Hanging Out

A colleague and I took part in a Google Hangout session yesterday with six other people from other institutions. Google Hangout is a video chat tool.  I was a bit weary about using this at first because a) I’ve never used it before, and b) there were 10 people expected at this virtual meeting soRead more

New web conferencing software

From August 1st, we will be using Adobe Connect Pro v9 as our standard web conferencing / online classroom software. An outline of the program is available in this leaflet and in this Getting Started Guide. Initial tests indicate that the web meetings have better audio and video quality than previously, and the system works in a very similarRead more

ReVIEW Live!

It might sound like an oxymoron but I can now announce an exciting new feature of our lecture capture service – ReVIEW Live! In six of the teaching rooms equipped with the latest generation ‘SafeCaptureHD’ capture appliances we’re now able to offer simultaneous capture and live streaming of lectures / presentations, with both the presenter andRead more

The 'Instant Collaborate' kit

One of the uses to which we put our web conferencing software is the ‘Lunch and Lecture’ series which is part of an EU-sponsored Transport Technology MSc in Civil and Building Engineering. Each month the part-time MSc students gather for a lunch followed by an afternoon of lectures on transport planning topics by guest lecturers.Read more

Hanging Out with Google+

What’s this? Google+ is Google’s new approach to social networking. It builds on top of many other Google services, and Google intend for it to become a key feature of most of their products.

Why am I writing about it here on the E-Learning Blog? Well, Google+ has a number of features that may be interesting for educational institutions. I introduced a few of these in a recent UCISA presentation with Google’s William Florance. We recorded the session, and a copy of this is embedded below:

Read on to find out more about Google+ and its potential in Teaching and Learning…

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The Collaborate Roadmap

Today’s webinar from BlackBoard Collaborate gave some detail on the plans for the Collaborate platform over the next few years. New features promised on the roadmap: “In the next few months” – the UK will get its own Collaborate servers. This should mean greatly reduced audio and video latency, and probably a more reliable service.Read more

ALT-C 2011: Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate

It’s ALT-C 2011 at the moment in Leeds, the main annual conference on the use of learning technologies in Higher Education. I can’t be there this year, although a number of Lboro colleagues are attending; but I have been making use of the live online presence at http://altc2011.alt.ac.uk/pages/alt_live . This includes conference presentations delivered using Adobe Connect, asRead more

Elluminate becomes Collaborate 11

As mentioned earlier, our Elluminate web conferencing package has been re-branded as BlackBoard Collaborate 11 and the new version has been made the default for all new Learn web conferences. The new version has the same functionality as before, but looks a little less intimidating.  Users of the previous system are advised to try outRead more

Improve your online presence next year

If you have a little cash that needs using up at the end of the financial year, you could do a lot worse than buying yourself a good quality USB or Wireless headset for your PC. Clear voice presentation really helps Elluminate online meetings, and as you are likely to be wearing the headset forRead more

Elluminate update

Current and would-be users of Elluminate Live, the University’s web conferencing tool, will be pleased to know that our licence has just been renewed for another year. New users of Elluminate at Loughborough include the International Office who, as I type this, are conducting a trial run prior to using the tool to deliver online trainingRead more

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