JISC RSC YH Exchange News

Television and radio broadcast content is now available as an online streaming service to thousands of students and researchers for the first time following the launch of Box of Broadcasts (BoB National) by the JISC part-funded British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC).

The off-air recording and video archive service is available to staff and students of the Education Recording Agency (ERA) licensed member institutions. Like the BBC ‘iPlayer’, it allows users to watch or listen to programmes missed in the last week. However, unlike iPlayer, programmes to air over the coming seven days can be scheduled, recorded and do not expire. This means they can be archived and available indefinitely, making it invaluable for lecturers and students requiring constant access.

The BUFVC has been piloting BoB National with its partners, Bournemouth University and Cambridge Imaging Systems and there are thousands of users already signed up. BoB National is self-perpetuating, so the more institutions sign up and record programmes, the more content is made available to other users.

There is also a simple editing service which allows users to create specific clips. These, as well as entire programmes or series can be added to playlists, for sharing with other students or research colleagues. Users can then comment, tag or rate these playlists, clips or programmes.

Commenting on the launch of BoB National, Keith Parry, programme leader for sports coaching and development, Bournemouth University, said: “It’s a fantastic resource which allows me to share content with students and staff alike. For example, students are encouraged to watch European football games as part of their coaching analysis module, and they appreciate the fact they can watch these as many times as they need, wherever they need. For sports history and sociology I use the service to link footage to the department’s Virtual Learning Environment – without BoB this would not be possible.

“BoB has given us the ability here at Bournemouth to be able to facilitate new and different learning styles which fit perfectly with today’s students’ consumption of learning material. And student feedback is that they enjoy the ability to view content off-campus and at a time of their choosing, which is particularly useful when it comes to revision time. BoB is already well-used among staff and researchers at Bournemouth and we look forward to it being opened up to peers at other institutions.”

Find out more about BoB at http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/services/bob.html