Echo360 Announces Four Award Recipients of Annual $10,000 Research Program Grants

DULLES, VA--(Marketwire - Dec 12, 2011) - Echo360, the global leader in campus-wide blended learning and lecture capture solutions, today announced the recipients of the 2011-2012 Blended Learning Grants Program that awards $10,000 to universities committed to directly addressing the impact of lecture capture technology. The 2011-2012 program theme, "Breaking New Ground: Outcomes, Retention and Recruitment" encouraged institutions to submit proposals that focused on blended learning's impact on these topics.

This year's challenge was to cultivate data traditionally void in the blended learning sector and explore how alternative course delivery models are changing the way modern students learn. The four grants, selected from twenty-four submissions, were awarded to:

• Murdoch University and The University of Newcastle for 'Investigating Student Behaviours in Blended Learning Environments to Enhance Retention.'
• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 'Toward an Educational Renaissance: The Role of Lecture Capture in Fostering Innovative Learning Environments for Aspiring Health Professionals.'
• La Trobe University for 'An investigation Into Student Lecture Attendance, Their Use of Recorded Lectures and Subject Outcomes.'
• Riverland Community College for 'Analysis of Lecture Capture Engagement as a Retention Tool.'

"We're thrilled to once again offer our clients a grant to support research in lecture capture," said Fred Singer, CEO of Echo360. "We're committed to partnering with the international blended learning community to further the understanding of technology benefits for teaching and learning."

The joint submission from Murdoch University and University of Newcastle is the program's first repeat winner. Leveraging an analytic tool it developed with a 2009 grant, it will research how students in introductory studies, including those at risk of dropping out, can effectively use a blended learning environment. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will study whether lecture capture can effectively replace content-intensive, in-class lectures. La Trobe University will examine the relationships between student use of recorded lectures and final grades in anatomy and physiology subjects. Riverland Community College is the first two-year college recipient of an Echo360 grant. Its study will explore whether lecture capture can be used as a predictive tool for students who could be at risk of failure -- a key topic for institutions that have low course retention and graduation rates.

Distinguished educational experts judged the winners, including Dr. John T. Casteen III, President Emeritus of the University of Virginia, C. Darrell Jennings, MD, Senior Associate Dean of University of Kentucky, and Dr. Rob Phillips, Associate Professor of Murdoch University.

About Echo360
As a global leader in blended learning and lecture capture solutions, Echo360 helps higher education institutions keep pace with modern students' learning needs through products that digitally record and upload learning content. Echo360 has been recognized with a Product Line Strategy of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan and named a Visionary Vendor in Educational Technology by IT research firm Basex. Echo360's products facilitate better instruction, lower costs and enrich learning experiences by enabling students to easily access and share multimedia content. Through Echo360's platform, students can replay recorded sessions and review course information online at their convenience and across various devices. More than 500 colleges and universities in 29 countries use Echo360's solution.