Educators rely heavily on video, & that’s OK!
Today we learned that educational media viewers and educators at UCLA won a legal battle over streaming copyrighted video. The federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by a educational media group of California over the legality of streaming copyrighted videos on secure course websites (learning management systems). Read the article from Inside Higher Ed.
“The court ruling acknowledges what UCLA has long believed, that streaming licensed DVDs related to coursework to UCLA students over UCLA’s secure network is an appropriate educational use,” said Scott Waugh, the university’s executive vice chancellor and provost, said in a statement.
Many streaming enthusiasts and educators are applauding the decision. As many educators know, the educational use of video on campus is accelerating rapidly as there is an ever-increasing demand for video and other rich media by faculty and students. In a recent study by Intelligent Television with the cooperation of New York University, it is clear that there is an increased demand for online repositories of video that faculty and library staff could tap into, on-demand, to search for, find, and use video clips they need for their classes. Read the “Video Use and Higher Education.”
Dr. Paul Gandel, former CIO of Syracuse University and Professor of Information Studies at Syracuse University adds, “This is great news for those of us who are trying to make the online learning experience as rich if not richer than the classroom experience. Of course the next challenge is how to make a large archive of media materials available for online classes. It’s not a matter of simply streaming the materials. It’s also a matter of managing the workflow of creating media libraries for online classes in a way consistent with the court’s ruling on required access restrictions.”
And that is where Ensemble Video fits in. Ensemble Video simplifies video content management and publishing for educational institutions across the globe. We offer education-focused features giving educators the ability to:
- Publish and secure videos in popular learning management systems (Blackboard, Moodle, etc)
- Add Searchable Annotations and Chapter Points on Videos
- Create iTunes Feeds (podcasts and vodcasts)
- Deliver content to a variety of devices (Computers, iPads, iPhones, etc.)
I think we all can agree that Monday’s decision is encouraging for educators, students and Ensemble Video. We hope that this decision can somehow lead to a collaborative solution for the educational media providers and the educational institutions. With that said, we realize that that this is not the end of the “copyright wars in education.” What do you think this decision means for educators who rely on video?
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