UCLA has recently teamed up with Google, the owners of YouTube, to create a specialized YouTube channel intended to cater to the UCLA community and to the rest of the world.
The idea for the YouTube site follows the development of a UCLA Facebook that was created in May.
Bruins and web surfers alike can now go online to catch a glimpse of the happenings at UCLA, hear a welcome from Chancellor Gene Block or listen to professors speak on important campus and national issues.
The site, youtube.com/ucla, provides access to Bruin-related videos and lets students share videos with each other.
Now students are able to watch some class lectures on the YouTube channel.
“The UCLA channel is designed to serve as a portal to UCLA video content online,” said Lawrence Lokman, assistant vice chancellor of university communications in an e-mail statement.
The UCLA university communications office teamed up with the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies to create the YouTube channel, said Genevieve Haines, UCLA director of integrated communications.
UCLA began working with Google to create the site in January, and it was initially launched with a soft opening, without any advertisement, on Aug. 29, she said. UCLA currently has 161 videos on its YouTube site, and it has 4,790 fans on Facebook.
Among the most viewed videos is a clip of football coach Richard Neuheisel congratulating the UCLA football team and an address from Wesley K. Clark, UCLA Burkle Center senior fellow and former NATO commander.
Graduate students were responsible for researching the type of content that should be included, she said.
Duke University and UC Berkeley both are among other universities with YouTube channels.
The goal is to show a global audience the quality of education at UCLA, Lokman said in the statement.
Huma Rasool, a third-year chemical engineering student, said putting UCLA content on YouTube would let people around the world see what life is like as a Bruin.
“More people around the world can see what UCLA’s like without being there,” she said.
The Office of Communications plans to allow only university-generated content on the YouTube site for now, but students may be allowed to add videos in the future, Haines said.
Michael De Vera, a fourth-year anthropology student, said he likes the idea of students adding content.
“I think it’s an advantage for students to post things, making student voice stronger like for important issues,” he said.
And Rasool said the YouTube site can help students by letting them see professors’ teaching style before choosing classes,
“It could be easier to judge a professor on how he teaches. You can’t really tell. Sometimes people check professor ratings, and some (reviews) say they are too hard to understand or talk too fast,” she said.
“You can check out that video and see how a professor speaks yourself.”
And by using Facebook and YouTube, UCLA is able to create positive public relations free of charge. The Web sites are free for users, and consequently the university does not have to pay for them, Haines said.
By going online, students are targeted by finding the Web sites they frequent the most.
Lokman said in the statement, “As communicators for the university, we are constantly looking for ways to give them the information they are looking for about UCLA ““ in the places they are spending their time.”
With reports from Sarah Jo, Bruin senior staff