New Semester Kickoff with Web Conferencing!

Life is good and all is well with the world! Now, if I can just recover from the really really really long orientation day we had on Saturday to kickoff our Online Teaching and Learning certificate program! 

It’s always exhilarating to begin a new semester.  We like to begin ours using a web conferencing system.  There are a number of web conferencing tools and several benefits to using them – especially for getting the semester off to a great start.

Benefit 1: Convenience
One clear benefit of web conferencing is that your learners don’t have to travel to attend opening day activities.  In our cohort this semester, we have people who are living out of the country and out of the state – much too far to travel for just 1 day.   Even I (one of the teachers) would not have been able to attend if it weren’t for web conferencing.  So, learners (and teachers!!) were able to attend and get the information they needed.

Benefit 2: Community
Another important benefit is that of community building. While some folks certainly can begin to create strong bonds through text communication alone, most people need to hear and see someone to really feel connected. While web conferencing to discuss program and course requirements, our cohort teachers and learners were able to interact, laugh, and share important connecting moments.  We really began to bond as a group and even spontaneously started our own in-group jokes: my current favorites are aerobic learning (a reminder to breathe when feeling overwhelmed about learning new technology) and BOO – “brain on overload.” 

Benefit 3: Conference Recording
Third on the benefits list is the ability to record web conference sessions. A lot of material is typically covered on the first day of any semester and it is easy to forget important things when you are being overwhelmed with so much information. An archived recording that learners can review afterwards acts as a memory refresher.  Plus, learners who were not able to attend can at least get some of the benefits of the orientation.

Web Conferencing Tools
There are many web conferencing systems out there and, if you don’t have access to a particular tool through your institution, it can be quite challenging to pick out one that will serve your needs.  At a minimum, you should look for a system that

• works on both Windows and Mac operating systems,
• works well regardless of type of Internet connection,
• has text and voice chat capabilities,
• will allow you to upload, or link to, a variety of content for presentation and discussion
• records the session for later playback

Video conferencing, application sharing, whiteboards w/drawing tools, and breakout rooms are also nice features to have.

For an extensive list of web conferencing tools, see Robin Good’s Official Guide to Web Conferencing and Live Presentation Tools. 

Stay tuned for future posts when I provide some suggestions for putting together your own web conferencing tool kit for free!