Video stores lectures at Gallaudet

Students in Gallaudet University’s English Grammar for Writers and Future Teachers class can rest easy if they miss part of a lecture.

They can go online later and download the lesson in total, down to every sign the professor and their fellow students made.

The Northeast Washington university for the deaf and hard of hearing has been using a new lecture-capture program to record some of its classroom sessions for about a year, and the program is about to expand. Initially, the technology helped students in four Gallaudet classes. Now, 20 classes operate under the Apreso system.

The technology involves a series of cameras and monitors that operate independently but in conjunction with the classroom action.

Sterling, Va.-based Anystream supplies the technology to Gallaudet as well as a number of other universities, including Temple and Arizona State. Anystream’s program automatically captures a classroom’s total audio and visual presentation, down to the PowerPoint details, and transfers the data to a university Web site.

Such technology is aimed primarily at colleges dealing with special-needs students or those who teach via distance-learning programs.

Gallaudet students enrolled in courses using the new system sit near a button that triggers the robotic cameras. Should they have a question or comment, they wait to be called upon, then press the button to direct the camera their way. Their conversations are then shot and integrated into the overall lecture.

The Apreso Classroom is the 2007 version of the microcassette recorder.

Transforming a college classroom into an Apreso-worthy one costs about $5,000 per room per year for the software, the company says. Getting the room up to technological speed is another matter. Company spokesman Matt Dornic says the system operates best with a dedicated PC and two capture cards, the latter running about $2,500.

Earl Parks, Gallaudet’s electronic-learning manager, says through a sign-language interpreter that the system gives “full control of what you want to look at.”

“You can speed it up or slow it down,” Mr. Parks says. “We have the ability to review concepts again and again, and that’s crucial for students.”

It’s even more important for Gallaudet students with a less-than-firm grasp of American Sign Language.

Each year, about 10 percent of Gallaudet’s freshman class is either struggling with American Sign Language or somewhat uncomfortable using it. That’s where the new system comes in. Students who have a hard time during class, either with understanding the material or with the signing itself, can replay the course later to comprehend it better. If they lag behind their peers in signing skills, they can slow the speed of the signing or simply read the closed captioning added to the material to understand it better.

“If they’re taking notes, they’re not focusing on what the professor is saying,” Mr. Parks says.

During a lecture-capture class, the small cameras move silently and stealthily to record both the professor’s and the students’ signing.

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