USC has established an institutional Channel on YouTube as part of an ambitious program to expand its capabilities in technology-enhanced learning and distance learning. YouTube is the world’s leading online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos.

The Channel’s creation was spearheaded by Suh-Pyng Ku, USC’s chief technology officer for enhanced learning.

“In addition to opening up the traditional classroom experience through the application of state-of-the-art technology tools, we also are using online technologies to expand learning opportunities for students and others both on campus and around the globe,” Ku said. “The enormous reach and power of YouTube will help us connect with people who may not be aware of USC’s remarkable breadth of programs, from the arts to the sciences and social sciences. We see this as an important outreach opportunity for the university.”

As part of the agreement with YouTube, USC will maintain a central Channel, found at http://www.youtube.com/usc, with sub-Channels available to schools and other academic units that develop video programming. For example, the sub-Channel of the School of Cinematic Arts can be found at http://www.youtube.com/usccinematicarts, whereas at http://www.youtube.com/uscgould viewers can access original content from the USC Gould School of Law. Two additional sub-Channels have been created to aggregate faculty and guest lectures (http://www.youtube.com/usclectures) and arts-related videos (http://www.youtube.com/uscarts) from a variety of sources.

“This is a unique aspect of USC’s YouTube Channel in that it features a central architecture but distributed content,” Ku said. “This concept provides central branding for all USC sub-Channels but still makes the site scalable for future growth. Our goal with this Channel is to showcase faculty research and teaching and to share our students’ work – especially in the arts and sciences – with the rest of the world.”

Currently, seven schools have established sub-Channels: School of Cinematic Arts, USC Marshall School of Business, USC Gould School of Law, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, USC College, School of Social Work and USC Thornton School of Music, with some 225 videos posted so far.

Highlights include USC College professor Marianne Wiggins discussing her new novel, The Shadow Catcher, while standing on the beach in Malibu; 16 clips from the School of Cinematic Arts’ First Look Film Festival; a performance by USC Thornton’s student jazz ensemble Superaxe; lectures from USC Law professor Tom Lyon’s evidence class; a series of videos demonstrating various aspects of robotics from the USC Viterbi School; an overview of the Ph.D. program at USC Marshall; and a lecture by Father Gregory Boyle (called “Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job”) from the School of Social Work.

Other posted videos include community outreach videos on USC’s Good Neighbors Campaign; the video “Our Choice,” which is being broadcast nationally during USC football games; and interviews with USC legends such as Norman Topping and Rod Dedeaux from the USC Emeriti Center’s H. Dale Hilton Living History project.

“USC on YouTube offers an opportunity for our schools and departments to connect directly with millions of potential students and their parents,” said Katharine Harrington, dean of admission and financial aid. “By its nature – allowing people to share original videos – it will create a vital and engaging portrait of the hundreds of programs and individuals who make up this university.

“We are very excited about the potential of this new channel to attract and engage a wide variety of people in the fabric of life at USC.”

Coordination of the project has been the responsibility of Ku’s Office of Technology Enhanced Learning and Distance Learning and the USC Public Relations Office, directed by associate vice president Susan Heitman. A working group of representatives from the seven schools that currently have sub-Channels has been meeting for the past several months to develop policies for establishing sub-Channels and posting content on YouTube.

For more information, contact Suh-Pyng Ku at (213) 740-6540 or Susan Heitman at (213) 740-7896.