Lecture capture technology gives College expanded reach for continuing education and collaboration

MADISON, Wis. - March 14, 2011 - Sonic Foundry, Inc.(NASDAQ: SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting, lecture capture and knowledge management, today announced the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has standardized on Mediasite for lecture capture, continuing education, and international collaboration.

"When I did the cost analysis and compared Mediasite to other tools, I started to understand the software that runs in the background of Mediasite allows you to record lectures transparently, with no need for extra staff hours and no effort on the part of the faculty," said Alicia Johnson, continuing education program director for the College of Veterinary Medicine. "The faculty needs to only pay attention to teaching. They don't have to worry about technology, and they shouldn't have to. It's very clear that the cost and usability of Mediasite saves you in the long run."

Johnson's team looked within the University of Minnesota for inspiration on how to best integrate Mediasite into CVM's lecture halls and curriculum, including the Medical School and The Carlson School of Management. The Carlson School already had a very sophisticated Mediasite deployment, using it internally for their students and externally for their executive MBA program. They arranged a visit with Carlson's IT director and spent a day going over their process and assessing some of the results they had achieved from using Mediasite.

Students Respond to Lecture Capture in the Classroom and Beyond
Thanks to private alumni dollars earmarked for classroom technology, CVM equipped three lecture rooms with Mediasite. Another alumni fundraising campaign brought in the dollars to buy an ML Recorder to capture instruction in the field.

"We wanted to capture the broadest kind of lecture, following the classroom into the field, the lab and the hospital, where faculty and clinicians can create modules that cannot be taught in lecture halls," said Johnson.

The College also records traditional lectures Monday through Friday, primarily for first- and second-year veterinary medicine students.

"They attend lectures from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. The density of that kind of didactic learning every day is part of the skill these students learn, but we thought it would be kinder to them and raise their knowledge level if we could capture the content that they're absorbing so fast and give them the opportunity to review," said Alicia Johnson. "Once they experienced being able to revisit the full lecture, not just their notes or their phone recording, they're saying it makes all the difference in them being able to study better and retain more."

Continuing Education and International Collaboration
Using Mediasite as the core webcasting technology the College has been able to expand its continuing education offerings.

"With more than 4,000 alumni from around the world, we know the competition in continuing education is fierce. However, very few places are offering the level of continuing education and teaching that a world class teaching institution can provide. We knew we were one of the players that could provide evidence-based medical education," said Johnson.