Echo360
Echo360 is the lecture capture and online delivery system used by La Trobe and is launched by clicking on a link within the 'Echo360 Block' on your LMS subject's homepage.
Once you have clicked on the link for your subject's recordings in the Echo360 Block, you will be taken to that subject's 'Echo360' page. This page contains a list of all available recordings for your subject. View a recording by clicking on it, then clicking on the 'Play' icon on the right side of the page.
Recorded Lectures
At La Trobe, all scheduled lectures timetabled into appropriately equipped venues are recorded by default and lecturers have the option of providing direct links to their recordings in the LMS.
Lecture recordings do not replace live lectures as attendance at lectures allows you to connect with your lecturer and other students within your discipline. Live lectures provide you with inspiration and motivation and they may also contain content that is not included in the recording.
As a student, you might choose to use a recorded lecture because:
- It provides an additional resource for revision and study after the lecture;
- You were present at the lecture but you did not absorb all that was being said;
- You were unable to attend the lecture due to accident or illness, a timetable clash, work or other commitment.
Apps
There are also a number of 'apps' available to students on the right side of the player window;
- Scenes – allows you to jump to a specific time in the recording, similar to the way chapters function on a DVD (the default scene length in EchoSystem is 5 minutes). A thumbnail image of the video is displayed for each scene.
- Search – If the video being played contains images of text (powerpoint slides or other), EchoSystem will run an Optical Character Recognition scan so that words and topics can be recognised by the system. Searching on terms will return timecoded matches that can be clicked on to be viewed when those terms are present on screen in the video. If the video has captions, the search functionality will also search the captions file.
- Bookmarks – allows students to add bookmarks to the video in order to tag important sections or areas that they want to quickly return to later. These bookmarks will remain attached to the recording for as long as the recording is available.
- Discussions – students can create discussions or ask questions related to specific points in the video. Once a discussion has been submitted, it is visible to other students viewing the same recording and they can respond to the original question or talking point.
- Info – The name of the recording, the instructors (lecturers) for this subject and copyright information.
- Help – Keyboard shortcuts for EchoPlayer functions.
- Feedback – Submit feedback about the EchoPlayer to Echo360.
- Share – social media (Facebook and Twitter) integration.
Browser Configuration
Echo360 is a web-based application that uses a browser to view content and as such has certain browser requirements. Beyond ensuring you're using a supported browser, there are also some configuration settings you may need to check or change to successfully use Echo360.
Recommended Browser Configurations - how to enable cookies and the flash plug in
Known Issues
Repeated login prompt
If you are prompted to sign into Echo360 you can do so using your student email address (e.g 12345678@students.latrobe.edu.au). If you're prompted to login repeatedly, navigate to Echo360 directly using a new browser tab or window and sign in. Once signed in, go back to the LMS and refresh the page and you should no longer be prompted to sign in.
The below issues have now been resolved in the latest version of Echo360 however you may encounter these issues if you have links to any of the content created with previous versions of Echo360.
- If you are using Internet Explorer, you will get a pop-up dialog box directly after clicking the link for your subject recordings in Echo360. Make sure you click 'No' (or 'Show all content' for Internet Explorer 9 or later). If you click 'Yes', navigation to the EchoCenter will be cancelled. You will only encounter this issue when attempting to access recordings using Internet Explorer.
- If you attempt to view a live stream but the page prompts you that Flash Player is not installed, please check the browser configuration for your browser in the section above.