September 27, 2005
Teaching Courses while at a Conference
An instructor contacted me who is going away to a conference, but still wants to teach his lectures to his class of 150 students. All other alternatives for teaching the course (pre-recording, video conferencing, etc.) were too expensive. He was ready to cancel the lectures, but then he heard about our new Web Conferencing system.
This instructor has some advantages. He is already teaching in a media-center equipped lecture theater. He also has prepared the lessons ahead of time and has created PowerPoint slides for them. So most of the required development work is done.
Here's the plan. A teaching assistant will go to the lecture theatre and log into the class as a student. The computer screen will be projected for the students to see.
The instructor will log into the class as the presenter from his hotel room. He'll present his PowerPoint slides, and talk about what's being presented. The slides will appear on the projected screen, and his voice will be broadcast over the lecture theatre's sound system.
If the students have any questions, the TA will "raise his hand" in Elluminate and relay the question to the instructor.
The instructor may also opt to record the session for playback later.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this will work out. Stay tuned.
Posted by kvl014 at 09:47 PM
September 26, 2005
Why Tutorials ask you to Install Elluminate Again
You may notice that Elluminate starts the installation procedure again when you view one of the tutorials. This is normal and will only happen once. Allow the installation to complete and you will see the tutorial.
Elluminate recently released a new version 6.5 of their software. That's the version that gets installed when you initially set up the system.
Some of the tutorials were recorded using the older version 6.0 of the software. To view these tutorials, the system needs some of the 6.0 program components. So it installs them automatically for you.
It may look like it is installing Elluminate all over again, but it isn't. It's just installing additional components required to view the pre-recorded sessions.
This will only happen when you view the first tutorial. Subsequent tutorials should start up normally.
Posted by kvl014 at 05:55 PM
September 24, 2005
New Web Conferencing Service Announced
The Univeristy of Saskatchewan has partnered with Elluminate in a one year web-conferencing pilot, funded by TEL. Visit webconf.usask.ca for more details
Web Conferencing systems allow people to hold "virtual meetings" or "lectures" on the Internet. Using a multimedia-capable computer, an Internet connection, and an optional camera and microphone, people can attend meetings or lectures from the comfort of their own office or home.
Once in the meeting, participants can use several meeting tools, like write on a shared whiteboard, display PowerPoint slides, or share programs. People can talk into their microphone or start up their webcam and everyone else in the meeting can hear and see them. The sessions can also be recorded for playback later.
This tool will supplement the instructional capabilities already in PAWS and WebCT by adding real-time conferencing capabilities.
For more information, please see the webconf.usask.ca web site.
Posted by kvl014 at 01:30 PM