Boulder, Colorado – The WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) is pleased to announce NJEDge.Net (New Jersey Research & Education Network): NJVID is a recipient of a 2012 WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) award, a competition that recognizes innovative uses of educational technologies in higher education. Since 2004 the WOW award has been presented to colleges, universities, and organizations for exceptionally creative, technology-based solutions to a significant problem or need in higher education.
NJEDge.Net (New Jersey Research & Education Network): NJVID
NJVID is a state-of-the-art digital video repository service for streaming and preservation of academic and research videos for higher education. By providing cost effective video streaming and repository services, NJVID enables institutions to overcome the technical barriers in digitizing and making video available to users through a secure portal. This service is provided by NJEDge.Net – New Jersey Research and Education Network – and builds upon a strong, statewide collaboration among universities, libraries, museums and K-12 education.
The NJVID service enables faculty to implement visual media into their courses by allowing them to upload their own videos and share them with students to enhance the learning experience. Users can create their own virtual clips from full-length videos and add their own notes to it, as well as string videos and clips to create personalized playlists. By using a simplified user management system, metadata cataloging and search tools, any institutional user can discover, collaborate and share resources. These video resources can also be made available within learning management systems, on websites and blogs.
NJVID also hosts a huge collection of over 5000 cataloged commercial educational digital videos that relate to a diverse array of fields from reputed vendors such as Films Media Group, PBS, Ambrose, Intelecom and others, allowing institutions that have licensed this content to easily add these videos to their video collection for streaming.
In creating a unified portal for faculty uploaded, locally owned and commercial licensed videos, NJVID has today grown to fulfill a much greater need of educators and students alike: the use of video as a major tool in teaching and learning.
“The significance of the WOW Award is more than just some cool, new technology tools,” notes James Bowey, professor at Winona State University and chair of the WOW Awards Committee. “At the heart of the award and this year’s three honored projects is that each addresses a real and important need that is shared widely across higher education. It’s the innovative, often collaborative, way in which these projects were carried forward that merits the award, as well as the fact that each serves as a model for others to replicate.”
The winning projects will be honored at the WCET Annual Meeting<http://wcetconference.wiche.edu> on November 2 in San Antonio.
The WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) (www.wcet.wiche.edu<http://www.wcet.wiche.edu/>) is a cooperative, membership-driven, non-profit provider of strategies and services that accelerate the adoption of effective practices and policies, advancing excellence in technology-enhanced teaching and learning in higher education. More information is available on WCET’s Website: wcet.wiche.edu<http://wcet.wiche.edu>