Home > e-learning, erepository, lms, service-is-learning-materials-creation > eRepository: How to manage multimedia learning materials? Maybe with ShareStream

eRepository: How to manage multimedia learning materials? Maybe with ShareStream

Target language audio and video materials – as well as other textual, multimedia and/or interactive materials – are crucial assets (and should become “reusable learning objects”) in learning centers – how best to manage them?

I have worked for a number of HE institutions, up to the very recent past, that charge their students between $30.000 and $40.000 per year, while their learning materials handling in the learning center consisted of what DVDs and VCR tapes fit into a shoe carton, for a lab assistant to frantically browse through when faced with a learner or teacher request for materials. Not to mention teachers spending inordinate amounts of time scanning stacks of make-believe VCR and DVD “libraries” in the learning center.

I have blogged here before about various solutions that attempt to remedy this: from home-baked stop-gap measures to the introduction of eRepository offerings for digital asset management.

link
Learning materials management: Links (1998-2004)
Learning materials management: Textbook exercises (2000-2008)
Learning materials management: Online_resources.xls I: Intranet (2003-2009)
Learning materials management: Online_resources.xls II: E-repository (2006-7)
Learning materials management: Offline resources (2005-2006)
Language Lab Techniques for Producing Audio Learning Materials
How to distribute learning materials using the Blackboard Content System
How to distribute learning materials using the Blackboard Content System
Managing learning materials: How to use an inventory spreadsheet

If you are familiar with these issues, you will understand that I am eagerly looking for better help with managing multimedia learning materials. ShareStream claims to provide a turnkey solution addressing these needs. Its architecture – according to the Tulane pilot – consists of a ShareStream server which serves as eRepository and metadata catalogue, a streaming server, and an encoding server (for lecture-capture: YAT (“yet another tag”)). ShareStream also integrates with the Blackboard LMS.

Have a look at the demo of the pilot at Georgetown University which they gave during MAALLT 2010 and which they now also offer workshops on. One interesting thing I figured out during the question period is that they avoid breaking the Digital Millennium Act when digitizing copy-protected DVD materials by capturing to digital only the analog AV output of a DVD – a reminder that a reform of copyright is sorely needed.

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