Presenters: Matt Wilcox & Charlie Greenberg

February 24th, 11:00am-12:00pm

Virtual CLassrooms and Synchronous Learning:

Charlie Greenberg: “As an online lecturer for San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science the past two fall semesters,  I am given unlimited opportunities to use Elluminate in my course on Medical Librarianship. The Elluminate installation at SJSU features a centralized calendar which can generate invitations that can be copied into class email messages, dedicated TA support if requested, and session recordings that can be distributed with a permanent link. I ran two alternative real-time class sessions per week (attendance was required at one of the other). All students are required  to have microphones, but there is also a instant messaging window as part of the interface. I created a PPT for each “discussion” that I could import into the Elluminate whiteboard (problems with Windows Vista for this), and I would post a pdf of the PPT slides in the course site, along with a link to the session recording. During the session, all students and  moderators (lecturers) have rights to share their desktop, use instant messaging, or write on the whiteboard. One person at a time “talks”, and students “raise their hand” with an icon to indicate they want to comment orally.  Some just write in the IM window.  The School also features “drop-in” help, and some instructors use it for “office hours.”

There is a free version of Elluminate that anyone can use, but only up to three participants at one time and no recording. Everything else seems to work. (http://www.elluminate.com/vroom) The Yale school of public health is negotiating for an academic user license, and the medical library will piggyback on that, as well as the school of nursing.”

When?
Tuesday from 11:00 – 12:00

Where?
Bass Library room L01 (lower level of the Bass Library)