Magazine recognizes One Button Studio with Campus Technology Innovators Award

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Campus Technology magazine has awarded a 2015 Campus Technology Innovators Award to the One Button Studio in the IT Infrastructure & Systems Category. The One Button Studio, developed by team within Information Technology Services’ Teaching and Learning with Technology unit, is technology that streamlines the process of producing academic video presentations for students and faculty.

Innovators Award winners will be recognized at the Campus Technology 2015 conference in Boston July 27-30 as well as featured in the July issue of Campus Technology magazine.

To use the One Button Studio, an individual requires only a USB flash drive. When the flash drive is inserted in the One Button Studio setup, it brings up the computer software, lighting, projector and video camera. Once the person is ready to begin recording a presentation, he or she literally just needs to press one button and the recording begins. When the presentation is finished, the person presses the button once more and the recording is automatically saved to the flash drive.

Nineteen One Button Studios are currently installed at 10 Penn State campuses, with more currently under construction. More than 4,500 individuals use these facilities annually. During the spring 2015 semester alone, One Button Studio users created more than 9,000 videos for courses in academic fields ranging from communications to engineering.

In addition, more than 100 institutions have requested information from Penn State on setting up a One Button Studio, including Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Ohio State, Oregon State, Temple, Purdue and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Academically, video creation by students and faculty has many applications. Students can practice class presentations, complete video assignments for courses with or without a green screen or post video introductions on an e-portfolio. Faculty can record video introductions, lectures and demonstration modules for online or hybrid courses or present research findings in a video format. The fact that the One Button Studio allows video creation without previous video production experience or knowledge of cameras and lighting means that users can progress directly to the “substance” of a video without a lot of up-front training and practice in the production process.

In the near future, the One Button Studio development team plans to deploy a software update that will enhance the technology’s affordability and ease of installation. The software will support both HDMI and USB cameras and offer studio administrators custom options based on their individual space needs.

For more information regarding the One Button Studio, email onebutton@psu.edu.