How Kaltura video is enhancing student performance at Northampton

The days of the traditional top-down teaching and the long drawl of lectures no longer feature at the University of Northampton, thanks to its partnership with leading video technology company Kaltura.

At the institution’s newly opened Waterside Campus, 12,000 students and 2,000 staff are always engaged in the teaching and learning process. An active blended learning strategy that promotes interaction and collaboration, as well as forward-planning by campus administrators have made this possible.

For example, the university’s Waterside campus has no large lecture theaters. The average classroom accommodates just around 30 students and the university’s largest space merely has an 80-person capacity. 

The objective is to create smaller, more intimate teaching and learning spaces, which studies have shown has a direct positive impact on student learning. The smaller the classroom size, the better the learning outcome, the research says.

Of course, the pedagogical approach, ie. how teaching and learning are conducted, plays a central role in enabling this. Through active blended learning, sense-making activities are combined with focused student interactions (with content, peers and tutors) both in and outside the classroom.

This approach places the student at the heart of the learning experience, focusing on engaging them through knowledge construction, reflection and critique, and allowing the development of learner autonomy.

For the University of Northampton, Kaltura’s video solutions bring this method to life. The university works with the company to deliver video for flipped-learning, student assignments, module introductions, in-video-quizzing, and more.

Video is also integrated with the university’s Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and WordPress blogging platform, providing a seamless learning experience for students.

Faculty are allowed to pre-record lectures and deliver course content online ahead of class using Kaltura’s solutions. Lecturers can also make the content interactive by adding link-out buttons or embedding quizzes or polls into video to allow them to track student responses.

University of Northampton Learning Technology Manager Robert Farmer said these features allow academics to focus class time on “discussion and exploration of ideas, rather than the delivery of lectures”.

The method is already showing positive results. According to a statistical study by university Learning Developer Paul Rice, student performance significantly improved after watching video with embedded quiz questions.

Happy with the results so far, the university recently announced it was renewing its partnership with the company,

As the next steps in the partnership, Northampton plans to launch Kaltura’s Interactive Video Paths to create real-life learning scenarios such as mock-up crime scenes for their policing course or emergency scenarios with decision points for paramedic students. 

In addition, the university also plans to launch a video mobile app allowing students and staff to create or consume video on-the-go.

Commenting on the partnership, University of Northampton Head of Learning Technology Rob Howe said Kaltura’s solutions support one of the most modern new campus developments in the world.

“For the purpose of learning in higher education, video technology is a key enabler; and Kaltura has enabled us to provide personalisation, engagement, flexibility and accessibility for all of our students.”

In the world of higher education, “personalisation” has become the new “it” phrase describing a positive campus education experience.

An increasingly discerning student cohort sees this as critical in their learning journey, while universities wield this as a tool to improve retention and graduation rates, along with institutional reputation.

According to Kaltura Co-founder and President Dr. Michal Tsur, video is increasingly being seen as not just a supplemental learning tool but as a fundamental and integral part of a personalised learning experience.

“It is truly an honor to see leading educational institutions like the University of Northampton fully leveraging our video tools, like capture, interactive video quizzing, and live streaming to build a learning environment that truly engages today’s learners.”