Using Synchronous Sessions to Engage On-line Students

Exploring tomorrow, today

Dr. Jan Pittman VanderpoolEmail: vanderj@wlac.edu

• The CCC Confer project is located at Palomar College in San Marcos, California and is funded from a grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. The project was initially funded in February 2001 in order to offer the CCC system a viable means to meet and collaborate at a distance. CCC Confer is led by a Project Director, three managers and a small staff. CCC Confer was designed to allow communication and collaboration, using the latest Web conferencing technology, for all staff, faculty and administrators in the California Community Colleges system. It is ADA and Section 508 accessible.

What Is e-Conferencing?• Using e-conferencing groups can potentially see, hear, text chat,

present and share information in a collaborative manner. Two or more people can conduct a meeting over the Internet using e-conferencing technologies to view a shared document, stream audio and/or video, use VoIP, or use a Web-based chat technology. A Presenter can present content over the Internet using a form of slide show presentation, Web-based chat and streaming audio and/or video. Attendees view the presentation by logging into the Web conference, and communicate with the moderator either through their phones or through e-based chat.

The Presenter can interact with participants, view attendee lists and manage the communication during the event. This e-conferencing format offers real-time viewing and/or modification of shared documents and files through the Internet. No special software is required for any number of users to view a shared document. Collaboration answers the need for teams in disparate locations to be able to work together simultaneously on a shared document.

The best part of CCC Confer--you don't need to buy any equipment or software and you don't need to invest any money to use it. All you need is your phone, an Internet connection.

What Is e-Conferencing? Cont.

CCC Confer-Value

• CCC Confer gives you the basic tools to connect to your community—juggling multiple meetings and events weekly or even daily. CCC Confer is the ONLY collaboration solution in the CCC system that allows you to meet with your colleagues at a distance without worrying about a travel budget. CCC Confer can accommodate a multitude of uses, including training opportunities, grant collaboration, meetings at a distance, or anything else necessary to support the business of education outside the classroom.

CCC Confer-Power• CCC Confer offers a reliable and affordable (it’s free to CCC staff,

faculty and administrators) method to share software applications, PowerPoint presentations or anything running on your desktop with others using online meetings or events. In using the CCC Confer tools, your colleagues can clearly see what you display on your desktop. Also, you can pass control to another person during a meeting.

• The following advantages make your decision to use CCC Confer easy:• Simple. No other Web-based collaboration tool is as easy to learn and

use.• Fast. Participants immediately see what you display—there are no

firewall issues.• Empowered. Allow Participants to share documents from their desktops,

show PowerPoint slides, have remote control over the event, chat with other Participants, share Web pages, take a poll and much more.

• Clear. Participants can see what you display without image distortion.• Portable. CCC Confer’s Web-based conferencing tool can be used from

any computer at any location.• Reliable. Our redundant systems do not go down, and work reliably

through firewalls and proxy servers.

CCC Confer-Benefits• Meet with anyone, anywhere in seconds• When you use CCC Confer, you are equipped with a world of enhanced

online collaboration tools. You and participants enter a virtual meeting room with simple, yet powerful controls that help you connect, collaborate and communicate more efficiently. With CCC Confer, distance becomes irrelevant; you can connect to your colleagues throughout the state. Everything you need to effectively collaborate online is included with CCC Confer. CCC Confer includes a toll-free phone bridge for the audio portion that uses the latest technology in conference calling.

• What do you want today?• Have an audio only collaboration• Have an audio and Internet collaboration• Have a collaboration with closed captioning• Collaborate with Helpdesk monitoring• Test run a collaboration event

• Whether you want to get together with one student or many – all you and your students need is a computer and a phone! Meet, collaborate, educate in real time. It’s simple to use, easy to manage and the service is free.

• Meet with faculty, staff, and students in real time, in groups of two or even hundreds—with just a PC, a telephone and an Internet connection. Meet & Confer is the California Community Colleges system’s FREE Web and phone-based collaboration service.

• You can conduct your meetings, trainings, classes and events at a moment's notice, anytime, anywhere without traveling. Share documents, presentations, poll your audience and use a white board for taking notes. There are public and private chat features and the ability to archive the entire meeting for later playback.

• Meet & Confer has a full array of high-touch client assistance, including technical support, instructor-led and self-paced training, and hands-on support for any meeting or event.

• Get together with your colleagues across the campus or across the State; with Meet & Confer.

• Benefits• Create Community

Create a sense of community with your colleagues, staff and students who might not otherwise be able to meet with one another.

• Offer Anytime Access(Live Meeting) Communicating and collaborating online and in real time means you don't need to leave your desk to conduct effective meetings with others. Save time and money by meeting online and avoid all the hassles of travel.

• Offer live classes, office hours, and group discussions at times that are convenient for staff, faculty and students not just when the physical facilities are available.

• Deliver effective online presentationsWith Meet & Confer, you can deliver remote presentations with the same effectiveness as being in person. You will have the ability to receive real-time feedback from your audience, you can successfully get your point across without having to be in the same room.

• Features and Functionality• Public & private text chat

Some people are more comfortable writing than speaking, and our chat messaging allows anyone to communicate textually either privately or to the whole group.

• Flexible content areaShow content such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, HTML, webpages, images, , PDF, Flash, CMS pages, and more.

• Electronic whiteboard and polls, quizzes, and surveysBy offering whiteboard exercises and asking polling questions, your participants will remain highly engaged.

• Application sharingCreate collaborative exercises or teach complicated software applications or collaboratively edit documents and spreadsheets. Application sharing allows you to work on any application, as everyone logged-in will follow every action your cursor makes. You can even pass control so others can collaborate right along with you.

• Archiveable presentationsWouldn’t it be great if you could review a meeting after it occurred or study for an exam by going back in time to the original class? Now you can, as archives retain everything that happened — from voice, to chat, to content — during the meeting or live class, allowing everything to be played back, verbatim.

• Technology appropriate for Online EducationHardware, software, networks, and IT skills vary enormously. In order to accommodate as many users as possible, we specifically developed Meet & Confer to effectively operate easily. Low-bandwidth features allow for dial-up access, and virtually any user, on a PC, Mac, or Linux machine can fully participate with minimal training and setup.

• Accessible to people with disabilitiesJust because a student has a disability doesn't mean they shouldn’t be able to attend your live, online meeting. Meetings can be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired while also reaching out to the visually impaired by offering compatibility with most screen readers. These accessibility features help institutions meet many state and federal accessibility guidelines.

• We’re offering you a teaching environment that allows you to focus on your students.

• Teach & Confer is a live interactive classroom to meet with your students. Let Teach & Confer help you duplicate the classroom experience with lectures, small group discussion and one to one conversations. Increase student participation and performance through live conversations, interactive whiteboarding, frequent polling questions, and a text chat area. As an instructor you can share your desktop applications live with students and navigate them through websites. Classes can be archived for students to review at a later date.

• All you and your students need is the internet and a phone!

• Call Confer is simply a conference call using our phone bridge. Many groups and committees use Call Confer as their preferred tool for conference calls.

• Call Confer’s benefits are plentiful.• Simple. No other conference call tool is as easy to use.• Fast. Your Call Confer meeting is set up within 48 hours of your request. • Efficient. Participants receive the toll-free number and access code via

e-mail, and then dial in at the designated time.• Clear. The instructions for participating are easy to understand.• Portable. Anyone at any location can participate in a Call Confer

conference call.• Reliable. Our redundant systems do not go down, and work efficiently.• Free. There is no cost for using Call Confer.