Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning team named Learning Technologist of the Year

AMSTERDAM, February 1, 2011 (Integrated Systems Europe - Booth #3D88) Sonic Foundry, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting, lecture capture and knowledge management announced that the Department for Continuing Education's Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL) team, within the University of Oxford, has been named Learning Technologist Team of the Year by the Association for Learning Technology. The team and the Department use Mediasite to support their work and deliver services to clients.

"We are delighted that the work of the team has been recognized in this way. The award is also a tribute to our academic colleagues across the Department for Continuing Education who have embraced the use of classroom technology and worked with us over the past decade to develop superb online courses, which are now studied by over 3,000 students each year," said Sean Faughnan, Director of TALL. "We are looking forward to developing more courses using Mediasite as the core lecture capture technology."

The University of Oxford has one of the UK's largest continuing education departments, and its operation is one of the most successful globally. After starting with a series of short online courses, TALL has developed more than 50 fully online courses in a diverse range of subjects from creative writing to nanotechnology, attracting online students from more than 70 countries around the world. Supported by Mediasite lecture capture technology, learners have the opportunity to study in spite of geographical boundaries.

"Since we've employed Mediasite as a platform it has allowed us to offer course capture to a huge variety of clients and faculty. It means we can have a more global reach, and the ability to disseminate the university's work locally, nationally, and internationally," said Faughnan.

"Mediasite is invaluable, particularly for our distance-learning and part-time students because they now have the ability to enjoy the experience of a more traditional face-to-face lecture. I think it makes some of the learning outcomes easier to achieve," Faughnan continued. "I am pleased to work with Sonic Foundry, the best global practitioners of lecture capture technology. It's been nice to learn from them and their global user community and not have to reinvent the wheel."

"The Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning team at Oxford has achieved remarkable success, and Sonic Foundry is proud to have played a role in their accomplishments on campus and online," said Rimas Buinevicius, chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry. "We strongly believe the pursuit of knowledge, particularly for adult education, is critical in creating an educated workforce, building communities and improving economic development, and will continue to support Oxford as they work toward these goals."