Video Has Become Essential to Higher Education Institutions, but 95% Still Struggle in Serving Hybrid Audiences, Finds Kaltura Study

Despite the widespread use of events along the hybrid spectrum, there is still room for growth in how higher education institutions utilize video to better meet the needs of hybrid audiences.

Kaltura, the Video Experience Cloud, released a new report ‘The State of Video in Education in 2023’, a global survey about engaging hybrid audiences in higher education.

Virtual and hybrid educational experiences have had a great impact across higher education, from marketing and admissions to lectures, academic research and conferences, student life, continuing education, alumni relations, and more. The study found that 48% of in-person events include an online component and on average, hybrid event attendance is 13% higher than purely in-person events due to their low barrier to entry.

Despite its widespread usage and clear benefits, only 38% of respondents currently have a video content management system in place, suggesting that institutions are struggling to manage the large amounts of content they produce.

“Institutions of higher education have seen the clear impact of hybrid experiences, and yet we found that the term ‘hybrid’ is still ambiguous to many and a majority of institutions have yet to establish clear KPIs for measuring impact and engagement,” said Lisa Bennett, EVP of Marketing at Kaltura. “To fully realize the potential of digital audiences, institutions will have to increase their focus on establishing clear goals and monitoring of outcomes.”

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One of the most critical components of virtual and hybrid education is the ability to have active engagement throughout, yet the study found that 95% of respondents struggle to effectively serve hybrid audiences. Despite the importance of engagement analytics, 30% of respondents have found it difficult on their current platforms to assess the engagement of online attendees and 23% are still finding it difficult to make space for equal participation.

The report found that only 25% of organizations are using attention tracking for remote participants to understand engagement. The most common methods of assessing engagement in hybrid events are chat participation (71%), spoken participation (68%), and quizzes or polls (58%), all leaning towards more traditional modes of assessment that don’t align with digital-focused solutions and capabilities.

The report found that an average of 4.7 video creation and sharing tools were being used per organization to address their hybrid audiences, and larger ones with over 20,000 students were using an average of 5.7, with some using as many as 10. With institutions juggling multiple platforms while balancing working with stakeholders and collaborators across teams, respondents are finding that one platform has not been able to meet all their needs, driving operational costs up. Top suggestions for the improvement of platforms include lowering costs (48%), more real-time engagement (40%), and more capture inputs (36%).

“The survey found quite unequivocally that cost reduction is a priority for organizers of hybrid experiences. But we also discovered that many organizations are using complicated and often overlapping tools, and thus one obvious way to reduce costs is to simplify the process.  Digital audiences have proven to be larger and more valuable than ever and the next step in maximizing their potential is improved efficiency,” said Lisa Bennett, EVP of Marketing at Kaltura.

This report was created with data from a survey conducted in February 2023 of 450 respondents working in departments such as Continuing Education, Academic Technology, Marketing, Alumni Relations, Admission, and Professional Development. Respondents were from the US, UK, The Netherlands, and Italy.

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