EchoVideo is a lecture capture system, which allows the recording of classroom lectures, meetings, speeches, and other events. The recordings can be made available for students to review on their own or shared with others. You can record any combination of audio, video, and information on your computer screen and easily publish your recordings to Canvas for review.
The classroom capture system will automatically capture lectures according to SPIRE scheduled times. We can make adjustments to the schedule lecture capture if instructors email a request. Instructors need to connect to the classroom A/V and turn on the classroom mic to record presentation and sound.
Universal Capture: Personal is a stand-alone application that can be downloaded and installed on your personal computer and is intended to be used outside of the lecture hall. Universal Capture allows you to create a recording by capturing the audio and screen display (including webcams) on your personal computer in your own office or home.
Instructors interested in recording lectures, meetings, speeches or other events can Request Lecture Capture to schedule a recording in a Classroom Equipped with Lecture Capture Technology.
To request lecture capture for a course, you’ll need to be logged in to SPIRE and access the request form via the Faculty Home menu. Please note that only the primary instructor listed in SPIRE for a course can request EchoVideo.
If you do not see your course listed in SPIRE, contact your department's academic scheduling representative. They will be able to make the necessary corrections to the listing.
The turnaround time for new EchoVideo course requests is typically 1-2 business days.
Through the Integrated EchoVideo Tool, you can provide students with easy access to all of your recordings through a single link and/or through individual recording links. When a student clicks on an EchoVideo integration link on your Canvas course page, EchoVideo will automatically create an account for them and add the student to your EchoVideo course section.
For step-by-step instructions on configuring EchoVideo so your students can access your recordings, please see: How to Share EchoVideo Recordings and Videos with Students.
A TA has to be added to EchoVideo separately for them to access the recordings. Please include their name(s) and NetID's while filling out the EchoVideo request form in SPIRE.
You will have access to content added to EchoVideo as long as you have an active UMass NetID and password.
Yes, you can share the content with other EchoVideo users. The shared media content will appear in the Shared with me tab of the other user's EchoVideo Home page.
For instructions on how to share content with other users, see Sharing and Unsharing Media with Other EchoVideo Users.
You can download content from your EchoVideo Content if you need or want a local copy of the media, or want to use an advanced editing program (e.g. Camtasia) to edit your media before making it available to students.
To download a recording from EchoVideo, see the EchoVideo article: EchoVideo: Downloading Media From Your Library
You can enable/disable student downloads of your content at any time in the Settings tab of your EchoVideo course section. Content owners can always download content they own.
For instructions, please see: Turning Section Features On and Off.
Yes, you can. Please be aware that the online EchoVideo video editor provides basic video editing functions, allowing you to make cuts and trims to video content. For instructions, see Editing Videos in EchoVideo.
You can choose to keep recordings "unavailable" until you are ready to share them with your class, or the recordings can be set to automatically be available. For more instructions, see EchoVideo: Post and Remove Media from a Course.
Course statistics and viewing analytics are provided by EchoVideo. For more information, viewing student analytic data on the EchoVideo website.
To reuse your recordings from previous sections, you will still need to request a new EchoVideo course in SPIRE. We can copy a section from one course into another course based on your request.
To reuse one or more recordings from a previous semester, you can copy each recording from your library into the new EchoVideo course section. Please be aware that if the recording includes students and it is possible to identify the student, then the portions containing recordings of the student do constitute protected educational records. Educational records can only be used as permitted by FERPA or in a manner allowed by a written consent from the student.
Depending on how recordings are created or edited, they may constitute educational records that are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Instructors agree to follow acceptable practices for utilizing video and audio recordings in the classroom setting. For more, see our Lecture Capture and FERPA FAQs.
The instructor may obtain individualized FERPA consents from the students in the recording which allow use of that portion of the recordings. This type of consent can be obtained on a case-by-case basis or from all the students at the outset of a class. A form template is available to download here: FERPA - Consent to Release Student Information.pdf
For questions or help with EchoVideo lecture capture, please contact the Instructional Media Lab at instruct@umass.edu.