Virtual Classrooms & Synchronous Learning
Matt Wilcox, Public Health Librarian and Director of Academic Technology in the School of Public Health, opened with a discussion of distance education tools and synchronous learning tools. The Yale School of Public Health has been using Adobe Connect Professional and are considering switching to Elluminate. Following last week’s session on Skype, which allows you to talk online, Adobe Connect and Elluminate allows this and also offers a shared white board, share documents and presentations, share and demonstrate applications. Users can share control with others in the session allowing for more participant interaction. Synchronous software allows for the recording the session for later use.
The School of Public Health has offered a course with Diane McMahon-Partt and Serap Aksoy to teach a vector-born disease course for students at four universities in Columbia. Via Adobe Connect, lectures are taught at Yale and projected to the students in Columbia. guest speakers John Hopkins, Notre Dame, London, and Columbia. Standard PowerPoint lectures given at Yale and projected via Adobe Connect. The sessions are recorded for use in the future and for student review. Adobe Connect has been used thus far but the school is in the process of moving to Elluminateit because it has better functionality in low-bandwidth situations. Teaching in this environment is time-consuming because of the technology involved and the different mode of interaction between students and teacher. It is difficult for teachers to monitor everything that is going on in this online environment as well as teach. It is important also to test both the technology and the materials before a class, such as the PowerPoint and embedded videos because these objects can act differently in the virtual learning environment. A small client downloaded the first time a user enters a session (java-based client).
Charlie Greenberg, Coordinator of Curriculum and Research Support, in the Medical Library introduced Elluminate with a product comparison www.elluminate.com/product_comparison.jsp. For the last two years, Charlie has used Elluminate to teach Library Science courses at San Jose State University. Charlie opened an Elluminate session from a course he taught this fall in which students gave presentations. He illustrated how students showed presentations and fielded questions from the class. There was no video involved in the course, so the students interacted with Charlie and their fellow students only through voice and instant messaging chat. Charlie felt this lack of video made students less nervous. Multipoint video is available and the Medical Library is testing it out now for applications here.
Charlie also introduced a free version of Elluminate called vRoom, which has limited functionality for small groups (3 or fewer participants). vRoom does not integrate with a phone line and does not a recording feature. However, vRoom may have applications for one-on-one interactions such as library research consultations. vRoom has a polling features to allow the presenter to ask participants questions during the interaction and the ability to upload PowerPoint and other files to share with participants in the session. Charlie also showed how to broadcast a database to show participants how to use a resource.
The Center for Language Study (CLS) has used Elluminate for Medical Spanish support. Jeremy, Coordinator of Medical Spanish at the CLS, has collaborated with Spanish tutors in Guatemala using a software called Interlangua and Elluminate for office hours. John Graves, also in the CLS, is using Elluminate for a Nahuatal distance program for 2 students in the school of forestry. Integrated video and audio for language using. Started to use Skype instead because the video was better. EDlluinate treats video as a reference rather than an intregral part of the teaching. Skype prioritizes video and is therefore better for the language technique, Total Physical Response (TPR).
March 5th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Clarifications:
In one incarnation of the Spanish for Healthcare Professionals program, we used Interlangua. In the current incarnation, instructors are using Elluminate for office hours, but the two applications have not been used in the same instance.
For the Nahuatl distance program, we are making use of Elluminate for some functionalities and Skype video conferencing for others, but we continue to use both.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:28 am
The idea of a synchronous environment for online learning can be an excellent way to provide students with the benefits they are missing from face-to-face instruction. I see the possibilities of instant feedback and necessary explanation of a particular lesson. In my learning environment, we are making use of this feature as a choice not a requirement. The benefits is students are provided an opportunity to interact with the instructor and peers. However, the downside is students may not participate or be available during the designated time for the course.