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Technology & the Community College
Pulling in Tandem
4/1/2007
Expecting students to show up on campus for her classes on a set day at a set time is unrealistic, the instructor admits. And though online courses might be a solution to the dilemma, Young considers most online content “highly text-driven”— insufficient for classes that involve teaching students how to use expensive software and specialized equipment. What’s more, the scheduling problems of online courses only add to her students’ frustration and her own, she says. “If they have to wait for an e-mail from me,” she confides, “that can cost them a whole day of learning.”Online collaboration tools. As the eLearning coordinator at the college, Young decided to examine other means for providing the face-to-face instruction she felt her students deserved (or as close as she could get to face-to-face). That led her to write a funding proposal for a proof-of-concept initiative involving web conferencing tools that would enable online collaboration. The purpose of the study: to evaluate how collaboration tools can be used not for faculty and staff meetings, but for academic purposes—strictly teaching and learning. Young looked at many products, including the collaboration tools offered by Blackboard, provider of the course management system that was being used in seven of the 10 colleges in the district.
Enter Elluminate. Young settled on Elluminate Live!, from Elluminate (www. elluminate.com). What sold her was the fact that the software was designed specifically for academic use. She’s able to record her lectures (including what appears on her computer and on the whiteboard) so that students can view them on their own time. That same whiteboarding feature can be used to permit students to meet with faculty during virtual office hours. “This allows me to schedule tutoring sessions with [students], whether it’s 2 am or 11 am,” she says. “So I’m planning to use it to get more interaction with them.”
True application sharing. On the hydrology side of her teaching, what most excites her is Elluminate’s ability to give students access to specialized and quite expensive geographic information system (GIS) software that, traditionally, students have only been able to use in the school’s computer labs during business hours. Restricted access limited students’ ability to get their homework done. “With Elluminate’s application sharing, [students will] be able to show me where they’re stuck, using my version of GIS software on my computer,” says Young. “I can give them control of the software through their computer, then I can take control and show them the right way, or talk them through it while they’re still [viewing what’s happening on] my computer.”
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