Open Air

YouTube EDU launches in Europe

October 1st, 2009 Posted by: l.dewis

YouTube announces today (on the same day we welcome our new Vice Chancellor) that 45 university YouTube channels from six countries in Europe (France, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom) and Israel, will now be accessible through YouTube EDU, a portal for university content on YouTube. The portal launched for US universities in March. The European launch brings new functionality – users can now select videos by subject and language.

The Open University’s YouTube channel is the largest and most popular of the UK university channels – our 633 videos have been viewed over 1.6 million times and we have 2600 subscribers. In September, 77% of views came from outside the UK with most views coming from the US.

The Head Spin Trick viral alone received over 480,000 views, after The Thatcher Effect – a psychology experiment from the 80s – was discussed on BBC show QI. Other popular views are a playlist of 90 second lectures with big thinkers at The Open University; mind tricks such as We can read your mind and Mindbender; big questions such as How do they choose the next Dalai Lama?, How beautiful was Cleopatra?; and behind the scenes of OU/BBC broadcasts such as videos from the set of Bang Goes the Theory.

John Naughton, Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at The Open University, was good enough to comment while dashing round the country: “As we move from a media ecosystem dominated by broadcast television into one dominated by ‘pull’ media like the Web, universities have to be where the action – and the demand – is. Given that The Open University has multimedia in its institutional DNA, YouTube EDU is an obvious platform for us and it’s good to see that a significant number of our European partners have come to the same conclusion.”

YouTube staff have developed the portal in the 20% time they are allowed to dedicate to special projects. Anna De Paula Hanika, product marketing for YouTube in EMEA is one of the key people dedicating time to this along with Jack Sheldon. In their PR Anna says what YouTube EDU means to her: “YouTube EDU is a global classroom where everyone – from those who want to see what university courses are like, to intellectually curious graduates – can watch and engage with a range of academic videos that have been uploaded by some of the world’s most prestigious universities. Our education destination is a direct response to our community’s interest in this type of content and we look forward to adding even more institutions over time.”

The Open University launched four official channels on YouTube in August 2008 – OUView for videos about the University, OULearn for learning materials from OU courses and BBC broadcasts, OULife for student and staff events and OUResearch.

The channels aren’t just about OU video content but give us the opportunity to engage people in conversation about the content and encourage viewers to submit their own videos. Recently viewers of the BBC/OU Saving Britain’s Past series have posted videos describing what they consider as their heritage

The latest OU videos include interviews with leading experts in subjects such as Cannabis and consciousness and Why space missions fail,; ‘How to’ videos such as Making a CD case out of a card and How to make diamonds, How to spot a fake pound coin and a home makeover video on eco-renovations.

Entry Filed under: Web 2.0, oer