How often have you ended a phone call with the statement, “I’ll email it to you” or “Email that to me please”? How inefficient, a communication promising or requesting another type of communication. The same holds true for email with an attachment. The attachment can go back and forth in game of electronic ping pong. If the objective is collaboration you need to use a tool that allows for real time collaboration.
In the last installment of this blog we looked at virtual meetings. This installment focuses on how Adobe Connect,sponsored by Regis University and freely available to faculty and staff, can be used for impromptu meetings and collaboration sessions with colleagues or students. Whether across campus or across oceans Adobe Connect provides Regis employees with the opportunity to meet in real time to solve problems more efficiently.
Within a meeting Adobe Connect users can simultaneously:
· Edit documents
· Mark up images, diagrams, and charts
· Exchange documents
· View the same website
· Share your desktop, an application, or a window
· Review student projects
Attendees can communicate via the telephone while viewing the content or, to save long distance charges, use free VOIP(Voice Over Internet Protocol) to discuss the issues and if desired can even use streaming video to see one another.
Using Connect isn’t complicated and assistance getting started is available from the CAT lab and RHCHP Distance Education. The only additional hardware you need for a meeting is a USB microphone and web cam. Learning Connect requires practice, but an experienced Connect user can get a meeting up and running in less than two minutes.
Obviously online meetings won’t replace the phone or email, but it will improve the efficiency of your collaborations and can help any budget strapped organization cut back on long distance charges.
This post was submitted by guest blogger, Doug.
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