University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine Standardizes on Mediasite for Lecture Capture

MADISON, Wis., March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sonic Foundry, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting, lecture capture and knowledge management, today announced the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has standardized on Mediasite for lecture capture, continuing education, and international collaboration.

"When I did the cost analysis and compared Mediasite to other tools, I started to understand the software that runs in the background of Mediasite allows you to record lectures transparently, with no need for extra staff hours and no effort on the part of the faculty," said Alicia Johnson, continuing education program director for the College of Veterinary Medicine. "The faculty needs to only pay attention to teaching. They don't have to worry about technology, and they shouldn't have to. It's very clear that the cost and usability of Mediasite saves you in the long run."

Johnson's team looked within the University of Minnesota for inspiration on how to best integrate Mediasite into CVM's lecture halls and curriculum, including the Medical School and The Carlson School of Management. The Carlson School already had a very sophisticated Mediasite deployment, using it internally for their students and externally for their executive MBA program. They arranged a visit with Carlson's IT director and spent a day going over their process and assessing some of the results they had achieved from using Mediasite.

Students Respond to Lecture Capture in the Classroom and Beyond

Thanks to private alumni dollars earmarked for classroom technology, CVM equipped three lecture rooms with Mediasite. Another alumni fundraising campaign brought in the dollars to buy an ML Recorder to capture instruction in the field.

"We wanted to capture the broadest kind of lecture, following the classroom into the field, the lab and the hospital, where faculty and clinicians can create modules that cannot be taught in lecture halls," said Johnson.

The College also records traditional lectures Monday through Friday, primarily for first- and second-year veterinary medicine students.

"They attend lectures from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. The density of that kind of didactic learning every day is part of the skill these students learn, but we thought it would be kinder to them and raise their knowledge level if we could capture the content that they're absorbing so fast and give them the opportunity to review," said Alicia Johnson. "Once they experienced being able to revisit the full lecture, not just their notes or their phone recording, they're saying it makes all the difference in them being able to study better and retain more."

Continuing Education and International Collaboration

Using Mediasite as the core webcasting technology the College has been able to expand its continuing education offerings.

"With more than 4,000 alumni from around the world, we know the competition in continuing education is fierce. However, very few places are offering the level of continuing education and teaching that a world class teaching institution can provide. We knew we were one of the players that could provide evidence-based medical education," said Johnson.

"But we've never been able to do that at a distance. We either had to call people in to come to face-to-face conferences which are expensive to come to and take time away from people's practices. Now we invite the world and Mediasite was the platform that got us over that hump. Time and geography have dissipated."

Mediasite has also allowed the brightest and best practitioners and faculty to participate in international collaborations.

"We look forward to collaborating with professionals who want to spread veterinary medical education around the world.  Soon we will be working with interns in Asia on solving food animal production and health issues as well as the care of companion animals, ultimately helping to provide much better lives for all those animals. The knowledge is being exchanged through webcasting," said Johnson. "Now, when people ask if we can teach halfway around the world, the answer is yes. We are able to be there with them through technology. And that was inconceivable two years ago."

"One of the benefits of our growing Mediasite user community is the opportunity for campus peers, like The College of Veterinary Medicine, to draw on their colleague's lecture capture expertise. Repeatedly we've seen Mediasite spread across a campus after a successful technology initiative within one department goes viral," said Rimas Buinevicius, chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry.  "With each new installation at the University of Minnesota, new best practices are uncovered and evidence is shared, all critical steps in moving academe forward. The College of Veterinary Medicine is now an exemplary model of the Mediasite community's vision for how modern education will be delivered."

About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.

Sonic Foundry (Nasdaq: SOFO, www.sonicfoundry.com) is the global leader for rich media webcasting and knowledge management, providing enterprise communication solutions for education, business and government. Powered by Mediasite, the patented webcasting platform which automates the capture, management, delivery and search of lectures, online training and briefings, Sonic Foundry empowers people to transform the way they communicate. Through the Mediasite platform and its Event Services group, the company helps customers connect a dynamic, evolving world of shared knowledge and envisions a future where learners and workers around the globe use webcasting to bridge time and distance, accelerate research and improve performance. Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. or their respective owners.

Certain statements contained in this news release regarding matters that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Because such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, uncertainties pertaining to continued market acceptance for Sonic Foundry's products, its ability to succeed in capturing significant revenues from media services and/or systems, the effect of new competitors in its market, integration of acquired business and other risk factors identified from time to time in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Sonic Foundry, Inc.

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