UMass Boston

In the fall of 2016, Echo360 became Echo360 Active Learning Platform (ALP). Echo360 ALP is a cloud-based service that continues to support the creation and streaming of lectures while adding many new exciting features. Students are now able to take notes and ask questions about recorded lectures, as well as bookmark particular parts of slides or lectures to save for later. These tools are designed to better aid students in review. Please visit echo360.com or watch the video to learn more.

Rooms with Echo 360 Classroom Capture Appliances:

Important Notes Regarding the "Echo360 Shell” and “Interactive/Embedded” Media

• Students must have 3rd party cookies enabled on their browser to view embedded Echo360 videos. 
• Students and Faculty using pre-Catalina Mac OSX (10.14-below) should use Firefox as their primary browser.
• Students should use the Blackboard App on mobile devices and not a browser to correctly view embedded videos.

Important Information Regarding Echo360 ALP

• PLEASE NOTE THAT PRESSING THE DISPLAY MUTE FUNCTION IN THE ROOMS, DOES NOT MUTE THE SIGNAL GOING TO THE ECHO360 RECORDING. PLEASE SELECT A BLANK INPUT TO THE SCREEN IF YOU NEED TO MUTE THE DISPLAY TO THE ECHO360 RECORDING.
• Recorded lectures will be kept for two years from the date of the recording. After this time your files will be automatically deleted from the Echo360 Cloud Service. Please plan out how you will save the recordings prior to the expiration.
• Online faculty using Echo360 files as supplemental recordings please note that Echo360 ALP is designed to be integrated with only one course on Blackboard, if you plan on using the recordings for multiple semesters please contact us to help you plan this out as the files will have to be put into new courses. Please also note the two years of archival recording policy.
• Echo360 recordings as set by default to only be viewed by enrolled students. If you are utilizing the recording system students will be able to view the files by logging on through blackboard. Previous versions of Echo360 sent out an email with URLs to the recorded classes. Echo360 requires students to log in to view unless the faculty share. This is easily accomplished by logging into Blackboard and clicking on the Echo360 ALP Tool Link in the toolbar, it will automatically sign the students into the Echo360 course and they can then view the files.
• Echo360 files are set by default to not be downloaded. You can easily modify this feature by following the directions to enable downloads. If you have any questions about downloading please let us know.
• Echo360 recorded content is editable, Echo360 provides a very basic and simple video editing function, allowing you to make cuts and trims to video content as needed. 
• Echo360 courses can be closed captioned, special arrangements can be made for a hearing-impaired student please contact the Ross Center for Disability Services and they will contact the Echo360 administrator to assure that the classes get captioned for that student.

Lecture Capture with Echo360

Requirements for Recording with Echo360:

• A classroom equipped with Echo360 Classroom Capture (C-Cap) or;
• a personal computer with Echo360 Universal Capture (U-Cap) installed on it.

Classroom Capture (C-Cap)

If you are teaching in an Echo360 equipped classroom your lectures can be automatically scheduled and recorded. 

• Rooms with Echo 360 Classroom Capture Appliances.

Universal Capture (U-Cap)

U-Cap allows you to make a recording at your leisure, on a personal computer or laptop. It allows you the same functionality as C-Cap. The main difference is that you can create the recording whenever you would like. If you would like to use U-Cap you will need to request it.

• Consult the Echo360 Universal Capture User Guide
• Universal Capture Getting Started

Remote Teaching with Echo 360

Learn about Best Practices using Echo 360 for Remote Teaching

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)

Automatic Speech Recognition: Echo360 has partnered with Amazon to deliver your students Automatic Speech Recognition or ASR for short. ASR is a searchable transcript, that can be edited, for students to follow along with your video.

Using a Document Camera in Echo360

Embedded Polling

You can now create “Interactive Media” which are embedded into Blackboard with polling activities. The polls gate the next section of the video requiring students to view portions before proceeding to the next section. Analytics for each piece of “Interactive Media” are generated in the library as opposed to the Echo360 Shell- which means for each video you post you will need to gather the analytics from the library individually.  There are some enhancements on the way for exporting the metrics and should be released sometime in the middle of September. 

Echo360 - Zoom Cloud Integration

You can now have your Zoom Cloud recordings copied to Echo360 after you record them. This is an opt-in feature that we are really excited to release. It will now save you time downloading and uploading your recordings to share on Echo360 with your students. 

Echo360 Student Library

New feature to allow students to upload or record their own content using Universal Capture. You, as faculty, can make assignments within Blackboard that would allow students to embed their own videos for those assignments. Students can also upload content and share it with you individually.  

Echo360 ALP Cloud

Once your lectures have been recorded, they can be accessed on the Echo360 ALP Cloud. See below for more details:

• Accessing the Echo360 Server
  • How to Login to Echo360
• Echo360 File Availability and Editing
  • Editing Echo360 Files
• Uploading Other Media File Types to Echo360
  • How to upload media to the Echo360 server
• Gauging student success/viewing statistics
• Creating and Using Activity Slides
  • Creating Activity Slides Quick Guide
  • Teaching with Activity Slides
  • Adding a Cellphone for SMS Response (Students)
  • Responding to Activities During Class (Students)
• Embedding Echo360 Videos on Blackboard
  • How to embed Echo360 in Blackboard

Student Guide to Echo360

Echo360 Student Tool Guide

Getting Help

For more help with Echo360 contact us at echo360@umb.edu or Zack.Ronald@umb.edu.