Tegrity

Tegrity, a division of McGraw-Hill Higher Education, is a cloud-based “lecture capture service” but it is capable of far more than just recording in-class lectures. Tegrity allows for closed-captioning and integrates with all the major course management systems. Tegrity is a paid application; it offers two pricing models; one is FTE based, while the other is based on the number of hours of recording. You can read more about Tegrity resources at Tegrity FAQ.

Please watch this introduction to Tegrity video: Video: Brief Intro for Instructors

Pedagogical Uses

Here is the description from the Tegrity website: “Tegrity Campus is a fully automated lecture capture solution used in traditional, hybrid, 'flipped classes" and online courses to record lesson, lectures, and skills. Its personalized learning features make study time incredibly efficient and its ability to affordably scale brings this benefit to every student on campus. Patented search technology and real-time LMS integrations make Tegrity the market-leading solution and service.”

Simply put, Tegrity records whatever is on your computer screen and any audio you want to capture. Examples include presentations with your voice-over, annotated diagrams or screenshots, and in-field or in-class recordings - use your imagination! Students can watch recordings at any time, as many times as needed, from their computer or mobile device.

You can read the University of New Haven recruits and retains students using Tegrity to improve outcomes case study here.

The following tutorial assumes your school licenses Tegrity and that you have already downloaded the Tegrity application to your computer. When teaching at UNH, you will find the Tegrity Classes link on the main menu of each Blackboard course. If the link is missing from your course or you have any technical issues, email UNH Blackboard Support. If you would like assistance using any UNH system, contact Lisa Scranton at 203.932.7485 or email lscranton@newhaven.edu.

Contact your information technology department if you are teaching at other institutions.

The tutorial will guide you through creating an “introduce yourself” video. You can share this video with your students before your first meeting as an icebreaker or simply to save time in class. You may want to create a introduction that is non-course specific so you can copy the same introduction into all of your courses!

Make sure to do these things before you get started:

• Make a list of items you want to mention in your recording.
• Review the Tegrity Instructor Quick Start Guide Tegrity Instructor Quick Start Guide.
• Enable your computer’s microphone and webcam.
• Find a quiet spot but don’t worry about background noise too much.
• Close all applications that will not be included in the recording. Since everything that appears on your computer screen will be captured, you may want to disable any popup messages such as email or system alerts.
• Open all applications that you will use in your recording so you can quickly locate and maximize the application from your computer’s application tray (usually at the bottom of the screen).
• Locate the Tegrity Classes link on the course menu in any one of your Blackboard courses. See example below.

Recording Steps:

1. Log into Blackboard and go to a course home page.

2. Click on the Tegrity Classes link. You may see the popup blocker message below. Just follow the prompt instructions in the message to open your Tegrity sessions list.

You are now in your Tegrity sessions list for that course.

3. Click on the Start a Recording button to open the Tegrity Recorder.

On the Tegrity Recorder Screen, you can:

• Switch the position of this recording to another course.
• Change the default date and time Title of the recording to something more explicit such as “Instructor Introduction”.
• Select a static Picture to put in the recording.
• Test the audio level of your microphone, and adjust the recording Settings; testing the audio is important because it is one of the things you can’t fix with editing.
• Choose to incorporate an Instructor Video into your recording with the use of a webcam.
• Choose to create a Webcast from this recording.

4. Click the Record button to launch the Recording Toolbar.

5. Click OK to start the recording of your voice and desktop actions.

When the Recording Toolbar appears in your computer’s application tray, Tegrity is recording!

6. Click the Pause button to pause the recording if you need to take a break; the Pause button will turn red and “PAUSED” will appear at the top of your screen to indicate the paused status. Click on the Pause button to resume the recording.

7. Click the Stop button to stop the recording. The popup message provides an option to continue the recording (click No) or to stop the recording.

When you stop the recording, you must choose one of the three options and then click Yes:

• Upload (in the background): Tegrity takes a few minutes to package and index the recording. You can start a new recording or use other features of Tegrity while the upload process runs.
• Preview: You can watch the recording before it is packaged and indexed.
• Delete: You can delete the recording. You cannot retrieve a deleted recording.

After the recording is uploaded you can edit it, move it, add to it, etc.

Please watch the tutorial to see just how easy it is to create your own introduction recording. Sample Tegrity Recording

Limitations

Some limitations to Tegrity are that it is a paid application and the cost is not inexpensive. Tegrity does require a systems administrator for setup, storage, etc.

Benefits

Some benefits to Tegrity are that instructors can easily reuse recordings by copying them to additional courses; editing operations are fairly simple to use; recording links can be embedded into websites or added to printed or online materials; recordings can be published to YouTube, etc.

Additionally, students can make their own Tegrity recordings if you enable that Tegrity course setting. For example, students can create their own introduction video if you are teaching in a hybrid or fully online class or even in a traditional class.

If your institution has Tegrity, I definitely suggest you use it!

Revision/Audit Trail

Originally posted by Lisa Scranton on 8/5/201