UF students absent because of the swine flu may soon be able to watch lectures over chicken noodle soup.
In preparation for a possible major outbreak of the H1N1 virus, UF plans to equip nine auditoriums with Mediasite, a lecture capture system, by Oct. 1.
The system will allow UF instructors to record their lectures, including PowerPoint slides and material written on chalk boards, said Andy McCollough, UF's associate provost for information technology, e-Learning and distance education.
McCollough said about $150,000 from UF's emergency reserve has been spent on the program's installation.
Once available, students will be able to watch lectures from their e-Learning accounts, McCollough said.
Software, software training and additional e-Learning and help desk support were also included in the installation, he said.
In the past week, the UF Student Health Care Center has seen about 150 students with influenza or influenza-like illnesses, said Dr. Phillip Barkley, director of the UF Student Health Care Center.
"That is probably only a fraction of the total number of people who really have had symptoms," Barkley said. "I suspect there are a lot of people who are dealing with this at home and doing well with it."
Students experiencing flu-like symptoms are encouraged to stay at home, take Tylenol for the fever, stay hydrated and wait 24 hours after the symptoms have resolved before returning to school, Barkley said.
UF instructors have been asked to be lenient with attendance policies and encourage students to stay home by providing all written class material on the e-Learning Web site.
Once the possibility of a swine flu epidemic has passed, instructors using the auditoriums with Mediasite will be given the option to record lectures, McCollough said.
He said students will now be able to have an inventory of their lectures, which will come in handy.
"If I could, I'd re-watch my lectures a second or third time to catch anything I may have missed," said Todd Lanier, a UF senior. "Too bad this wasn't available during my freshman year."
Mediasite will be installed in Weimer, Turlington, Pugh and Norman halls as well as the New Physics Building, McCarty, Computer Science Engineering, Chemistry Laboratory Building and Carleton auditoriums.
