After more than 30 years, Carleton will no longer be broadcasting free lectures through the Rogers Digital Cable channel as of Aug. 31.
The channel provided a free option for students to access their courses, running seven days a week from morning to night. Now that it’s shut down, it will be available online 24/7 instead.
Carleton University OnLine (CUOL) assistant director Jeff Cohen said the online channel will be available through the CUOL website for no charge.
He said the transition to online will allow courses to be broadcast in a high definition signal rather than standard definition.
“Viewership by the general public [has] greatly declined since we originally started,” Cohen said.
He explained that very few students actually still use the service, which prompted CUOL to make the decision to switch to a web channel.
“Most students do their courses online. That’s one of the reasons we switched from being CUTV to CUOL … So it’s just another move to online,” he said.
Cohen noted there will be a schedule of course streaming times on the web channel once the channel is available.
“Unfortunately the channel implementation from Rogers to web channel is going a little slower than we had hoped. So that information we had hoped would be [online] by now will be up by the end of the week,” he said.
Right now, students can still view recorded lectures through on-campus VOD kiosks in the Loeb Building, watching a live stream of the course, or paying a Video On Demand (VOD) fee of $50 to watch course recordings at any time.
Fourth-year criminology student Kaitlyn Byers said she pays the extra fee to use the VOD service, although she can see the appeal of the Rogers channel.
“I could see how the Rogers [channel] would have been beneficial for students who didn’t want to pay the extra $50 to be able to watch [courses] whenever,” she said.
However, she said she prefers the VOD service.
“The video classes are beneficial, especially for certain fourth-year students when there’s conflicting classes for different times,” she said.
Byers also said she likes the VOD service because she can pause videos or re-watch certain parts to get a better understanding of the lecture.
She added that the option to record lectures on the Rogers cable channel using a P.V.R would have been a convenient alternative to paying a VOD fee to access lectures at any time.
No one has lost their jobs because of the channel shutting down, though part-time hours will be cut as a result, according to Cohen.
Cohen said he does expect the shut down to affect some people, but not many.
“We’ve had four inquires about the channel no longer being available. Three from students, one from a person … who lamented the loss of the channel because he said he used to watch courses,” he said.
“I think that kind of sums up the state of the technology,” he added.
