Vanderbilt University today announced the launch of its new channel on the wildy popular video-sharing site, YouTubeTM: www.youtube.com/vanderbilt.
YouTube is the leading online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos. Through YouTube people can easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, blogs and e-mail.
“We have innovative video and YouTube has millions of viewers; working together simply made perfect sense,” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice chancellor for public affairs at Vanderbilt University. “Our new YouTube Channel gives us yet another tool to bring Vanderbilt University to the world in a dynamic and meaningful way.”
Vanderbilt has been a higher education leader in providing online audio and video, from its extensive catalog of podcasts featured in Apple’s iTunes U storefront, to its award-winning online news network VUCast (www.vanderbilt.edu/news), and now through YouTube.
The university’s channel on YouTube offers a broad range of content, including lectures, concerts and news pieces. Vanderbilt is one of just a handful of universities nationally with a branded YouTube Channel.
A video currently featured on the Vanderbilt channel is a series of short, direct video clips with Douglas Christiansen, Vanderbilt’s associate provost for enrollment and dean of admissions, who has spent the last 20 years in admissions leadership roles in both public and private universities. In the video, Christiansen tackles questions such as, “How should I prepare for my college essay – what if I’m not the greatest writer?” “My parents have decent jobs, but we haven’t saved much for college. What are my chances of getting financial aid?” “As an admissions insider, what tips can you give to help me sound my best in my application?”
Christiansen also talks about when extracurricular activities can actually hurt an applicant and how to ease the stress surrounding the admissions process.
Some of the most innovative content on the site is coming straight from Vanderbilt classrooms. This semester, two Vanderbilt professors are posting content from their courses, including the new “Worlds of Wordcraft” class taught by William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English Jay Clayton and Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Matthew Jett Hall. YouTube users have viewed one of that course’s videos nearly 30,000 times since it was posted Oct. 10.
Video of civil rights leader and Distinguished Visiting Professor the Rev. James Lawson’s current class, “The Non-Violence Struggle,” is being posted in its entirety.
“Nothing will ever take the place of a student interacting with a professor in a classroom,” Schoenfeld said. “What this new service does is provide a window on that experience for interested people around the world, hopefully sparking new areas of inquiry and expanded access to the incredible stores of knowledge being tapped and created every day on the Vanderbilt campus.”
Visit Vanderbilt on YouTube at www.youtube.com/vanderbilt.
Media Contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu