A leading global educational institution and one of the top universities in Malaysia, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) is committed to delivering a modern learning experience for its more than 8,000 students.

In recent years, the institution has embarked on a comprehensive upgrade of its facilities, taking numerous steps to include support for the latest academic technologies and pedagogical methods to foster a more active learning environment. Many UNITEN classrooms now incorporate a number of elements intended to support blended learning, an approach to teaching that combines traditional classroom instruction with technology-supported e-learning materials and independent study.

One key element of UNITEN’s effort to improve its facilities was to improve the institution’s support for video recording on campus. Academics at UNITEN were early advocates of blended learning methodologies like the flipped classroom and were eager to make greater use of video in their courses. Some students had also expressed their desire to have class lectures recorded so that learning materials would be available for revision and more personalized learning.

The time was right for UNITEN to find a solution that could better support classroom video across its campuses.

Three challenges:

Easy Recording, Stable Live Streaming, and a Strong Integration with Moodle

With their facilities upgrade project underway, the UNITEN team identified three goals to achieve.

Firstly, the solution needed to be easy to use. The UNITEN team wanted to enable instructors to use video as a teaching tool they could adapt to meet the needs of their classrooms. This meant each academic would need to be able to quickly learn how the solution works and how best to use it for their classrooms.

Secondly, UNITEN wanted to find a solution they would allow the institution to live stream video in high definition, with no limit on audience size or the length of the event. The university had tried streaming its convocation on Facebook Live. However, the stream was interrupted due to Facebook’s settings that set a cap on the maximum amount of time video can be live streamed on the platform.

Finally, UNITEN needed a video solution that would integrate seamlessly with the institution’s learning management system, Moodle. Moodle had already become an integral part of instruction at UNITEN, providing lecturers with a stable platform for creating and delivering course materials online. Any new video solution would need to make it easy to securely share video recordings in Moodle.

The solution:

Software That Makes Recording, Streaming, and Sharing Videos Easy

After comparing a number of video solutions, UNITEN chose Panopto’s video platform to support its needs for easy recording, stable live streaming, and sharing videos within Moodle. Here’s why Panopto stood out:

Flexible Video Recording

Of utmost importance to UNITEN was Panopto’s ability to make recording in-class lectures and flipped classroom video content both easy and flexible. Now, instructors simply open Panopto on their computers and press record. Whether they’re in the front of the classroom, in the office, or at home, UNITEN faculty can quickly create the video content they need, using the laptops and webcams they already have.

Panopto also gives UNITEN lecturers the option to automate lecture recording in the future. Panopto’s Remote Recording capability enables campus administrators to integrate Panopto with in-class AV equipment and schedule classroom recordings in advance. This means that lecturers will be able to simply walk into the classroom and begin teaching, confident that Panopto will successfully record their classes automatically.

High-Definition Live Streaming

Panopto has also given UNITEN a more professional, predictable solution for streaming live video. Where Facebook Live cut UNITEN’s broadcast of its convocation short, Panopto enables the university to clearly and successfully share the entire 5-hour event for friends, families, and alumni around the world to view.

The UNITEN team has also found that with Panopto’s flexible privacy options for live streams, the university could use the platform for more than it originally intended. Along with public events like convocation, faculty and staff could also live stream securely with Panopto, while restricting access to the video just to the audience of their choosing. This secure access allows the university to live stream lectures, office hours, and other exclusive campus events as well.

Video Sharing in Moodle

In only a short time, the Moodle LMS has become UNITEN’s central hub for learning. This platform is where instructors shared course materials and feedback, and where students go to find anything and everything related to their coursework.

Panopto’s built-in Moodle integration has made it possible for UNITEN lecturers to share, play, and interact with video learning content right inside of Moodle. Panopto’s video search engine Smart Search has even made it possible for students to find any word spoken or shown on-screen in their classroom videos, as well as to instantly fast-forward to any relevant moment, all without having to leave the Moodle LMS. That ability to quickly find specific information has, in turn, has made recorded lectures and other classroom videos much more valuable to students as resources for study and revision.

The results:

Making Video Easier for Staff and Students

Overseeing Panopto at UNITEN is Mr. T. J. Iskandar Abd. Aziz from the College of Computer Science & Information Technology, Department of Informatics, and now seconded under the Teaching & Learning Centre (TLC). A senior lecturer himself, Mr. T. J. has been given the honour by the UNITEN Teaching and Learning Centre to handle the blended learning initiatives for both its major and branch campuses.

Mr. T. J. offered his first-hand assessment of how Panopto is helping the university achieve its blended learning goals. “Panopto is very easy to use. You don’t have to be an expert in IT. All an instructor needs to do to capture a video is just open Panopto on their laptop and press record.”

Compliments on Panopto from students mirrors that of academics. Using Panopto, students are finding it easier to catch up on class lectures anytime, from anywhere. Further, Panopto’s video search saves them time when they need to revisit a specific topic.

Looking to the future, Mr. T. J. sees the use of video in general, and Panopto in particular, as critical to expanding blended learning and flipped classroom designs throughout the university’s curricula. “Overall, Panopto has made life easier for both staff and students. Panopto is helping instructors at UNITEN embrace more active blending learning models in order to maximize learning in their classrooms.”

 

Click below to watch UNITEN’s live stream broadcast of student convocation:

 

 

About UNITEN

The Universiti Tenaga Nasional, or UNITEN, provides academic programs focusing on Engineering, Information Technology, Business Management, and other related areas. The university serves more than 8,000 students across two campuses, one in Putrajaya, the federal administrative center of Malaysia on the outskirts of its capital, Kuala Lumpur, and one in Muadzam Shah, a short drive from the Eastern Coast.

Nationally and globally recognized for its academic quality, UNITEN prides itself as a place where students can prepare themselves to not only become knowledgeable and competent professionals but also well-rounded individuals with broad intellectual outlook.