The University’s three commencement exercises held recently provided an opportunity for graduates and their family and friends to celebrate an important accomplishment. But for thousands of individuals who couldn’t make it to the Queen City, they, too, were able to witness the ceremonies via the Web.
The Office of University Communications provided a live stream of the May 8-9 commencement exercises, and according to Web analytics, the University’s live stream website was accessed by nearly 6,000 unique viewing sites from across the United States and 65 countries. The actual number of people who watched a portion of the exercises was likely higher.
"We are steadily building our live streaming capabilities and, particularly in the case of recurring events, the audiences are growing, and we hear from more people who come looking to connect to the University through streamed events," said Stephen Ward, executive director of University communications.
"Receiving the analytics has become the highlight of each streamed event, to see nearly instantly that we are connecting a growing global audience live, in real time, with our University," Ward added.
After the United States, India and Saudi Arabia were the top-streaming countries for commencement, with more than 1,000 users in each nation accessing the UNC Charlotte live stream. Rounding out the top 10 nations tuning in were Iran, China, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Egypt and Kuwait.