Use this page to record tips, suggestions, and spur of the moment thoughts about distance delivery. Please included your name as shown below. Commenting on each other's suggestions is encouraged.
SKIP: Keep an Elluminate session open during office hours. Distance students can contact you without long distance charges. You can also turn on your video window (or the student's) for a more personal conversation.
Don: I sign in to an Elluminate session with a second computer (MUTED!) so I can see what the students are seeing.
Don: If using PowerPoint slides during a session, save the slides as JPEG images and load them instead. By saving as images, the amount of memory required can be severely reduced. A slide with one photo was 5.6 MB; saved as a JPEG it was 72 KB and the image quality appeared unchanged. If the images are loaded in alphanumeric order, slide numbering (001, 002, etc.) is no longer an issue.
Diane K: I cannot recommend more highly the embedding of PowerPoint presentations in your Blackboard sites. The students again and again comment that it helps them review and is great for students who miss class. Last spring I also used it when I found I couldn't make public the recording from my distance delivered class - see this post on my RichMedia blog: http://kardashrichmedia.blogspot.com/2008/04/argh-forgot-to-turn-off-recording.html
Diane K: Some students are unable to use Elluminate during a distance-delivered class. You can use Google Docs and embed your PowerPoint slides on to Blackboard as a visual for students who can connect to Blackboard and use Skype for the audio-conference component without needing a land-line, phone connection. This also enables students to easily review PowerPoint presentations after class.
• Create PowerPoint presentation and upload to Google Docs.
• Go to the appropriate area on Blackboard and add item to embed presentation.
• Call in to audio-conference using Skype.
• Conduct class.
I have uploaded a sheet I shared at an elementary staff meeting that gives more details and a screenshot in the files section
Kardash__skype_googledocs_new_blackboard.doc
Comments (4)
Diane Kardash said
at 3:38 pm on Jan 19, 2009
I cannot recommend more highly the embedding of PowerPoint presentations in your Blackboard sites. The students again and again comment that it helps them review and is great for students who miss class. Last spring I also used it when I found I couldn't make public the recording from my distance delivered class - see this post on my RichMedia blog: http://kardashrichmedia.blogspot.com/2008/04/argh-forgot-to-turn-off-recording.html
Diane Kardash said
at 3:40 pm on Jan 19, 2009
By adding the comment above to the body of this section, I could make the web address a click-and-go link....
ffcrc@... said
at 4:40 pm on Jan 19, 2009
I think I need to understand a bit better about embedding the PowerPoint presentations into Blackboard. I have all the PowerPoints posted to blackboard in the documents section where students access them, but do not have them embedded anywhere else. Maybe someone could demonstrate a portion of a lecture using the embedded tool so that I can see the difference.
Diane Kardash said
at 8:36 am on Jan 20, 2009
Yes, we hope to do just that...I hope you can actually embed one today to see how it works!
You don't have permission to comment on this page.