traditional’ library into a much more collaborative, group-oriented workspace, in line with the changing expectations of students.

Of course, it’s not just libraries that are affected, but all teaching spaces, with universities rethinking their classrooms and lecture theatres to better accommodate today’s learners. A report by Educause about these types of learning spaces talks about a broad shift towards: “a student-centered model based on collaborative knowledge discovery and creation.” The report goes on to talk about the ways in which new classroom set-ups can “enable alternative pedagogies that allow for more inquiry and investigative work.”

Does this mean the end of the traditional lecture theatre as they are all remodeled into ‘collaborative learning spaces’?

Well, not necessarily – many students still see the lecture as an integral part of the university experience, as evidenced in this report from Times Higher Education. The lecture hall, then, seems set to stay for a while longer.

What is changing, though, is the idea that the auditorium is the primary or default way in which students will receive their learning. Emergent uses of video are springing up alongside lecture capture, much in the same way that flexible learning spaces are being installed alongside the traditional lecture room. Many of our most prolific users of lecture capture are also those experimenting with flipping the classroom, getting students involved in creating their own video assignments, recording field trips using iPads and iPhones and more.

In many cases, the ability to film a lecture series in its entirety for students to digest at their own pace has freed up lecturers to think of new ways to connect with their student learners, and many of them are using video to do so.

Visit Panopto at SCHOMS!
At SCHOMS, we’d like to talk to you about some of these emergent use cases for video and show how our platform can take you beyond lecture capture. To book a specific slot at SCHOMS on 18 June for me to demo Panopto for you and discuss video at your institution you can email me at [email protected]. Or you can simply visit us at Stand 16. I look forward to seeing you there.