Teaching using Elluminate

I’ve put together a 48 minute video examining how we might use Elluminate to facilitate learning over the web. I show three types of delivery; a lecture, dissertation feedback or small group work and the use of break-out rooms when you have larger classes.

Anyway let me know what you think via the comments box.

Here’s the link: http://broadcast.udbs.dur.ac.uk/view.aspx?id=495~3F~p9oN6h

Webinar: An introduction to Islamic Finance

Dr Riham Rizk, lecturer in Accounting at Durham Business School, gave an excellent introduction to Islamic Finance for our distance learning students. Click on this link to view it

http://dbs-webconf.dur.ac.uk/play_recording.html?recordingId=1260813788192_1268745518536

Once again you will arrive at a web page after clicking on the above link. Please select the ‘guest’ radio button (if it is not already ticked) and enter your email address and display name as requested. Then click on the ‘log in ‘ button at the bottom of the page. You will then be prompted to download a piece of software (a.jnlp file). It is safe to do this. If it doesn’t play then you will probably need to download Java.

Webinar on mentoring for business start ups

In another of our webinars for distance learning students here at Durham Business School, Wendy Parvin an Associate at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at Durham University and founder of ‘Conversations with Purpose’, discusses the opportunities from attracting the right business mentor.

Here’s the link

http://dbs-webconf.dur.ac.uk/play_recording.html?recordingId=1260808988122_1266933026399

Once again you will arrive at a web page after clicking on the above link. Please select the ‘guest’ radio button (if it is not already ticked) and enter your email address and display name as requested. Then click on the ‘log in ‘ button at the bottom of the page. You will then be prompted to download a piece of software (a.jnlp file). It is safe to do this. If it doesn’t play then you will probably need to download Java.

Once the recording opens you will be asked whether you want to download Wendy’s CV. There is a bit of a gap in the recording when students go into breakout rooms but you can use the slider button at the  bottom of the screen to move on.

Webinar on Networking and Social Capital for business development

Dr. Dinah Bennett gave an  excellent and useful presentation on networking and social capital for business development. There is plenty of interaction using the chat box in this session and participants are sent to breakout rooms where they write on the whiteboard what they dislike about networking. These whiteboards are then brought back to the main discussion room and Dinah highlights some of the points raised.

As we continue to develop our webinar programme we are  discovering new ways of using Elluminate for our distance learners and this is a good example of how I see our distance learning practice developing. I have longed believed that as students and faculty become more familiar with the technology (and as internet speeds increase) the opportunities for merging the pedagogical richness of the classroom with  geographic (and social) distance are becoming closer.

Here’s the link for the recording.

http://dbs-webconf.dur.ac.uk/play_recording.html?recordingId=1260808988123_1266337459711

You will arrive at a web page after clicking on the above link. Please select the ‘guest’ radio button (if it is not already ticked) and enter your email address and display name as requested. Then click on the ‘log in ‘ button at the bottom of the page. You will then be prompted to download a pice of software (a.jnlp file). It is safe to do this.If it doesn’t play then you wil probably need to download Java.

There is a bit of a gap in the recording when students go into breakout rooms but you can use the slider button at the  bottom of the screen to move on.

A webinar on literature reviews and referencing

My colleague, Rebecca Stratling, recently took part in a webinar in which she discussed how to undertake academic literature reviews and engage in academic referencing . Here’s the link

http://dbs-webconf.dur.ac.uk/play_recording.html?recordingId=1260808988089_1265898541769

The session lasted nearly 2 hours but there were lots of questions answered.

Feedback about the session from our distance learning students has been very positive.

When you click on the above link you will arrive at a web page. Please click on the ‘guest’ radio button (if it is not already ticked) and enter your email address and display name as requested (i still don’t understand why you need to do this). Then click on the ‘log in ‘ button at the bottom of the page. You will then be prompted to download a pice of software (a.jnlp file). It is safe to do this.

Live lectures using Elluminate

I was ill recently and had some ‘catch-up’  lectures to do. Of course, trying to arrange these sessions was going to lead to clashes with an already overcrowded timetable. I found out that over 70 students out of some 330 could not make the re-arranged time. I therefore decided to record my live lecture presentation using elluminate, the web conferencing software we currently use for distance learners. I miked myself up (using a wireless microphone so that I could wander around the lecture theatre), loaded my PowerPoint slides into Elluminate as JPEGS (I think the import quality is higher) and then clicked on record.

I had the additional difficulty that I was recording the lecture across the University’s wireless network but you can judge the results for yourselves by clicking here (I did record others). You can see that there is a little bit of ‘noise’ around the edge of the screen created by the Ellminate icons and the powerpoint animation is lost. I also made the mistake of not setting the whiteboard as the default recording screen but you can click on view and change the viewing options for yourself.

The point is that 15 minutes after the lecture had finished I emailed all the students with the recorded link and I have a resource that I can use whenever I like. I could have used the web cam to offer video but did not want to chance it on the wireless and I’ve found that including video hogs bandwidth for broadband users and slows download speeds. As my students already know what I look like (and some think I have looks best suited to radio)  it didn’t seem to make much sense to include it.

I suppose there are bespoke systems – the university has video cameras in the lecture theatre and the Business School uses Planet e-Stream- but these often require some post-production time that I wasn’t prepared to get involved in. I’m pleased with the results. Let me know what you think?

PS. I’ve just noted that the link asks you for an email address and your real name. I’m not sure why because we do not use the info and I can see that it will cause problems for us. It shouldn’t affect your viewing though it takes a few minutes to download.

Webinar on Social Media by Lloyd Pickering, Wednesday November 18th 2009

Here’s the link for yesterday’s Webinar by Lloyd Pickering
Lloyd is working in conjunction with The Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at Durham University to enhance their online presence and virtual learning capabilities. His webinar discussed how we can use social media to enhance our business and personal networks.

Another webinar at Durham yesterday

We held another webinar at Durham yesterday for our distance learning students.Professor Geoff Moore offers an interesting perspective on the concept of the virtuous manager using Alisdair MacIntyre’s work on ‘virtue ethics’. For me Geoff hints towards the need for managers to learn and develop new skills and competences in virtuous practice – perhaps as a way of dealing with the current ‘vices’ (greed?) that seem to be in the news nowadays. What do you think?

Here’s the link for the webinar. You will need Java to run it.

Geoff Moore is Professor of Business Ethics at Durham Business School and you can view more about him by clicking here.

New Webinar

We have been undertaking a few Webinars for our distance learning students.  This one was by

Professor Tim Clarke on Wednesday 4th November 2009 and discussed Charismatic leadership and Oratory

Click here to download Tim Clarke’s excellent presentation. You are asked to download a little Java file. It is safe to do this. You will be asked to download and save an article from the Journal Human Relations. It is also safe to do so. You will discover that there are three short videos in this presentation. You can re-size these to suit.

Timothy Clark is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Durham Business School, UK. He has authored a number of books including Demystifying Busines Celebrity with Eric Guthey and Brad Jackson (Routledge, 2009) Management Speak, with David Greatbatch (Routledge, 2005). You can find further details about Tim’s work by clicking here.

My first Screentoaster movie

OK so I cannot embed a movie on this blog (apparently, there are security issues with flash). Anyway here’s my first creation with screentoaster in which I show how to use the Firefox Bookmark toolbar to navigate across the Blackboard Learning Environment.

This should help my distance learning students get quickly to particular courses or parts of courses on Blackboard (or DUO as we call it). but more of you might find it useful.

Just click on the underlined link above.