How IU teaches 100,000 students with AI generated videos

We spoke with Felix Schiessl, Senior Innovation Manager, who was responsible for the strategy and concept how IU leverages synthetic video across the organization and various use cases.

100+

courses with AI video

Months → 2 weeks

video production time reduced

IU International University of Applied Sciences is a university based in Germany. It offers campus-based in-person, distance and blended learning programs in German and English. With over 100,000 enrolled students, IU is the largest state-accredited university in Germany.

Industry
Education
Headquarters
Germany
Company size
Enterprise: 1000+

Industry Context

In online higher education, institutions must produce thousands of video lectures while maintaining quality and consistency. Studio-based production is too resource-heavy to keep pace with fast-moving academic programs.

The Challenge

IU has a strong focus on digitised learning and expanding its educational offerings. Video content is integrated into all of the more than 1,300 published courses IU currently offers - a total of over 28,000 learning videos are already available.

A media production team of 200+ individuals edits, cuts and finalises studio-shot videos and content recorded by its professors and lecturers. While this process is impressive, it has a few limitations:

Difficult to scale: The creation of a video includes many steps and stakeholders, requiring a lot of effort to make content creation scalable.
Limited flexibility: It requires a lot of time and resources to update the videos once created.
Maintain consistent quality: Maintaining consistent quality across thousands of hours of video content requires a lot of time and work.

The Solution

With Synthesia, the IU team has developed an AI video production engine to create engaging educational videos. Not only is the team able to create online video lectures in no time, but it also:

Added a face to its virtual assistant for students across all digital channels.
Created internal learning content for the IU staff.
Turned text-based case study assignments into engaging videos for AI-students.

Here’s an example of how IU uses AI video technology 👇

Example: IU - YouTube
Example: IU
Synthesia

This is what Felix and the IU team value most about Synthesia:

Flexibility: once created, a video can be easily updated at any time, without having to start from the beginning.
Localisation: Synthesia can create videos in over 120 languages and accents, enabling you to expand your reach to new countries without leaving your desk.
Custom Avatars: Synthesia offers high-quality custom avatars, including voice, to enable diverse and highly personalized video content.

Imagine if something changed in the curriculum. Then we'd have to re-record everything. If we save that time, we can create more courses and learning content. - Felix Schiessl, Senior Innovation Manager

The Results

Synthesia’s implementation is now being scaled across the entire organization. No wonder why, if you see the achievements below:

Improved time to market: With Synthesia, IU was able to cut down video production from several months down to 2 weeks.
Happy students: First surveys showed great results in terms of student satisfaction since its implementation.
Video at scale: Since adding Synthesia to the content creation toolbox, the team has implemented AI video in around 100 courses in less than a year.

We have very high quality standards. If we replace an existing solution, the new one must be the same or even better. It must also be accepted by our students. Both are the case with Synthesia. - Felix Schiessl, Senior Innovation Manager

Let’s hear what Holger Sommerfeldt, Rector of IU, has to say about Synthesia. He used his custom avatar to share his thoughts.
Holger Sommerfeldt, Rector of IU - Transforming digital education
Synthesia

Next steps for IU? Scaling its educational programs across the world. Synthesia will be part of that journey, with its ever-growing avatar selection and over 120+ languages and accents to choose from.