Macquarie University has adapted a radio station software package to digitally record lectures for distance education and online students. The result will be improved speed and access as well as a better quality product for Macquarie's students.

(L-R) Audio Visual Operator David Connolly, Director of the Centre Flexible Learning. Professor David Rich, and Technical Manager Terry Finch go over some operational issues with Macquarie's new Dalet 5 digital recording server.

With some 4,000 hours of lectures recorded each year, Macquarie is the first university in Australia to move to digital recording on such a large scale. The University sees this as an important part of its strategies to improve flexibility and access to education.

Digital recording will enable students to access sound recordings of lectures over the Web, and any multimedia tools used by the lecturer, such as video or overheads, can be included in the same file.

It will also mean that recordings can be accessed anywhere anytime by all Macquarie students - not just those enrolled in distance and online programs, or those who listen to the lecture tapes in the University library.

But, Director of Macquarie's Centre for Flexible Learning, Professor David Rich is quick to point out that access to audio over the Web will not for some time replace the popular audio tapes currently used by distance education students.

“The University mails out around 200,000 audio lecture tapes to distance and online students each year,” Rich says. “While we will move the whole recording process to digital, cassette tapes will be available for a few more years yet.”

As no suitable off-the-shelf technology could be found, Technical Manager, Terry Finch, adapted radio station software package Dalet 5 to suit the University's large-scale requirements. He is currently trialling the software on a small scale to identify any additional modifications that may be needed and to allow staff time to be trained on the system's recording and editing capabilities.

“The system allows the technical team, distance education, online teaching and duplicating staff to access and edit files as appropriate from their own work stations,” Finch explains.

“Broadcast-standard recording can be placed on the system in a compressed format, to reduce the amount of memory required on the server. Files can then be edited, saved and converted to the format required by the different areas - such as Real Audio and MP3 files for the Web, and WAV files for the high speed cassette duplication system that records cassettes at 16 times normal speed,” he says.

In addition, the new system enables both manual and automatic recording, with the capability to program automatic lecture recordings for a whole semester in advance.

Finch explains that distance education students enjoy the flexibility of listening to their tapes on the move. “They often listen to their lecture tapes in the car or via a walkman. The new digital system means they could also log-in to a computer and listen to the lecture or download their lecture recording to an MP3 player so they can listen to it on the move.”

Rich says that so far the feedback from students using the new digital recordings has been very positive. “Digitising gives us the opportunity to increase the scale of recording, and improve speed and access without increasing costs,” he adds.

Story by Kathy Vozella
Photo by Michelle Wilson

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