From a Duke basketball game broadcast online in Mandarin Chinese to TelePresence in the classroom, technology is enabling faculty, staff and students to share the Duke experience in compelling new ways, two Duke leaders told employees this week at the Primetime forum.
"The core strength of Duke is the people, connections and the collaboration that occurs," said Tracy Futhey, vice president for the Office of Information Technology. "Technology can support that."
The Primetime forum featured a discussion with Futhey and Mike Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, about the interconnectedness of technology and communication.
"Individuals and institutions can talk to each other in ways that were unimaginable a few years ago," Schoenfeld said. "Every aspect of our mission has been affected by technology. Every way people interact with Duke has changed."
Statistics illustrate the trend:
- Nearly all of the 30,000 applicants for the class of 2015 submitted their applications online.
- The Duke University Facebook page has an online community of more than 60,000.
- A growing percentage of users access Duke information from mobile devices. The DukeMobile suite of applications, available for iPhone, BlackBerry and now Android, allows users to browse campus news and events, check campus maps and live sports scores, and access videos from iTunes U and YouTube.
The explosion of social media and the proliferation of online video has created new opportunities for Duke, Schoenfeld said - from online webcasts such as Primetime and Online Office Hours to Duke on Demand, a website that pulls together videos from across campus, highlighting speakers, research findings and live events.
"Video is as ubiquitous and as easy to do as writing. The flip side is that everything is on camera," Schoenfeld said. "We need to be vigilant about the ways Duke is presented and portrayed in the digital realm."
As Duke extends its global efforts, video also is changing the classroom experience through technologies such as TelePresence - which Futhey described as delivering an experience beyond "video conferencing on steroids."
TelePresence combines high-definition, life-size video images and 3-D spatial audio to create an "in-person" experience, so users from multiple locations appear as if they're in the same space.
In the past year, Duke has set up seven Cisco TelePresence-enabled conference rooms on campus, including a 140-seat classroom at the Fuqua School of Business.
"It's really been a compelling way to extend the Duke community beyond the borders of Durham," Futhey said.
The Primetime forum drew about 50 faculty and staff to the Bryan Center's Griffith Theater, and another 1,200 tuned in at some point to watch a live online broadcast.
Duke staff who attended the event said they appreciated the opportunity to find out about the latest technological developments at Duke.
"Technology helps us maintain a connection with the staff and students working at our international sites, from the minutiae of day-to-day activities to emergency notification," said Valerie Cullen, computing operations manager for the Global Education Office for Undergraduates. "It's useful to hear how other offices and units are using technology."
The webcast is available on the Primetime website.