In the future, lectures at TiHo can be recorded on video and made available to students online.

The Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture (MWK) is funding the video recording of teaching events at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo). The MWK is providing a total of €67,500 for the project in 2014 and 2015.

TiHo is implementing the project together with the E-Learning Academic Network (ELAN e.V.). “The technical implementation is based on the open-source lecture-capture software Matterhorn, which has already been successfully introduced at several universities in Lower Saxony with the involvement of ELAN e.V.,” says Dr. Norbert Kleinefeld, Managing Director of ELAN e.V. Since the software has not yet been used at TiHo, the university’s E-Learning Advisory Service is also receiving support from ELAN e.V. during the implementation. “The key advantage of this project is that we are extending the recording software with the functions TiHo needs for automated multi-channel recording — for example, to process signals from measuring devices or to integrate multiple video sources. We are even able to process HD video signals in real time,” explains Dr. Andreas Knaden, Managing Director of the Centre for Information Management and Virtual Teaching at Osnabrück University, who is responsible for software development.

All veterinary medicine students at TiHo benefit from the project. “Of course, the new technology does not replace attendance in the lecture hall — it complements it,” says Dr. Elisabeth Schaper, Head of the E-Learning Advisory Service at TiHo. “This service allows students to calmly rewatch a lecture at home if they didn’t fully understand everything the first time.” In principle, all lectures held at TiHo can be recorded and integrated into the university’s internal learning-management system for students. “Long term, we hope to make the videos publicly accessible as well,” Schaper adds. “In addition to supporting students, we are also studying whether this technology improves the understanding of complex medical concepts.”

The insights gained from this project are expected to be transferable to other medical and technical universities.