New York Institute of Finance has formed a partnership with technology company Vipeline allowing students and faculty to record and share 30 second video questions and answers from any mobile device or computer with a webcam. The technology allows for greater collaboration between the increasing numbers of students and faculty learning electronically.

“Video is a huge part of every business school’s e-learning strategy,” said Lee Arthur, managing director of New York Institute of Finance, which is owned by Pearson PLC, parent company of the Financial Times. “People have so much content they can consume now on so many different devices, and they get so busy, you’ve got to be there when they need it and they’ve got time to learn.”

Vipeline is providing the financial training institution with specialized technology that allows students and faculty to post ideas and queries on market theory, financial news and any other relevant topic instantaneously. Students will then be able to ask questions or respond to the discussion, all in a video format.

The platform allows faculty to leave 30-second video commentary on what’s happening in the market, perhaps in response to student questions. NYIF is also exploring incorporating video Q&As into its regular online course format.

“It’s really an experiment like a lot of things we do initially from an education perspective,” Arthur said. “Once we finish testing it on our own website, we will add that video interactivity to our learning platforms. Currently you sign up to one of our courses online, and you can ask questions of the instructor through a forum. We can see the answers being better delivered by video response from our instructors.”

NYIF, like its parent company, has transitioned to digital content, using flipped classrooms; web-based e-learning and blended learning plans to ensure students are prepared no matter what their learning style or lifestyle demands.

“Within the Financial Times group we’ve just been through a huge change which is still going on, moving our business from print-based platforms to digital,” Arthur said. “The same thing is happening in education. When we were given the New York Institute of Finance to manage, what we found was this treasure trove of content. So we’ve been steadily adding and recruiting a lot of digital experts in the business, growing the business’s digital capability where 75% of our students are really digital students, they come from over 100 countries and they train in a number of ways digitally.”

NYIF operates a massive open online course (MOOC) via EdX, an online education initiative operated by MIT and Harvard. It’s launched two online courses on EdX, Understanding the Fed and Yield Curve Analysis, and later will be launching a Mergers and Acquisitions course.

“One of the huge benefits of coming to class is the social learning in the immediate questions and answers you can have with an instructor,” said Arthur. “We’re interested like a lot of other educators in how to deliver a great online learning experience that you can only really get from a classroom. Video plays a big part when we’re doing instructional design.”

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