Northeast Ohio Medical University Plans for Virtual Fall with Mediasite

MADISON, Wis., Aug. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Longtime Mediasite user Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) successfully pivoted to online during the initial spring campus shutdown. They found the perfect formula for a live hybrid fall: a rotating schedule for on-site and online students and an essential mix of Mediasite streaming live- and on-demand video lectures and Zoom collaborative calls. Medical students of the Rootstown, Ohio university will still get a front row seat to all classes, demos, simulations and campus events, regardless of where they’re learning.  

“Our students and faculty were already comfortable with online learning prior to the COVID-19 shutdown last spring, because we’ve been using Mediasite for the past 15 years,” said Michael Wright, Director, Academic Technology, NEOMED. “Mediasite is at the heart of our video strategy. Everything was in place prior, and it took us less than a week to pivot to virtual. The fall semester will be an adjustment, but we are confident our students and faculty will have an enjoyable, engaging and comfortable teaching and learning experience.”  

Creating socially-distanced hybrid learning experiences

NEOMED plans to have staff and faculty record lectures with Mediasite for students to watch prior to class time in their Sakai learning management system. Students and instructors will then spend class time discussing rigorous topics, focusing on the areas where further instruction would be most useful. Students will follow a rotating schedule to determine if they’ll be online or on campus that day.  

In-person classes will take place in NEOMED’s new large group space, which will now be used for small group interactive discussions where they can be properly social-distanced, and instructors will use Zoom to connect them with online students. The in-person students will see the lesson content and online participants on several large screens in the room, and the online students can interact, chat and ask questions. Instructors will also use a student response system app called Turning Technologies.  

The Zoom recordings will be uploaded into Mediasite where they can be managed in one secure and searchable place beside all other campus videos. Plus, the Zoom recordings will benefit from the full functionality of Mediasite – robust accessibility tools and search, video and caption editing capabilities, anytime and anywhere publishing, interactivity options to track viewer engagement and back-end analytics.  

Capturing lab work

NEOMED has a fully-integrated gross anatomy lab to capture simulations and share live streams with students in their LMS whether they’re watching in-person or at home.  

“Similar to lectures, students will take turns visiting the lab. We’ll be teaching the same content and Mediasite can capture several angles of a demonstration, so students won’t miss a beat. A gross anatomy lab is one of the most valuable resources to medical students, but each lab experience is a one-and-done operation. You can’t recreate it, but you can use Mediasite to capture the moment for on-demand review,” Wright said.  

Learn more about NEOMED’s gross anatomy lab in , originally recorded at the Mediasite user conference, MSX, last fall.  

Keeping students, the community connected via virtual events

The university is not only using the most engaging technologies to keep students connected during classes, it is also thinking outside the box to help keep the college experience alive by live streaming campus events. NEOMED streamed the spring commencement ceremony via Mediasite. Using Zoom, campus leaders and students joined the virtual ceremony – leaders made congratulatory remarks, family members hooded their graduates and students could say a few words.  

“The students had a more enjoyable event because they were surrounded by family and friends, and everyone saw the students’ reactions up close. It was much more personable,” Wright said.  

In addition, NEOMED live streamed its Match Day ceremony in which students found out where they will complete their residencies. They joined via Zoom and again, .  

“NEOMED was extremely well-positioned to pivot quickly in the spring, and it’s no surprise that this Ohio medical school is leading the way among its peers for the fall. The university has combined the perfect mix of technologies to ensure that, wherever students are learning, they’ll have a front row seat to the action. In a hybrid, non-traditional learning environment, this is a critical part of students’ success,” said Elizabeth Collins, SVP of North America Sales, Sonic Foundry, maker of Mediasite. “Having the ability to see all angles of simulations and instructors’ lessons, re-watch them and learn at their own pace creates an engaging, personalized experience even when they’re not in the classroom. We are proud to continue our 15-year relationship with NEOMED to help position the campus as a leader in medical education.”

Mediasite is a highly-automated and integrated video platform that facilitates hybrid learning in this new digital-first world. Trusted by 1,700 schools in 65 countries, Mediasite quickly and cost-effectively scales the capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand streaming videos. Mediasite’s solutions create the most engaging, data-rich and personalized learning experiences possible as students and instructors collaborate from a distance.

About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.

Sonic Foundry (OTC: SOFO) is the global leader for video capture, management and streaming solutions. Trusted by more than 5,200 educational institutions, corporations, health organizations and government entities in over 65 countries, its  quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand streaming videos. Learn more at  and @mediasite.

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