RESTON, VA — VideoBlocks (www.videoblocks.com), the subscription-based provider of unlimited royalty-free stock video, has launched its Digital Media Action Grant. The company will award two grants of $10,000 to higher education researchers to study how digital creative content can help students build 21st century skills.
The Digital Media Action Grant is open to all institutions participating in VideoBlocks’ Early Enrollment Program. Faculty can earn one of the $10,000 grants by showing significant and original contribution to the field of digital creative media using VideoBlocks’ range of digital content. The grant will allow faculty to build upon previous research into the pedagogical impact of digital media, consider the effects and usage cases of VideoBlocks’ creative digital media across entire educational institutions, and give a better understanding of how digital creative media fits within a framework of 21st century communication skills.
“The Digital Media Action Grant gives faculty and their students the opportunity not just to build digital skills, but to experiment with how to improve classroom engagement, and better prepare students for their professional lives,” explains Joel Holland, founder/CEO of VideoBlocks. “When we heard from so many universities and colleges, that students, faculty and administrators were frustrated by the lack of access to copyright-free creative content, we saw an opportunity to facilitate creative freedom on campuses nationwide while also eliminating the administrative headache of copyright compliance .”
To accompany the grant, the company also announced the VideoBlocks Early Enrollment Program (VEEP). With VEEP, a select number of higher education institutions will be enrolled and have access to over $10M worth of copyright-safe video and audio content at no cost through December 2015. In addition, colleges and universities who enroll in VEEP will receive a 20 percent Academic Credit for any original footage sold via VideoBlocks’ recently launched marketplace that can be applied toward future licensing costs.
The combination of VideoBlocks’ Unlimited Library, which provides $10M worth of copyright-free creative content that students can incorporate into their digital projects, and the marketplace, where students and faculty can earn 100 percent commission on all sales of original footage, plus the 20 percent Academic Credit, provides a unique opportunity to develop 21st century skills in an academic environment, and then commercialize their productions in a functioning marketplace.