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Streaming Media

If you want to use audio and video in your course content, you can stream it online and either create a link to it or embed it within your Carmen course content.

Media files, especially large audio and video files, are best served from a streaming media server. Streaming is the process of sending or delivering digital media (audio and/or video) over the Internet. The streaming media is not downloaded to the user's computer. Instead, the data is displayed as it transfers and no copy remains on the hard drive. The result is much faster viewing for the user!

Example

Distance-learning students in the Non-Traditional Doctor of Pharmacy (NTPD) program benefit from streaming video of Dr. Hayton’s PowerPoint slides with voice-over narration. This format for visual and audio instruction was designed to provide distance-learning students a similar experience to traditional classroom-based students.

A streaming media file is embedded in Dr. Hayton's pharmacy course so students can view the slides and hear narration.

For the NTPD program the College of Pharmacy's Learning Technologies team uses commercial software called Camtasia to perform "lecture capture." The audio and slides of a lecture are recorded as the lecture is delivered to the classroom-based section of a course.

After converting the files to a streaming media format and posting them on a streaming server, the links to the files are posted in Carmen for both the classroom and distance-learning sections of the course. (CDs of lectures in non-streaming format are distributed to NTPD students so they can view them off-line.)

Instructions

Although an elaborate project like capturing lectures for NTPD requires a large commitment of time and staff, you can follow the principles and hosting process for streaming any multimedia files for which you have copyright approval.