Talk about change. Drexel University’s College of Information Science, founded in 1892 as a library science program, is now known as the iSchool at Drexel. This cutting-edge program offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in information systems, information technology and software engineering, but maintains a vision of integrating human and social elements along the way – a focus on people.

Lecture capture has been a key component of the iSchool’s face-to-face and online degrees since 2007, when Echo360’s EchoSystem was implemented. Currently, all 1200 of the iSchool’s graduate students and 350 full-time undergraduate students use the EchoSystem to access rich media playback of lectures (audio, video and visual aids) via Blackboard. It’s proven to be a great resource for them. Available at their convenience, they’re free to pause, rewind and fast-forward to the material they need to focus on. Student feedback shows they willingly use and depend on it.

The technology has also been a major boon to the way instructors approach their courses. Faculty can create and support class materials, and then use the same information in a later term. The opportunity for using these valuable digital assets again and again is huge. The EchoSystem is also helping foster new ideas about how to use class time. The deans are considering recording lectures for student viewing before class, so lecture time can be used for interactive projects and problem-based learning.  

The face-to-face and online programs began as separate and distinct from one another. However, lecture capture technology has blended the way students receive their course material. Currently, just 10% of students are face-to-face only, and just 40% are online only (because of geographical distance). The other 50% are hybrids, using both live lectures and online technology. These hybrid students have the highest graduation rates, 85%.

Because the iSchool at Drexel’s online master’s programs are its largest single source of revenue generation, return-on-investment is a priority for the college. Using the EchoSystem to reach and educate more students, efficiently, and with the same professors and materials as the face-to-face classes, has been a success story for the college.

Results at the iSchool at Drexel are clear – the EchoSystem has helped improve student comprehension and graduation rates, increase ROI, and develop new and exciting ideas for educating students.