ORLANDO, Fla. UBTech Booth #301, June 12, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With multiple rural satellite campuses for a distributed
student body -- including a high percentage of non-traditional students -- Western New Mexico University relies heavily on video
and web conferencing for instruction. Using Mediasite Join by Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO) the trusted global leader for video
creation and management solutions, the university cost-effectively connects its instructors and students in real time, capturing
collaborative classrooms and turning them into rich, searchable video on-demand.
Building on the market-leading Mediasite Video Platform, Mediasite Join extends the value of unified communications by
seamlessly integrating with leading conference services. The university has been using Mediasite since 2010 and added Mediasite
Join to its suite of solutions two years ago. Now, Mediasite Join is available campus-wide. Faculty report better student pass
rates since implementing Mediasite Join and the university reaps the benefits of being able to integrate its existing Polycom and
Zoom video conferencing systems into the solution.
“We provide instruction to a very rural area, covering a vast area of New Mexico. Because we need to meet synchronously with
students, regardless of location, our video conferencing program is very big, and lecture capture is important. That’s where
Mediasite Join came in,” said April Hanson, Video Communications Manager, WNMU IT. “We are already paying a lot of money for our
video conferencing systems, and I needed a way to leverage what we already had. Being able to plug in Polycom and Zoom into our
existing Mediasite Video Platform was huge.”
Courses that use video conference are considered face-to-face. For on-site students physically in classrooms, the university
uses Mediasite for automated lecture capture. Students attend the traditional classroom, and the on-demand Mediasite recordings are
available as a study tool in the university’s Canvas learning management system.
Students enrolled in WNMU’s online program work on their own time, and faculty either record their lectures via Mediasite in
their classrooms or from their desktops. Those lectures are immediately uploaded to Canvas and available for review on-demand.
“Ever since professors started using Mediasite for lecture capture, they’ve reported increased improvement on student grades.
The Mediasite analytics are important to faculty members, because they are able to see what students are watching and what portions
of the video are most popular. They’re able to tailor their teaching accordingly,” Hanson said.
“Mediasite Join has been very easy to implement and introduce to faculty, and there is a great demand for it. They don’t even
know they’re using Mediasite in classrooms with recorders – they just click a button, and their class is recorded,” she continued.
“Using video during collaborative classes and meetings is extremely valuable, and students love it. At first, like any new
technology, faculty worried they’d be replaced by the recordings. They quickly found that course quality improved with Mediasite,
and students asked for the video recordings.”
“A recent Wainhouse Research report, State of Collaborative Education and eLearning 2017 – in which Sonic Foundry is recognized as a
leader-- cites that the convergence of distance and online education, brick-and-mortar education and consumerization of educational
technology is resulting in a great demand from both faculty and students for the use of collaborative classroom technology,” said
Gary Weis, CEO, Sonic Foundry. “Western New Mexico University is ahead of the curve, recognizing the importance of capturing and
preserving the collaboration that occurs over video conferencing.”
Trusted by more than 1,500 colleges and universities, the Mediasite Video Platform quickly and cost-effectively automates the
capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand videos for campus events, lecture capture and flipped learning.
About Western New Mexico University
Western New Mexico University has served the people of the state of New Mexico and its surrounding areas as a comprehensive,
regional, rural, public coeducational university since 1893 and serves a student body diverse in age, culture, language and ethnic
background.
About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.
Sonic Foundry is the trusted global leader for video capture, management and streaming solutions. Trusted by educational
institutions, corporations and government entities, Mediasite Video Platform quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management,
delivery and search of live and on-demand streaming videos and rich media. Mediasite transforms communications, training, education
and events for more than 4,300 customers in over 65 countries. Leading analyst research firms Aragon, Forrester, Wainhouse
and Frost & Sullivan recognize Sonic Foundry as a leader in enterprise video, webcasting and lecture capture.
© 2017 Sonic Foundry, Inc. Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. or their
respective owners.
Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8d17a3fc-5ffc-4bef-9789-71ae1fc14040
Media Relations: Tammy Jackson, Director of Communications Sonic Foundry 608.770.9052 tammy@sonicfoundry.com Nicole Wise, Communications Manager Sonic Foundry 920.226.0269 nicolew@sonicfoundry.com Investor Relations: Peter Seltzberg, Managing Director Darrow Associates, Inc. 516.419.9915 pseltzberg@darrowir.com
