Class in the Comfort of Your Home!

The class did a great job hanging in yesterday to get everyone connected and operational. The session gave us some real time experience in online learning using WebEx. It is not unusual to take a fair amount of time to get everyone up and running on the first attempt of a conference like this. If we were to repeat a class meeting on WebEx the login would go a lot faster.

Many of the WebEx, Adobe Connect, Go to Meeting, experiences involve large numbers of people with chat as the only method to communicate with the presenter. Our application had all 12 of us using picture and audio. Using a format like WebEx presents a challenge when everyone is able to speak but you all did well. If our group was much larger it would be more difficult to manage the conversation. 

Here's a few tips on conferencing on a personal computer...

• Use dim lighting in the background. Avoid windows and other light sources behind you.
• Lighting your face with lamps behind your laptop on both sides provides the best result.
• Use headphones and a mic for best result. iPhone headphones works ok as long as the mic is in a good position. I have a picture of the USB Plantronics .audio 400 headset I use. It is a folding headset I can throw in my bag. It is old and has been beat up but still works well. A bit pricy - $42 at Amazon. 
• Mute your mic when you are not speaking. 
• Test everything ahead of time.

Dennis