Inside this Issue
- Focus on E-learning
- E-learning website and blog
- Resource guide to e-learning software and resources
- Sympodcasting
- Instantly Collaborative Spaces
- RSS Feeds and Public Health
- SPH Podcasting Update
- E-learning Guide
- PHLI Summer Schedule
- E-learning Bibliography
- Annual User Survey
- Announcing Merit Online
- Posters and Public Health
- PHLI Technology Update
- New Web Statistics Software
- New Staff Bios
- Librarian Exchange
- Staff Notes
- A Day in the Life
Instantly Collaborative Spaces
The Sympodium allows the use of
digital ink over any application.
By Vic Divecha
This winter semester saw an exciting new pilot project in distance learning: how to adapt a classroom to accommodate remote participants without sacrificing the interactive experience. The goals of this system were:
- enable students to remotely attend a classroom session in SPH
- provide for remote interactions which mimic in-class behavior i.e. raising a hand to ask a question or to speak with someone in the classroom
- provide an easy way to archive the live sessions for later viewing
Key technologies in the final solution were:
Centra: Desktop web conferencing
Sympodium: Annotation of onscreen presentation slides by in-class instructors
AV Live Mixing: Enabling multiple camera and audio feeds from the classroom & remote participants
Web conferencing using the Centra system has been used in the school’s executive education programs with much success by a majority of the faculty teaching the HMP Executive Master’s Program for the past several years. It is being used by students and faculty to conduct virtual classes twice a week.
The success and stability of Centra in facilitating synchronous learning led to the possibility of extending it to the classroom, where the instructor side of the virtual classroom is the actual, physical classroom.
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