Trip Kirkpatrick and John Graves from the Center for Language Study described the many uses the Center makes of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro (AACP). AACP is software which allows you to create instant, collaborative meetings with just a web browser and the Adobe Flash® Player. The software enables you to share your desktop, documents and presentations securely and communicate and collaborate instantly without any software downloads. Trip described the current set-up whereby ITS is hosting an instance of AACP for the Center for Language Study (CLS) because they found that third-party hosting results in inferior quality video and sound quality. Software functionality includes: chat (private and public), presentation set-ups for different configurations (PODS), lecture vs. collaborative modes with break-out rooms. The CLS is running a special course this semester on Spanish for Health Care professionals. They are using AACP in conjunction with the department of Public Health for virtual office hours. Another course, Introduction to Modern Nahuatl, is being taught with AACP with students from Mexico, Columbia University, and Yale University. The CLS is also using AACP for a conference on Oct 30-31 to enable a virtual presentation from speaker in the UK.

Features - Possible to do light branding (w/ Yale logo, etc.); ability to record and archive presentations. Content can be uploaded, i.e. Powerpoint presentation can be uploaded and converted to AACP file that can be used for self-paced training modules.  At one point in the session, John Graves joined via AACP from another room in the Bass Library. End-users can have some control over the session, i.e. John showed us a map to indicate his location, a video of his favorite food, and an audio clip of his favorite band. He was also able to write on a shared white board.

It is important to have things prepared even though spontaneity is a possibility. Possible to view windows with camera and voice, notes, chat, whiteboard, presentation space, etc. Like many of these programs, Elluminate, WebEx, etc. AACP enables students to raise their hands and answer questions via a poll. Although it is a full featured software, it has a very low barrier to entry. It is easy to learn to use for a basic purposes.

Questions:

Why AACP instead of Elluminate? The CLS was aware that the School of Public Health chose Elluminate. CLS staff felt that Elluminate video quality is not as good as AACP and in language classes video quality matters since students need to see how mouths articulate certain sounds. Elluminate has only one view, while AACP allows for multiple views. AACP is Flash based and therefore runs better in low-bandwidth situations such as in Mexico where Nahuatl course. Elluminate is better for presentations that have canned video.

How widely used at Yale? CLS using with interest from many others on campus. CMI2 has tried AACP and struggled with audio quality, but were using microphones on laptops and might need to use higher quality microphones. CLS looking at scaling up for other units on campus. There are several licensing models that could be explored.

For information on other institutions and programs using AACP, see below:

University of Hawaii: HAW 101 :: Elementary Hawai’i Language I
http://www.hawaii.edu/dl/courses/?action=course_info&crse_id=3341

Penn State University
http://meeting.psu.edu/
(URI is for a worldwide AACP community)

Monterey Institute of International Studies
http://www.miis.edu/academics/language/custom/distance

Montana State University: U.S. Arabic Distance Learning Network
http://www.arabicstudies.edu/
Offering Arabic to students at institutions that can’t afford to run the
program themselves

United States Marine Corps:
http://online.barrons.com/article/PR-CO-20090824-900020.html

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