What Benefits Does Discover Video Offer For Education?

Discover Video brings visual punch to the classroom

Discover Video and its DEVOS platform are changing the way educators, students and their parents communicate with each other. Video, and its role in teaching and organizing school activities, is gaining traction in districts all over the country. DEVOS is designed to make the most of this, providing superior functionality and intuitiveness to districts. DEVOS is the heart of the Discover Video solution and can be adapted for schools and universities, corporations and government agencies. DEVOS makes it simple for organizations to create or support live video, video on demand (VODs), digital signage and emergency communications. With this impressive array of capabilities, DEVOS can be an organization’s primary form of visual communications.

Why DEVOS is the ultimate video platform for educators

Schools are rapidly integrating video, both live and on demand, into many aspects of content creation and delivery. Morning announcements are a primary example of this approach. Already, thousands of schools are delivering morning announcements using streamed video and storing those announcements in VOD form. Educators are also relying on VODs to deliver compelling lesson content and to assess students in a more efficient fashion. Further, video can better involve students who rely on visual forms of communication, such as students who use sign language. In short, video provides a new avenue for educators to reach and teach their pupils. DEVOS facilitates this forward-thinking approach and gives educators and students the tools they need to easily produce, organize and share video. There are streaming and VOD services all over the internet, but unlike most other streaming and VOD platforms, DEVOS is focused on communications at the organization level. What does that mean? It means Discover Video has taken into account the concerns that schools, students and parents have. This is what makes DEVOS the best solution available to educators:

1. Secure – DEVOS is a secure, closed environment, which means that the only people who can view the stream or VOD are those authorized to do so. Understandably, parents may not want their children in a YouTube video that can be viewed by anyone in the world.

Accessible video platforms like YouTube have some parents feeling uneasy. Multiple surveys reveal that while parents recognize the potential educational impact of sites like YouTube, they are also wary of how these sites expose students to a difficult-to-moderate community.

DEVOS is the perfect solution to this concern, as it limits access to video content to teachers, administrators, students and their families. This secure ecosystem, though, doesn’t dull the educational potential of DEVOS. Educators can still create or curate videos for their students to view, so parents can rest easy that their children will only use DEVOS for learning or creating.

2. Easy to use and simple encoding – Video production has long been a challenging process, extending far beyond the camera. Many educators still have doubts that they will get the most out of a video sharing platform. Fortunately, these issues have been resolved in DEVOS.

DEVOS has been designed with a focus on the end user, which is often an educator. It is not an exclusive piece of software that only professionals can use. Instead, it is organized so that educators can pick it up quickly. Further, A/V integrators can provide comprehensive training to teachers and administrators, ensuring there is no confusion when creating or delivering content.

Discover Video’s approach to video encoding is an example of DEVOS’ simplicity. During the encoding phase, the recorded video is formatted and compressed so that it is compatible with a variety of devices. It’s a critical step in the process, but it’s also one of the hardest to understand, and platforms like YouTube aren’t interested in showing educators how it’s done. Discover Video’s encoders, and notably the Streamsie software, handle the nuts and bolts of encoding with little or no input from the educator. The students and teachers create a video and the encoder processes the data so that it can be viewed on nearly any device. Discover Video’s encoders convert the video into industry-standard formats, ensuring this widespread compatibility. With DEVOS, educators can easily produce media that can be viewed on almost all desktops, laptops, tablets and phones.

3. Versatility – While DEVOS already provides immense value in simplifying video streaming and VOD for schools, its versatility adds even more value to the package.

Digital signage has obvious benefits for schools, and like with everything else DEVOS, it is easy to create and output. Digital signage can be sent to any authorized device, and any changes to content can be uploaded in real time from a single location.

An example of digital signage in schools involves bus schedules. Bus loading and unloading can be chaotic for many schools, but DEVOS brings order to it. The display alerts students and teachers when a particular bus is loading or unloading, so students know when their bus arrives, no matter where they are. Other digital signage ideas include school menus, event schedules and spirit building.

DEVOS can also deliver emergency alerts to all displays on the network. Emergency alerts can be delivered with instructions or evacuation directions, and they take priority over everything else, making for immediate communication during critical moments.

Discover Video is a compelling addition to any learning institution. With an intuitive design, a secure ecosystem and powerful media creation tools, the future of school communications is looking even brighter.