For one university, interactive learning has just gone ten steps further.

Carleton University's and GoTuit's lecture mashup initiative, VideoNotes, is a world-class student-centred learning application that showcases how advanced high speed networks like ORION and Web 2.0 technologies can be brought together to enhance student engagement and learning.

Until recently, most mashups consisted of short format, popular types of video consisting of sports highlights and music videos, which makes Carleton University's VideoNotes initiative the world's first mashup for educational purposes.

The VideoNotes initiative began in January 2008 with Dr. Dan McIntyre's Introductory Psychology as a pilot project. All 824 students registered in this course had been encouraged to mash-up and share Dr. McIntyre's lectures. VideoNotes gave the students the ability to create searchable videos by using keywords and then to edit, recombine and share with each other customized versions of class lectures. The application allows students to actively turn teacher-centred lectures into a student-centred learning experience, encouraging students to be active and involved participants in their learning.

Ottawa's Carleton University has a history of instructional innovations. In 1997, four instructional television courses (now Carleton University Television - CUTV) were multicast in cooperation with CANARIE and ONET (ORION's predecessor) on MBone. In 2005, Carleton became the first institution in Canada to offer Internet Video on Demand (VOD) service for all of its distance education undergraduate courses (78 courses in total). In October 2006, Carleton became the first postsecondary institution to release an entire course as a video podcast (see ORION newsletter article). Each academic year 5500 students choose to learn through CUTV's Video on Demand service and several thousand individuals around the world have subscribed to CUTV's course podcasts.

While podcasts and Internet VOD service have enhanced learners' flexibility and convenience, students are still presented with a delivery methodology that encourages passive learning. Students would typically watch their video lectures on their computers or media players with no interaction or participation on their part, aside from note-taking.

Alternatively, the VideoNotes initiative at Carleton University, developed in partnership with Boston-based GoTuit Inc., introduces participation and engagement with the content to enhance student learning. By providing learners with an online application that allows them to mash-up lectures, they are creating more meaningful and personalized learning.

Here's how it works: The VideoNotes application is a web-based Adobe Flash portal that allows learners to insert keywords, titles, and descriptions to user-defined clips of a webcast lecture, and then allow them to break apart the clips and recombine and arrange them into a new, personalized lecture-based instruction (called a 'mashup'). Students can then choose to share their mashups with other students in the class, post it to their Facebook pages, and even mashup an existing mashup from another learner - thereby, helping to foster a social learning environment.

The process of deciding what is important and how best to use keywords facilitates understanding and learning is considered much better than the passive act of simply watching lectures. Creating a lecture mashup encourages students to make a conscious decision to order the content in a particular way to suit their own learning needs.

"By allowing students to create their own lecture highlight reels with their own comments and annotations, we are providing a rich, personalized learning and enhanced studying experience," said Patrick Lyons, Assistant Director, Instructional Technologies at Carleton's Educational Development Centre. "VideoNotes is an example of how we continue to integrate technology and expand the educational experience at Carleton."

The new application - adapted to enhance Carleton's teaching and learning platform - is an excellent example of how advanced networks enable student-centric learning initiatives, and more broadly, contribute to student academic success.

As well, the video streams are distributed across Akamai's content delivery network, which is accessible through ORION, ensuring fast and efficient data transmission and lower bandwidth costs.

"Essential to the initiative is reliable content delivery which ensures that students have immediate access to the lecture video streams, and as they work with the content to create mashups, they are never interrupted by slow or intermittent delivery of content," says Lyons.

Furthermore, VideoNotes is a good example of how a public institution can successfully partner with the private sector to produce an innovative educational application that stimulates learning and contributes to student academic success.

Based on a post-course student questionnaire, of the students who made remixes, 88% stated that this was helpful or very helpful to their learning. Among students who viewed other students' mashups, 78% reported that it was helpful or very helpful to their learning. The majority of students who used VideoNotes (59%) used it more than 13 times during the term.

In addition, student performance appears to be directly tied to using VideoNotes. The class mean was 64%, while students who reported creating mashups achieved significantly better: a mean of 80%. Between January 16 and May 1, 2008, VideoNotes received 10,893 visits and students spent an average of 4 hours each month in the application.

Student feedback has been positive. One student claimed that the application was "absolutely fabulous. I have done much better on my exams this semester because I was able to find anything I needed clarified straight from my lectures." Another student said that she found VideoNotes "very user-friendly, convenient and helpful."

In response to such enthusiastic feedback, Carleton is planning to replace its existing Internet Video on Demand service with VideoNotes, making it available to all 78 CUTV courses by January 2009.

Learn more about VideoNotes at http://videonotes.carleton.ca.