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Which tool should I use for my lectures? Well, it depends on your case.

Here are some best practice suggestions to help you pick the right lecture capture tool for your needs.

Are you teaching a credit course?
Are you using Catalog?
Do you need to record a live session?
Do you need to record lectures on your own?
Do you need to deliver your lectures synchronously?
Do you wish students to interact with the content or their peers?
Do you want to track or grade student’s views and interactions?

Did you know?

1. Are you teaching a credit course?

Yes, then all four lecture capture tools are open for you to pick.

No, I’m teaching a non-credit-related/community course. Then you cannot use EchoVideo. EchoVideo is only available for credit courses.

2. Are you using Catalog?

If your course is held in Catalog instead of the main Canvas instance, then you cannot use Canvas Studio.
Canvas Studio is only integrated with the main Canvas instance.

Note: Catalog is the learning management system for any external non-credit courses at UMass Amherst, the kind of courses that are not only limited to people with NetID but also open for enrollment to people with a Gmail account.

3. Do you need to record a live session?

If you need to record a live session/lecture, then you should use EchoVideo. Only EchoVideo among all four lecture capture tools has the option for you to record the lecture room.

4. Do you need to record lectures on your own?

If you need to record lectures on your own in your office/studio or at home, you have the options below:

Canvas Studio
EchoVideo - Universal Capture
VoiceThread
Zoom

5. Do you need to deliver your lectures synchronously?

If you need to deliver your lecture synchronously, you should use Zoom. Among all four lecture capture tools, only Zoom has the synchronous meeting feature. You can record the synchronous lecture to provide more asynchronous watching opportunities.

Canvas Studio, EchoVideo, and VoiceThread are designed to deliver asynchronous content.

6. Do you wish students to interact with the content or their peers?

Both Canvas Studio and EchoVideo allow you to add polling questions, such as multiple choice and true or false questions with preset feedback. When you embed a video from EchoVideo or Canvas Studio in Canvas, students can also use the discussion feature to leave comments and interact with their peers.

VoiceThread allows your students to comment on your lectures via various methods (audio, video, annotation, text), and even communicate with their peers by threaded comments.

Zoom’s breakout room feature also provides opportunities to interact with each other.

7. Do you want to track or grade student’s views and interactions?

If you wish to have an analysis report containing information such as: how many students have viewed the video, how long they have viewed the video, or even students’ performance on the polling questions. Both Canvas Studio and EchoVideo provide the analysis option.

Did you know?

Courses with more memorization and fact-focused content have higher use of lecture recordings and higher grades.

Source: Danielson J., Preast V., Bender H., & Hassall L. (2014) Is the effectiveness of lecture capture related to teaching approach or content type? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131513003011