Sonic FoundryŽ Inc. today announced that East Carolina University (ECU) has selected Mediasite(TM) as the recommended rich media communications platform for its web-based distance education program. ECU's application of Mediasite across campus is indicative of the growing trend for campus-wide standardization around Mediasite for online course content.
 
 
The university currently mediasites courses for the School of Nursing, Brody School of Medicine and Global Classroom facility. This next phase of ECU's Mediasite deployment will include the installation of 16 units in the Allied Health Sciences facility, with additional planned purchases campus-wide. The new Mediasite units will capture and publish more than 300 lectures for both on-campus and global, live and on-demand viewing over the web.

ECU recognized the potential of online learning early on and was among the first schools in the nation to develop and offer a degreed program completely online. Since then, the university has created more than 50 degree and certificate programs in health, education and technology.

In the Global Classroom, ECU currently captures 40 Mediasite recordings per week by multiple colleges across the campus, including the College of Technology and Computer Science, Engineering, Education, Public Health, Anthropology and International Studies. To date, ECU is webcasting more than 530 hours of classroom content per semester, which it expects to double to 1,000 hours by the end of the year.

ECU has extended its holistic education experience by offering blended learning activities, synchronous online lectures and collaborative content-building sessions using Mediasite.

In addition, the university is posting its curriculum online via Sonic Foundry's Mediasite.com -- the first searchable website focused exclusively on presenting publicly available expert presentations with video, audio and graphics. Using this unique public outlet, ECU will share the archived course lectures captured on campus with both ECU and other students, professors and the general public.