Tegrity and the Center for Digital Education Report on Alternative Funding Mechanisms for Deploying Lecture Capture in Postsecondary Institutions

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In light of the recent U.S. economic downturn, higher education institutions have experienced a steep decline in the amount of government funding that is available to support operations and investment. As a result, institutions are struggling to fund the next-generation educational technologies that have become critical components of higher education over the past decade. Administrators tasked with ensuring that the latest classroom technologies are available to their professors and students are finding themselves poorly resourced to carry out their mandate.

Lecture capture solutions are one technology that leading institutions have been pursuing due to their proven positive impact on student performance and course completion rates, which ultimately result in a more successful student body and stronger reputation for the institution.  Thanks to shrinking budgets, however, administrators are sometimes forced to table the implementation of such next-generation technologies, regardless of their potential. To help, the Center For Digital Education, in partnership with Tegrity, a division of McGraw-Hill Higher Education, has just released a new research paper titled "Funding Lecture Capture in Higher Education," offering various strategies for funding lecture capture solutions and enabling administrators to clear the financial hurdles they may face.

The paper, authored by the Center for Digital Education, pinpoints how and why higher education institutions are facing a so-called 'recession.' This may come as a surprise to the general public, as many people are surrounded by news of the cost of tuition's rapid growth. Though it seems that institutions should have the ability to fund technological innovations as a result of those high tuitions, schools are struggling with a decrease in the number of government funds available. Federal stimulus funds awarded during the first few years of the U.S. recession have been reduced and are not being replaced. State budget cuts for institutions are also being levied even though enrollments are increasing and the costs for educating a larger body of students are rising.

"Administrators are caught between the dual imperatives of providing the educational technology necessary to compete today and the need to cut costs," said Michael Berger, Senior Director of Marketing for Tegrity. "The good news is that there are alternative funding options available and our hope is that the Center for Digital Education's research helps administrators deploy the latest education technology - including Tegrity Campus - without breaking the bank."

Despite chronic federal budget cuts among institutions, the Center for Digital Education uncovered several strategic funding methods that can provide funds for the deployment of lecture capture solutions:

• Though educational budget cuts and diminishing stimulus money are the rule of the day, other forms of federal funds are still available. Annual mandatory and discretionary federal appropriations usually include a technological advancement clause where institutions can propose that lecture capture is essential for faculty and student development. Missouri State University-West Plains was awarded with an HEA Title III Strengthening Institutions grant in 2010 for lecture capture. Additionally, federal organizations like the U.S. Department of Labor award grants to community colleges to advance and expand innovative programs to prepare students for the workplace.
• Institutions can spread the cost of lecture capture across several campus budgets such as the general fund, maintenance and operations, instructional technology, student technology fees and IT funds in order to avoid having one single budget bear all the weight. At Pace University, student governance bodies used student fees to purchase its lecture capture solution thanks to the support of the students who wanted the technology for their educational purposes.
• More than 280 private and public philanthropies provide non-government grants to fund causes the organizations value. In a 2010 Grantmakers for Education survey, a majority of organizations stated they value supporting innovative initiatives such as lecture capture solutions. More information about these organizations can be found at www.edfunders.org.
• General obligation bonds and revenue bonds are two additional means of funding lecture capture solutions. General obligation bonds are backed by state revenue and are unlikely to default. Therefore, bondholders (taxpayers) offer generally lower interest rates to the benefit of institutions. Alternatively, revenue bonds require institutions to produce revenue in order to pay off the debt accrued. These are usually riskier, though institutions can pay off the debt with such means as tuition and endowments.
• U.S. businesses allocate funds for partnerships, donations and sponsorships each year.  In addition, a chronic complaint of businesses is the lack of workforce-ready talent coming out of schools. Institutions can partner with these businesses to create curriculum and training programs to produce workforce-ready citizens. As part of this partnership, technological advancements, such as lecture capture, will be funded by these businesses. Institutions should also propose a general donation from such businesses to fund lecture capture solutions as it can be argued that the technology improves student outcomes and enables the advanced career preparation needed in the workforce.
• Both four-year and two-year institutions should reach out to their alumni base, communities, faculty, staff and associations for individual donations. In 2010, the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota raised enough money solely through alumni donations to fund its lecture capture system. Administrators should fundraise through traditional means as well as through social media as the communications landscape has dramatically changed with alumni who have graduated recently. Social media platforms also offer a more direct form of communication which can be easily updated in real-time.

"Given the recent budget constraints that higher education institutions are experiencing as a result of the loss of federal funding, it is clear that administrators must search for alternative ways to secure the funds needed to maintain their institution's technology leadership," said LeiLani Cauthen, VP of the Center for Digital Education and Publisher, Converge Special Reports. "Fortunately, modern lecture capture solutions like Tegrity offer deployment models and flexible payment methods that take the current funding environment into account. Higher education leaders just need to be prepared and do their homework to determine which solutions fit best."

When searching for the perfect lecture capture solution for an institution, administrators must look for technologies that are affordable and deliver the best return on investment so that they can justify the need for this technology on campus. Tegrity Campus is an affordable lecture capture solution due to its cloud-based deployment model, which eliminates the need for expensive hardware while lessening the necessity for IT professionals to spend precious resources on maintaining and updating software and infrastructure as these tasks are taken care of by Tegrity. High, on-demand scalability exists within the cloud system, so resources can be implemented in all classrooms on campus providing lower per capita capital expense and overhead costs. The necessary bandwidth is consumed on the provider's side, not the institution's side, which is a particular advantage if the school has many off-campus students or mobile usage is high. Additionally, Tegrity provides flexible pricing plans for institutions as the company understands the budget constraints facing schools today.

To download a copy of "Funding Lecture Capture in Higher Education," visit http://pages.tegrity.com/fund.

About Tegrity

Tegrity Campus is the only cloud-based Lecture Capture solution proven to improve student achievement, satisfaction, retention and recruitment across an institution. It makes class time available all the time by automatically recording, storing and indexing every class on campus – without the need to install any special hardware or software in classrooms. The company's patent-pending Search Anything™ and Smart Bookmarks™ features then let students instantly review key class moments online using a PC, Mac, iPod, iPad or other mobile device. For more information, visit http://www.tegrity.com.

About McGraw-Hill Higher Education

McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, is a leading innovator in the development of 21st century teaching and learning digital solutions for postsecondary and higher education markets worldwide. Through a comprehensive range of traditional and digital education content and tools focused on improving student learning outcomes, McGraw-Hill Higher Education empowers and prepares professionals and students to connect, learn and succeed in the global economy. McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), has offices in 33 countries and publishes in more than 65 languages. Additional information is available at http://www.mheducation.com/.

SOURCE Tegrity