Harvard@Home:

Providing Rich Media for Lifelong Learning

Gina M. Siesing

NMC New England Regional Conference

Yale University, 5 October 2005

Harvard@Home Sponsors

• Office of the Provost– Associate Provost for IT and

CIO– Academic Computing

• Faculty of Arts and Sciences– Dean’s Office– FAS Computer Services– Instructional Computing Group

• Harvard@Home Steering Group

Harvard@Home Team

Rudy Hypolite

Multimedia Producer

Working with Rudy:

--Freelance Production Crew

--Freelance Video Editors

Gaurav Sood

Web Development Specialist

Working with Gaurav:

--Editorial Intern

--Graphic Design Intern

Gina Siesing, Director

not pictured: Geoffrey Maness, Video Encoding Specialist

Harvard@Home Stats and Milestones:

Program initiated in March 2001 Grant-funded annually 2.25 FTEs Average production of ~1 program

per month 59 programs released to date Process of review and prioritizing Storing and serving program files

Program Sampler:

Living Healthier, Living Longer

The Business of Baseball

An Evening with Yo-Yo Ma

Brown v. Board: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Manifestations of Shiva

Interpreting the Past

Additional Harvard@Home Project Collaborations:

Harvard@Home Site Visits:

average of ~500 program sessions per day in 2005

~35% are unique visitors ~10% from Harvard domains 5-10% from search engine robots international visits account for ~19% average page view: ~4.5 minutes

Viewership on the Rise2003 2004 2005

Jan: 778 8,220 14,034

Feb: 2,809 6,428 14,059

Mar: 4,420 8,484 18,602*

Apr: 3,026 7,013 14,770

May: 3,539 8,167 19,008*

Jun: 8,285* 8,634 13,477

July: 5,963 8,479 13,299

Aug: 4,923 8,665 13,478

Sep: 5,332 10,752 13,473

Oct: 4,903 11,543 1,804

Nov: 6,160* 12,149

Dec: 9,116* 12,661

Visits & Unique Hosts by Month, 2005

Visit - a sequence of requests, all made from the same IP address, having the same agent string, and with no gap between requests of more than 30 minutes. A visit normally corresponds to a single person moving through the Web site, although there can be exceptions.

Unique Hosts - the number of distinct IP addresses and host names making requests. This may be used as a rough estimate of the number of distinct people accessing the site, even though it does not exactly correspond to people.

How Is a Harvard@Home Program Created?

Harvard@Home Twiki: A Collaborative Production Environment

Sneak Preview: Experience Ancient Greece

Greece Program: Location Map:

Greece Program: Day 1, Athens:

Site Redesign in Process:

New Search Interface:

What do the lifelong learners say?

“Excellent. I am in NJ and have to do an assignment on Dr. Schacter's "Seven Sins" article. Being able to view his lecture helped me understand the article, I felt like I was actually a part of the program. Thanks so much.”

- Student, in response to “Living Healthier, Living Longer: Part III”

What do the lifelong learners say?

“The chance to share with my (middle school) students a lecture by such a distinguished intellect means that we have made an unimaginable leap in program delivery. Gutenberg press at hyper speed.

“Keep 'em coming!”

- Teacher, Dade County School District, FL, in response to “Hyper-Encryption by Virtual

Satellite”

What do the lifelong learners say?

“Wonderful; I want to present to my environmental science students, probably as an introduction to fall 2005 semester courses.”

- Professor, Haskell Indian Nations University, in response to “Changing Habitats...Vanishing

Species”

What do the lifelong learners say?

“First, I want to thank you for making this program available on-line. I was at Harvard and in attendance for the live presentation on November 12, 2004, but I was very tired and had a hard time concentrating on the presenter's comments and charts. Being able to revisit the entire event with the help of the Internet and Harvard's efforts to preserve the substance of the evening on-line is most appreciated.

“Second, I would like to comment favorably on the concept of your on-line presentation. All of the component parts are included and that is most appreciated.”

- Harvard alumnus ‘65, in response to “Changing Habitats...Vanishing Species”

What do the lifelong learners say?

“Please continue to expand and update this ‘Harvard at Home’ series. I have watched nearly a dozen of these now and I find them incredibly enriching and engaging. Having graduated over a year ago, it is also a vehicle for me to sample different disciplines and broaden the scope of my learning (now that I cannot "shop" classes or chat with friends in different concentrations). Thanks! I would like to see more ‘classroom’ themed offerings...this site has become a ‘virtual classroom’ for me :-)”

- Harvard alumnus ‘04, in response to “WB Yeats” (and others)

What do the lifelong learners say?

“I think this series is outstanding. Thank you for creating such a powerful program. I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying listening to some of my favorite professors and visiting dignitaries. I get all of these wonderful seminar choices and have the option of wearing my fuzzy bunny slippers. What a coup!”

- Harvard Alumna ’95, in response to “Manifestations of Shiva”

What do the lifelong learners say?

“This is the first time I’ve experienced a Harvard@Home program. It makes me lament that I have to work for a living and that I don’t have more time to simply learn more about all the fascinating offerings you make available through this process! I am eager to explore more programs. Thank you for this fabulous resource of lifelong learning.”

- Alumnus, Harvard ’72, in response to “On the Relation of Science and the Humanities.”