UBC Okanagan has launched a new online television station – UBCO.TV – to showcase the university’s people, achievements and events using the storytelling power of video with convenient on-demand access any time, anywhere.
“UBCO.TV is a powerful communication tool that we have just begun to use as a way of informing our local and more distant communities about activities, events and discoveries taking place at UBC Okanagan,” says Gwen Zilm, Associate Vice President Learning Services at UBC Okanagan.
The UBCO.TV website (http://www.ubco.tv) debuts with nine channels and more than 30 video features produced specifically for the site.
Events and Seminars currently features a recent Distinguished Speaker Series presentation on the future of science education by Nobel Prize winner and UBC Professor Dr. Carl Wieman. The site’s many other features include a student-led video tour of the UBC Okanagan campus, an introduction to the varsity athletics program, profiles of new faculty members, and features about research underway at the university.
Academic and administrative units are already using the new system to promote and commemorate their events. For example, a variety of features from this month’s faculty and staff Health Symposium at UBC Okanagan are being produced by the Human Resources department. An entire keynote presentation on health and wellness and stress resiliency by Dr. Martin Collis, and a breakout session with business and life coach Rhonda Victoor, are among the video features that will soon appear on UBCO.TV’s Events and Seminars.
Other channels are Up Front (stories highlighting what’s happening at UBC Okanagan), Discover UBCO,Life On Campus, Teaching and Learning, Research Network, Faces @ UBCO, and Beyond Our Campus. Later this year, live broadcasts will be added, along with many other features, Zilm notes. As well, students will be invited to become trained as camera hosts and reporters.
“We are looking forward to working with students to showcase their work by producing segments for UBCO.TV,” she says. “We also want to work with interested faculties and units to explore the use of the technology for training and instruction, and we want to use streaming technology to provide a window for the world into UBC Okanagan. Internet television is a great way for us to engage the community, both locally and internationally.”
Contributing to the development of UBCO.TV are Artistech Newmedia, Living Source Media Group, and OKBC.TV. In addition to the website, UBCO.TV also delivers a wide variety of UBC Okanagan event information via both the website and a system of on-campus video displays, located in the foyers of the Arts, Science, Fine Arts and Health, Student Service Centre, and Gymnasium buildings on campus.
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