Although it’s had it’s flavours at Emily Carr University, web conferencing has not been available institutionally, by the entire community at Emily Carr University, but that’s about to change.
Emily Carr University has just signed up to provide the Elluminate Live web conferencing system to its community, beginning in 2010, through a generous grant provided by BC Campus’s shared services. Elluminate is a virtual classroom where you can add audio, video, share applications, and integrate various content types, such as PowerPoint presentations, polling questions and websites. Elluminate can be used in an online classroom environment, by enabling live, online classes, office hours, guest lectures, and meetings.
“A significant aspect of our mission to support the post-secondary education system as a whole is to encourage collaboration, partnership, and sharing between institutions,” said Paul Stacey, director of development for BCcampus. “Traditionally that was done in face-to-face workshops, seminars, and conferences. We wanted to expand this support to include a more informal, self-service process that did not require travel and organizing face-to-face events. Having continuous 24/7 access to Elluminate Live! has been invaluable for members of all the online communities who can collaborate regardless of their location across the province.”
“BCcampus is a systemic support service to institutions, so whatever we do becomes a forum, showcase, and test bed for those institutions to try new and better ways of working,” said David Porter, executive director of BCcampus. “Through our communities of practice, we can demonstrate the utility of using tools such as Elluminate Live! for live eLearning and collaboration. The best way to do that is to involve as many educators as possible, which is a part of our mandate. We’ve had success with all our groups, in part because we pick technology that is easy to use and provides a real payoff for the users.
Elluminate has the potential of being incorporated into the Moodle course management system to allow faculty to setup virtual meeting rooms with students. Stay tuned, more to come in faculty workshops in February and a roll out in Summer 2010.
Comments on this entry are closed.