Hosting Meetings

This section is about hosting Adobe Connect. It contains scenarios, tips, and how-to documentation for coordinating attendees, accommodating guest speakers, moderating questions, and the like.

Hosting meetings is probably the most difficult aspect of Adobe Connect to master. Different meeting types require different considerations, and as the complexity of the meeting type increases, so do the Host's skill requirements. This section outlines the considerations for the most common meeting types and describes their associated levels of expertise.

Forums
Be sure to see the Forums for other scenarios, tips, and discussion from community members.

Levels of Hosting Expertise

To use Adobe Connect effectively to hold classes and meetings, a good amount of practice, planning, and time to prepare is recommended.

Skills and Competencies
The different levels of experience described below should give you some idea of the skills and competencies you need to host at each level and the types of meetings you will feel comfortable hosting.

Level 1: Beginner

Level 1: Adobe Connect Meeting Beginner

A beginner Adobe Connect host is someone who has never used Adobe Connect or attended an Adobe Connect meeting. To get started, the beginner needs to:

Level 2: Intermediate

Level 2: Adobe Connect Meeting Intermediate

In addition to the Level 1 skills, an intermediate Adobe Connect host feels comfortable “popping” into an Adobe Connect meeting room with a friend or colleague on the spur of the moment for informal meetings. A Level 2 host is familiar with most of the material under the Using Adobe Connect and Creating/Editing Meetings sections, and is able to:

Level 3: Advanced

Level 3: Adobe Connect Meeting Advanced

In addition to the Level 1 and Level 2 skills, an advanced Adobe Connect user feels comfortable organizing and hosting more formal small group meetings as well as using Adobe Connect to bring guest speakers into a class or guest presenters into a meeting. An advanced user is able to:

Level 4: Expert

Level 4: Adobe Connect Meeting Expert

In addition to the Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 skills, expert Adobe Connect hosts feel comfortable and confident using Adobe Connect for all different kinds of meetings and gatherings, both formal and informal. In addition to being able to help others use Adobe Connect, they are able to:

  • Help others use the Connect Central Web Interface to change meeting room settings and schedule, manage, and organize meeting rooms (see Creating/Editing Meetings under the top menu)
  • Plan, host, and moderate Adobe Connect meetings, classes, and events
  • Plan, host, and moderate large group meetings where a combination of people are meeting both face-to-face and at a distance
  • Attend to the needs of both the face-to-face audience and the participants at a distance prior to and during an Adobe Connect meeting
  • Troubleshoot problems and take corrective action while a meeting is in progress

L1: One On One

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A one on one meeting involves just two people communicating and/or collaborating together. It is the most straightforward use of Adobe Connect.

Level of Expertise

Examples

Meeting Activities

L2: Small Group Meeting

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A small group meeting involves roughly 3-6 people communicating and/or collaborating. It is more complex than a one on one meeting, but can still feature moderately intuitive communication.

Level of Expertise

Examples

Meeting Activities

Opportunities

Limitations

Roles/Permissions

Connection Speed

Support considerations

Case Study: Small Group Meeting

Henry Lion’s introductory meteorology course depends heavily on students working together in small groups. Henry knows it is important for students to learn to work together and collaborate, but he gets tired of constantly being bombarded by e-mail from students complaining about not being able to arrange a time when everyone in their assigned group is free to meet. Henry has found that as tuition increases, more and more students have to work part time, which makes it much more difficult for them to meet with group members outside of class. However, Henry is not willing to give up his precious instruction time for students to hold their meetings during class, so he decides to try desktop Web-based videoconferencing to solve some of the problems.

One assignment that Henry usually gives the class is for each small group (usually three to four students) to develop a two-minute presentation explaining one of the concepts in the current chapter. The group then has to give their presentation to the class on the day that their topic is discussed. Henry decides that this assignment will be a good test for the Adobe Connect system.

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A Meeting Room for Each Student Group

He creates an Adobe Connect meeting room for each small student group, appointing one student in each group as the group leader for the room and adding that student as a Host to the Participant List in the Connect Central Web interface. Having a Host for each room allows the students complete access to all of the tools in the Adobe Connect meeting room. Henry also sets the rooms so that rest of the students will automatically be promoted to Presenters when they enter the room. Henry notifies students of their group meeting room URL through e-mail. In the e-mail message, he also includes the address for the documentation and tutorials at the Penn State Adobe Connect Community.

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Promoting Team Leaders to Hosts

The first part of the Adobe Connect assignment that Henry gives the students is to hold a group meeting in their Adobe Connect rooms and choose a topic for their next presentations, then write a short, one-page group paper about what their topic will be and which tools they used during the Adobe Connect meeting to facilitate their discussion. Some of the students have Web cameras and microphones, but most do not. Henry wants to see if having to communicate by typing in the Chat and Note pods will be a problem.

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Small Group Meeting Room Layout

The papers Henry receives from the students show that the Adobe Connect test is an overwhelming success. Students who did not have Web cameras or microphones used their cell phones as well as the Chat pod, Note pod, and Whiteboard to communicate with their teammates. Many cite their experience with IM and text messaging as good practice for using text to communicate in Adobe Connect. Students used the Whiteboard and Note pods to record their ideas as they talked and chatted. Most students especially liked not having to spend time traveling to a common location to meet face-to-face. The exception to this was students who live within a block of each other who would have preferred to meet face-to-face instead of having to go through a technology interface. Students also felt that they wasted less time by meeting in Adobe Connect, were more focused, and spent more time working on the topic at hand.

Students said they thought the Adobe Connect tools were easy to understand and use. Many did access the documentation at the Web site, but only read enough to get started using Adobe Connect (see Getting Started under the top menu). None of the students indicated that they had read all of the documentation. Many of the students also said that they would like to attend Adobe Connect training sessions focused specifically on student uses of the resource.

The second part of the assignment is to meet in the Adobe Connect rooms and create a presentation based on the concept the group has chosen. One of the rules Henry has set for this assignment is that everyone has to play a role in creating and giving the presentation. He has allowed four hours for students to complete this activity and has made necessary adjustments in other assignments to accommodate this new assignment. In addition to grading the students on their presentation in the face-to-face class, Henry has asked students to evaluate each other within their groups on how well they each participated in the group activity. (For more information on collaborative learning, please see the iStudy for Success! module at http://istudy.psu.edu/FirstYearModules/CooperativeLearn/Materials.html.)

Student evaluations of the assignment are again overwhelmingly positive. Henry not only had fewer problems coping with the logistics of getting students to meet in their groups, but the students also self-reported spending more time on task and working better together.

L3: Presenting to a Dispersed Audience

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Presenting to a dispersed audience generally involves a speaker (or multiple speakers) presenting to users who have remotely logged in to Adobe Connect. This scenario necessitates more preparation and planning than a small group meeting.

If some users are dispersed (logging in individually) and some gathered together, this scenario is covered in the Complete Mixed Meeting Hosting Guide under Hosting Meetings.

Level of Expertise

Examples

Meeting Activities

Opportunities

Limitations

Connection Speed

Roles/Permissions

Support considerations

Case Study: Dispersed Audience

Wilbur Blue teaches a graduate level course on business ethics. The students in the course have full-time jobs and take classes in the evening. Many are required to travel as part of their jobs and often have to miss class as a result. This causes a problem for Wilbur, because he then has to provide class materials to the students who were unable to attend.

As a possible solution to his problem, Wilbur decides to try holding class using the desktop videoconferencing system, Adobe Connect. His reasoning is that this will allow students to attend class even if they are traveling. An added advantage is that it will also save students travel time, since they will be able to connect from their offices or homes instead of having to commute to the campus.

Wilbur’s course description states that Adobe Connect will be used so that students will know before registering that the class will have just two face-to-face meetings and the rest will be conducted through Adobe Connect. He also makes a high-speed Internet connection a prerequisite for registration. Wilbur is able to get funds through his department to purchase Web cameras and headsets with microphones to lend to the students for the duration of the course.

Wilbur’s course materials are designed for small group discussions and projects, so he divides the class into groups as he would if he were teaching the course face-to-face, then creates an Adobe Connect meeting room for each group to use. To make the rooms easy to access, he sets the access level so that anyone with the URL can enter the room.

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Meeting Room Access

He also enables the auto-promote feature so a Host will not need to be present in each meeting room to promote Participants to Presenters. Giving students Presenter permissions allows them to access most of the tools in the room. To save time, Wilbur creates a “master” room containing the customized room layouts he has designed and all of the materials students will need for the course. Then he creates copies of the room, one for each group, using the Adobe Connect template tool. Wilbur e-mails the students the URL for their group’s meeting room.

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The Auto-Promote Setting

The course materials consist mostly of short video clips followed by discussion questions and small group activities. Wilbur works with staff at the Digital Commons to convert the video clips to Flash so they can be shared through an Adobe Connect Share pod. He has all students meet as one large group at the beginning of each class session for a short period of instruction. Then the students enter their small group breakout rooms to view the video clips and complete the discussion questions and any other assigned activities. Wilbur drops in to each of the group breakout rooms during class to talk with the students and listen to their discussions. Then, at a designated time, he calls all of the students back to the large group meeting room to report on their discussions and activities. Wilbur also makes individual group meeting rooms available for students to use throughout the week to complete group homework assignments.

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Wilbur's Meeting Room Layout for Presentations

Wilbur uses two basic meeting room layouts during class. One layout, which he uses for large group presentations, contains the Camera and Voice pod, the Attendee List, the Chat pod, and a Share pod. Wilbur uses this layout mostly for sharing PowerPoint presentations and the whiteboard. He included both the Camera and Voice pod and the Chat pod so he could broadcast audio and video to the students and they could ask questions through the Chat pod. Students can also indicate when they have a question or issue by using the emoticons in the Attendee pod.

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Wilbur's Meeting Room Layout for Discussions

The other layout Wilbur uses is for discussions. The Camera and Voice pod in this layout is large enough for several people to broadcast video and audio at the same time. Wilbur has also included a chat pod, the Attendee pod and a notes pod in this layout.

In the Adobe Connect room he is using for large group meetings, Wilbur has given all of the students Presenter permissions so they can broadcast their video and voice as well as use the Whiteboard. Since cameras and headsets were provided through the department, Wilbur knows he can call on all of the students to participate in the discussion. During class, Wilbur calls on a group of 4 students at a time to participate in the large group presentations and discussions. Students Wilbur has selected broadcast audio and video, then they take turns answering questions and broadcasting their discussion of the topic. Students who aren’t broadcasting audio and video can ask questions and contribute to the discussion through the Chat pod and the Note pods.

Wilbur has devised a system for students who aren’t broadcasting audio and video to indicate that they have a question or a comment by entering a Q (for question) or a C (for comment) in the Chat pod. Wilbur then calls on the students just as he would in a face-to-face class. If the student has a short question, s/he can type it in the chat pod. If the question is more involved, the student can broadcast audio and video while asking the question and participating in the follow up discussion and then stop broadcasting after the discussion has ended.

Wilbur adds note pods to the meeting room stage area as different issues are brought up during the discussion – he adds one pod for each topic and enters the students comments in the pod for each topic, much like he would on a blackboard in a face-to-face class. Since Wilbur has given the students Presenter permissions for the meeting room, they are able to type in the Note pods as well and can collaboratively enter and edit text during the discussions.

Wilbur scheduled a face-to-face meeting for the first class session. During this session he had the students meet in a computer lab and showed them how to use Adobe Connect, including how to broadcast audio and video. Then, the students’ assignment for the week was to attend one of five possible office hour sessions with Wilbur to test their Web cameras and microphones. The second class session was then held using Adobe Connect.

Wilbur has planned for technical problems by asking the department’s tech support person to sit in on the first couple of meetings. The tech support person will use the Chat pod (sending private messages) or the telephone to try to help any student who has trouble connecting to the meeting or broadcasting audio and video. Wilbur would like to have a moderator for each large class session as keeping track of the activities in all of the pods at once can be a bit overwhelming, but he has no one available to fill this role, so he asks the students to help him out as much as possible and not be shy about speaking up if he doesn’t notice that they have a question, comment, or problem.

At the mid-semester mark, Wilbur asks students to write a short one or two page reaction paper on Adobe Connect and is pleasantly surprised at the positive tone of most of the papers. Several students remark that they appreciate being able to attend class even while traveling. One student in particular was very happy to have been able to attend class while on a business trip in Germany – even though it meant staying up very late at night (German time) to attend. Wilbur also gave the students a choice of continuing to use Adobe Connect for the second half of the semester or returning to the more traditional face-to-face class meetings. 100% of the students voted to continue to use Adobe Connect.

NOTE: Class situation and student feedback is taken from actual situations and feedback collected during the needs assessment and pilot phases of the project.

L3: Presenting to a Gathered Audience

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Presenting to a gathered audience generally involves a speaker (or multiple speakers) presenting to users who are gathered remotely in another location, such as a classroom. There may also be an audience gathered face-to-face with the speaker(s). This scenario necessitates more preparation and planning than a small group meeting.

If the audience is "mixed," with some users dispersed (logging in individually) and some gathered together, this scenario is covered in the Complete Mixed Meeting Hosting Guide under Hosting Meetings.

Level of Expertise

Examples

Meeting Activities

Opportunities

Limitations

Roles/Permissions

Connection Speed

Support considerations

Case Study: Gathered Audience

Jan White teaches an introductory art history course on Impressionist painters. She tries to make the materials more interesting and relevant to students by including information about the culture and country where the works originated as well as information about the current locations of many of the works. Jan would also like to have curators from museums where the works are housed come and speak to the class, but she has a very limited budget and cannot afford to bring guest speakers into the classroom or to take the students on field trips. She has been able to use resources on the Internet to some extent to reach her goal, but this is not as effective as she would like.

Jan has decided to try using the desktop videoconferencing system, Adobe Connect, to economically bring expert guest speakers into her classroom. Jan asked the Adobe Connect contact for her unit to create an Adobe Connect meeting room for her (see Meeting Creator Licenses under Creating/Editing Meetings). In her meeting room she created a custom layout containing the Camera and Voice pod, a Share pod, the Attendee pod, and a Chat pod. She planned to use the Camera and Voice pod to broadcast audio and video; the Share pod to display images and a PowerPoint presentation; the Chat pod just in case something happened to the audio broadcast and she needed to communicate with her guest speaker; and the Attendee pod to see who was in the meeting room.

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Jan's Meeting Room Layout for Guest Speakers

Jan was able to schedule three guest speakers, one for each major portion of the course. She asked each guest speaker to create a PowerPoint presentation for the talk he/she would give and send it to her so she could load it into the meeting room as well as make it available to students prior to the class. She also arranged a time with each guest to meet in the Adobe Connect room to check the guest’s camera and microphone and to practice the presentation. Two of the guests already had Web cameras and headsets with microphones, but Jan had to purchase a set for the third guest to borrow.

Jan sent each guest speaker an e-mail message with directions and the URL for logging on to the Penn State Adobe Connect system. She explained that they would need to go to http://fps.psu.edu/ and get a Friends of Penn State user ID and password prior to logging in to the Adobe Connect meeting. Penn State does not allow anonymous guest accounts in Adobe Connect for security reasons.

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Friends of Penn State Account

On the day scheduled for the first guest speaker’s visit, Jan arrived at her regular classroom ten minutes early to start up the computer and projector, turn on the sound system for the room, open the browser, and connect to the Adobe Connect meeting. Her guest speaker was already in the prearranged Adobe Connect room, so Jan turned on her Web camera and microphone, ran the Audio Setup Wizard, and greeted him. Then she promoted him to be a Presenter and opened the Share pod containing the preloaded PowerPoint presentation. After being promoted to Presenter, the guest speaker ran the Audio Setup Wizard and activated his Web camera. Jan and the guest quickly did a sound check to be sure the audio broadcast was working correctly.

For this special class, in addition to the PowerPoint presentation provided by the guest, students received white index cards as they entered the classroom so they could write down their questions during the presentation and hand them to Jan. Jan arranged with the guest speaker to pause every fifteen minutes or so and ask for questions, at which time Jan would read the cards to him.

When it was time for the class to begin, Jan set the meeting to be recorded and broadcasted her audio to the guest so he could hear her introduce him to the class. After introducing him, Jan muted her microphone, paused her camera, and turned the class over to the guest. Students watched the guest and his presentation projected from the computer and listened to his talk through speakers connected to the podium computer.

As the guest spoke, Jan floated around the classroom collecting index cards with questions. At the prearranged pauses, Jan returned to the front of the classroom and broadcasted her audio, reading the questions to the guest. The students asked some follow-up questions, which Jan repeated for the guest.

Class time passed quickly. Jan broadcasted her audio so the guest could hear the students applaud at the end of the presentation. She thanked the guest, stopped recording the meeting, and logged out of the meeting room. Jan reminded students of their assignment to write a one-page reflective paper containing three things they learned in class that day as well as their opinion of how the class went and whether having guest speakers attend class through Adobe Connect is a good use of class time.

Jan returned to her office, sent the guest speaker a thank you note and then logged on to the Adobe Connect server. Using the Meting Manager Interface, she checked the recording of the meeting and posted the URL for the recording in her ANGEL course space for students to access. Jan is hoping to build a library of guest speaker recordings over the next couple of semesters for use both in class and as a resource for activities and assignments outside of class.

L4: Broadcasting a Live Event

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Broadcasting a live event involves broadcasting a face-to-face class, meeting, presentation, etc, to an audience. This is a difficult application for Adobe Connect, and a great deal of planning, preparation, and expertise is required.

Depending on whether the audience will be dispersed and logging in individually or gathered together, be sure to read L3: Presenting to a Dispersed Audience and/or L3: Presenting to a Gathered Audience under Hosting Meetings.

If the audience is both dispersed and gathered, this scenario is covered in the Complete Mixed Meeting Hosting Guide under Hosting Meetings.

Level of Expertise

Examples

Meeting Activities

Opportunities

Limitations

Roles/Permissions

Connection Speed

Support considerations

Tips for Leading Class Sessions

Tips for Leading Class Sessions in Adobe Connect
(formerly Breeze Meeting)

(adapted from the Macromedia document, "Tips and Ideas for Leading Breeze Meetings")
Adobe Connect (formerly Breeze Meeting) is based on many of the same dynamics and delivery protocols used every day in university and college classrooms.
For example:

 
Planning and Setting Up for Class Using Adobe Connect (formerly Breeze Meeting)
1. Create a plan for the class session. Determine what you plan to teach, what examples you will use, which content (PowerPoint presentations, animations, videos, documents, and so on) will be shared, who will be allowed (or encouraged) to present, and so on.
2. Create a class agenda.
3. Plan interactions. Decide when you are going to ask and answer questions,
when you are going to present polls, and when other presenters or students will present or share documents. Establish how you will call on other presenters and students to participate.
4. Create and test all supporting content prior to the scheduled class session.
5. Create the meeting room, schedule a meeting session, and notify users well in advance. If possible, include Adobe Connect class times in your syllabus along with the URL students will need to enter the room. You may want to use the invitation feature built in to Adobe Connect to send reminder announcements. Plan to include all pertinent information in the e-mail message. For example, you will probably want to include:

6. Include all prerequisites in the course syllabus, or provide a link to the prerequisite materials
7. Before class begins, provide participants with a list of etiquette rules.
For example:

8. Provide necessary information about using Adobe Connect to students and presenters. Documentation specific to the Penn State implementation of Adobe Connect is available at the Penn State Adobe Connect Web site, http://meeting.psu.edu.
9. Preload all content into the meeting room before the scheduled class session.
10. Prepare resources or links to additional information. You can create a Web links pod in the Adobe Connect meeting room for presenting this information.
11. Prepare a class session summary to reinforce what was presented during the session and to bring closure to the class session.
12. Conduct a trial run. Ask some participants or colleagues to log in before class (preferably a few days) to check the system. Test such features as application sharing, document sharing, running presentations, and playing video.
13. Arrange to have tech support help available to answer questions for several days prior to holding class for the first time as well as during the time the first class will be in session.
14. Send out a reminder e-mail one day before the Adobe Connect class session.
 
Leading Adobe Connect Meetings
1. Arrive early and greet participants as they enter the room.
2. Everyone who is broadcasting audio should use a headset with a microphone.
3. Minimize distracting background noise during the class session. Turn off phones, pagers, and watch alarms. Close the door to the room and or place a sign on the door.
4. Set an engaging pace and monitor the audience. Vary your pace to keep participants interested. Encourage participants to give you feedback on the pace of the session using the "emoticons" in the Attendee pod.
5. Speak with confidence. Use a script, note cards, or outline to help you stay on track. Monitor your speech for verbal pauses and verbal tags like "umm,"
"you know," and "OK."
6. Actively engage the participants:

7. Recruit a moderator to help you run the Adobe Connect meeting room. This person should be able to resolve technical issues such as helping participants who are having trouble login on or starting their video and/or audio broadcasts.
Distribute the contact information for the moderator to participants prior to the first class session so they know who to contact. You can set up a separate chat pod for your moderator to use to communicate directly with you without interrupting the class. This chat pod could be positioned in the prep area where participants can't see it. Alternately, a cell phone or IM session could be used
for communication between the instructor and moderator.

8. Considering having a co-presenter for class. Taking turns talking adds variety to the class and gives the instructor a break to prepare for a new topic or change in activities.
9. Consider having a colleague in the audience. The colleague can log in remotely as a participant and monitor the participant experience and alert the moderator to concerns.
10. Use the record feature to record the meeting. You can make this recording available for participants who missed the scheduled class meeting. You can also learn a lot about the meeting and your delivery by reviewing the recorded presentation.
 
Recording Adobe Connect Meetings
Consider the following when recording your Adobe Connect class sessions:
1. Create a script or outline. Scripts provide you with the content you need to convey your message and keep from getting sidetracked during the session. It also helps ensure that you cover all the topics you intended to cover.

2. Create a quiet setting for recording the session.

3. Strive for interactivity.

4. Consider the shelf life of the recorded session.

Last revised: February, 2008

Tips for Leading Meetings

This tip sheet is adapted from the Macromedia document, "Tips and Ideas for Leading Breeze Meetings."

Leading Adobe Connect Meetings

  1. Arrive early and greet participants as they enter the room.
  2. Everyone who is broadcasting audio should use a headset with a microphone.
  3. Minimize distracting background noise during the class session. Turn off phones, pagers, and watch alarms. Close the door to the room and/or place a sign on the door.
  4. Set an engaging pace and monitor the audience. Vary your pace to keep participants interested. Encourage participants to give you feedback on the pace of the session using the "emoticons" in the Attendee pod. All meeting room attendees can access the emoticons by clicking the "My Status" bar at the top of the "Attendee List" pod. All attendees can also clear their status using the "My Status" bar after their question has been answered or their status has been noted. To view the Attendee List Tutorial, visit Attendee List Tutorial.
  5. Actively engage the participants:
    • Use the whiteboard and annotation features to draw attention to certain items on the screen.
    • Include multimedia elements such as video clips, pictures, and sound clips.
    • Turn participants into presenters.
    • Ask learners to share their opinions or experiences with the group.
    • Use polling throughout the meeting. Polling results are immediate. Share and discuss them with participants.
    • Ask thought-provoking questions and select participants to respond.
    • Don't limit yourself to lecture. Develop and implement ideas for additional formats like game shows (Jeopardy), talk shows, and interactive interviews.
  6. Recruit a moderator to help you run the Adobe Connect meeting room. This person should be able to resolve technical issues such as helping participants who are having trouble logging on or starting their video and/or audio broadcasts. Distribute the contact information for the moderator to participants prior to the first class session so they know who to contact. You can set up a separate chat pod for your moderator to use to communicate directly with you without interrupting the class.
  7. Considering having a co-presenter. Taking turns talking adds variety and gives the presenter(s) a break to prepare for a new topic or change in activities.
  8. Consider having a colleague in the audience. The colleague can log in remotely as a participant and monitor the participant experience and alert the moderator to concerns.
  9. Use the record feature to record the meeting. You can make this recording available for participants who missed the scheduled class meeting. You can also learn a lot about the meeting and your delivery by reviewing the recorded presentation.

Tips for Guest Speakers

Bringing guest speakers into your classroom provides an opportunity for students to ask questions and think through material in a more thorough way than they might otherwise do. It helps the students apply what they are learning to different contexts, thus enriching, reinforcing, and expanding their learning.

With Adobe Connect you can bring a guest speaker into your classroom through your computer without having to schedule (or pay for) a special videoconferencing room or bridge and without having to allow time and money for travel.

Preparing for a Guest Speaker

  1. When selecting a guest speaker, keep in mind that using Adobe Connect requires a higher level of comfort with technology than speaking face-to-face with a group.
  2. Make sure your guest speaker has the necessary equipment to participate – computer, camera, headset, Internet connection, etc.
  3. Give your guest the address to obtain a Friends of Penn State account (http://fps.psu.edu) to use to log in to your Penn State Adobe Connect meeting.
  4. Talk with your guest about the goals for the class and the material you want him/her to cover, including any graphics, videos, PPT presentations or documents s/he will want to display.
  5. Arrange to obtain the files for the presentation from the guest and upload them into your meeting room a few days in advance of the meeting – or, if your guest is comfortable with using Adobe Connect, make him/her a Presenter in the room so s/he can upload his/her own files.
  6. Several days prior to the class, arrange a time to meet with the guest in your Adobe Connect meeting room to practice the presentation.
  7. Also discuss with your guest ways to make the presentation more interactive. Decide with your guest when and how s/he will take student questions. Ask your guest to send you questions that can be displayed in the Poll pod periodically throughout the presentation.
  8. The day before the presentation, remind your guest of the actual date and time of the class.
  9. On the day of the guest presentation, arrive at the classroom ten to fifteen minutes early to set up your computer and camera. Greet the guest when s/he arrives in the Adobe Connect room and begin broadcasting audio and video, testing the sound for quality and volume.
  10. Be prepared to provide feedback to your guest as the class progresses. Tell your guest about things that are going on in the room that your guest can't see.
  11. Be prepared to provide technical support during the presentation. If you don't feel confident that you can solve any problems that may arise, arrange for a tech support person to be available to help.

Speakers Unfamilair with Adobe Connect

One issue to deal with when planning to hold a meeting using Adobe Connect is what to do about presenters who have no experience using Adobe Connect. Although you can plan time for your presenters to practice, you probably can't force them to practice. Is it reasonable to expect them to come into a physical room to give a presentation and, with no practice or preparation, require that they give their presentation from within an Adobe Connect room?

The answer probably depends on the type of class or meeting you are planning, the goals and audiences for the class or meeting, why you are thinking about using Adobe Connect, and the personalities of your presenters. If the success of your meeting depends on the skill of the presenters when using Adobe Connect, but your presenters refuse to practice or to give you their materials in advance, you will probably need to find an alternate delivery method instead of the live Adobe Connect meeting, or you will need to have a skilled moderator who can quickly and graciously walk the presenters through the process of using Adobe Connect while they are giving their presentations.

Skills Presenters Will Need

Guest presenters who will be expected to give their presentations using Adobe Connect will need to:

  • understand the goals and objectives for the meeting or class
  • be comfortable using technology
  • be comfortable using PowerPoint
  • understand the audio strategy for the meeting
  • understand the video strategy for the meeting
  • understand the needs of the remote audience without forgetting the needs of the face-to-face audience
  • be comfortable using the Adobe Connect meeting room tools like the Poll pod and the Whiteboard
  • prepare their presentation and handouts in advance so materials can be uploaded into the meeting room and tested prior to the start of the meeting and handouts can be sent to remote participants
  • practice

Complete Mixed Meeting Hosting Guide

Planning an Adobe Connect (Breeze) Meeting with Some Participants Face-to-Face and Some at a Distance

Holding a meeting where part of the audience will be together in the same room and part of the audience will be joining the meeting from a distance through an Adobe Connect meeting room is the most complex type of meeting you can hold using Adobe Connect. The larger the groups are, the more complex the task. Running this type of meeting requires an expert knowledge of Adobe Connect as well as time to plan, prepare. and practice. Depending on the size of the groups and the size of the physical meeting room, you might also need extensive knowledge of audio and video equipment and setup.

NOTE: Broadcasting a large event over Adobe Connect to a remote audience that will be interacting with the face-to-face audience involves planning, preparing, and practicing. It is not the equivalent of setting up a video camera and recording an event.

Why Use Adobe Connect for Multi-Site (and/or) Large Group Meetings?

By allowing group members at a distance to attend a meeting using Adobe Connect, you reduce travel time and costs, giving group members who might not otherwise be able to attend the opportunity to not only watch and listen, but to actually participate in the meeting. This active participation is the major difference between using Adobe Connect and providing a live streaming video Webcast, although some groups are also using Adobe Connect as a substitute technology for Webcasting.

A recorded Adobe Connect meeting is similar to a video tape recorded meeting. All of the activities in the Adobe Connect meeting room are recorded and available for playback, including audio, video, PowerPoint presentations, and public chat.

So what's the catch? Planning and holding an Adobe Connect meeting takes a lot more time, practice, and team work than just setting up a video camera and microphone and recording a face-to-face meeting. Unlike videoconferencing using PolyCom where someone else is responsible for maintaining and setting up the equipment, with Adobe Connect you are responsible for making sure you have the right parts and pieces of technology and hardware and have them connected and configured correctly. You also have to plan for how everyone attending the meeting will interact and communicate.

Before Planning the Event

Before even deciding to hold a mixed, large group type meeting using Adobe Connect, there are a number of things to consider:

  1. Define the goals and objectives for the meeting.
  2. Identify the audience for the meeting. Specifically consider if the audience at a distance has the technology and skills necessary to join the meeting using Adobe Connect.
  3. Identify the activities most likely to take place during the meeting to achieve the goals and objectives.

Based on your audience, goals, objectives, and activities, determine first if Adobe Connect is the best tool to use for your meeting. Consider if other communication tools, like PolyCom or just a phone conference, would work better.

If you think Adobe Connect is the best tool to use, continue your evaluation with the following steps:

  1. Review the list of skills and knowledge about Adobe Connect you will need in order to run this type of meeting. Acquire the skills and knowledge that you lack. (See Levels of Hosting Expertise under Hosting Meetings.)
  2. Define a strategy for broadcasting audio and for communication between the face-to-face group and the group assembled in the Adobe Connect meeting room.
  3. Define a strategy for broadcasting video and displaying visuals like PowerPoint slides, graphics, and applications, and showing any other presenter activities to the group assembled in the Adobe Connect meeting room.
  4. Define a strategy for projecting the Adobe Connect meeting room and presenter materials for the face-to-face audience and displaying files and pods to the Adobe Connect audience.
  5. (For the above strategies, see Developing Strategies under this section.)
  6. Identify skills guest presenters will have and skills they might need to acquire. (See Tips for Guest Speakers under Hosting Meetings.)
  7. Create an Adobe Connect meeting room with customized layouts based on the activities that will take place during the meeting. Use a custom URL if the meeting room will be used for recurring meetings.
  8. Set up a laptop computer with the equipment you will need to accomplish your audio and video broadcast strategies.
  9. Take this computer to the assigned meeting room to test the audio/video setup you have identified.
  10. Decide if Adobe Connect will work in the assigned meeting room to achieve the goals and objectives of the meeting.
  11. (For the above steps, see Before the Meeting under this section.)

Developing Strategies

Developing Strategies for Running a Mixed Adobe Connect/Face-to-Face Meeting

Bringing participants at a distance into a face-to-face meeting through Adobe Connect adds an additional layer of complexity to a meeting. One way to manage this additional complexity is to include a meeting room moderator for the Adobe Connect room.

The Adobe Connect moderator's role is to greet participants as they arrive in the Adobe Connect room, help remote participants with audio issues, monitor the Chat pod, bring participants' questions to the attention of the speaker, bring problems to the attention of the speaker and/or face-to-face moderator, and act as the representative in the face-to-face meeting for the distant participants.

The Adobe Connect meeting room moderator and the face-to-face meeting room moderator have to work as a team to manage the meeting. They both need to have experience using Adobe Connect and both need to be able to recognize and solve problems that may arise while the meeting is in progress. They should both be in the room where the face-to-face meeting is taking place.

Both moderators need to work together to determine the plan for the meeting, including all of the strategies that will be implemented. In addition, they need to work with the presenters to prepare them to use Adobe Connect and with the face-to-face group to make them aware of things that are being done during the meeting to accommodate the Adobe Connect participants.

The most important things the moderators can do to make sure their combined meeting goes smoothly is plan, prepare, and practice.

  • Carefully read about planning meetings and develop strategies for the elements that apply to your specific meeting goals and objectives.
  • Identify and assign roles for everyone who will be helping with the meeting. (See Team Member Roles under this section.)
  • Make sure all tasks are identified and assigned.
  • Create a check list with deadlines for each task for each person who is helping with the meeting to be sure all tasks are completed in a timely manner.
  • Hold a practice session several days prior to the actual meeting for everyone who is helping.
  • On the day of the meeting, arrive at the physical meeting room at least an hour early to set up and test equipment.
  • Have a backup plan in case there are problems.

Audio Broadcast Strategy

See related topic: Strategy for Interacting under this section.

As you start to plan and prepare for your Adobe Connect meeting, you will need to develop a strategy for communication between the presenters and participants at the face-to-face location and the participants in the Adobe Connect meeting room. At a minimum, the Adobe Connect room attendees will need to be able to hear presenters. In a more complex scenario, attendees at the face-to-face meeting will need to be able to hear and interact with the attendees in the Adobe Connect meeting room and vice versa.

Available bandwidth and computer processor capacity and speed all play roles in the quality of the audio and video broadcast within an Adobe Connect meeting room. Presenters broadcasting audio, or audio and video, must have a wired Internet connection for best performance. Broadcasting audio, or audio and video, over a wireless connection often results in latency, performance, and recording problems as well as poor audio and video quality.

As you are developing and testing your audio strategy, please be aware that mixed Internet connection types in a single meeting room where multiple participants are broadcasting audio, or audio and video through the Camera and Voice pod, can be difficult to configure so that everyone has good sound and video quality. Be sure your testing includes remote participants with the same kinds of equipment and Internet connections that the participants will have in your actual meeting.

Also as part of your audio strategy plan, be sure to allow adequate time and resources at the beginning of each meeting to check each participant's audio broadcast and tweak settings if necessary.

Tasks

As you define your audio strategy, be sure to complete the following tasks:

  • Identify activities that will require audio communication and the type of audio needed.
  • Identify activities that could use other communication tools instead of audio.
  • Identify audience needs.
  • Identify Presenter needs.
  • Identify and install hardware and drivers needed to for audio communications.
  • Check out the physical meeting room.
  • Set up equipment and test your proposed audio solution in the physical meeting room.

Good Quality Audio is Essential for a Successful Meeting

Although video is often optional, most meetings and classes, no matter their size or purpose, proceed more quickly and smoothly with audio communication between the presenter and the participants. However, due to a number of different circumstances, it isn't always practical for everyone to broadcast audio in an Adobe Connect meeting. Depending on the size of the audience, goals, objectives, and activities of the meeting, creative use of supplemental communication tools such as the Chat pod, the Whiteboard, Poll pods, the Note pod, emoticons, and the telephone* instead of multiple audio broadcasts using the Camera and Voice pod can often produce equally satisfactory results.

* = For information about using the telephone for audio, see Penn State Audio Bridge under Using Adobe Connect -> Camera and Voice Pod: Broadcasting Audio and Video.

When holding a meeting with some participants assembled face-to-face and some at a distance, think about the needs of each of your audiences based on the stated goals, objectives, and activities for the meeting and identify how you will best meet their needs.

When defining your strategy, consider the following:

  • The importance of the meeting; how critical will it be for all participants to be able to hear and participate in the live meeting? Would participants also be able to get the information they need by watching a recording of the meeting if they are unable to participate in the live meeting?
  • The goals and objectives for the meeting
  • The activities that will take place during the meeting
  • If remote audience participation is essential to the success of the meeting.
  • Who will need to broadcast audio?
  • Will you use the Camera and Voice pod for audio broadcasts, or set up a conference call through the Penn State phone bridge*?
  • If you will be using the Camera and Voice pod for audio, will participants be allowed to broadcast audio if they want to?
  • If you are using the phone bridge will you allow remote participants to speak to the face-to-face group?
  • If participants are allowed to broadcast audio using the Camera and Voice pod, will you allow multiple simultaneous audio broadcasts or only single broadcasts? Be aware that feedback and echo through the Adobe Connect room may be a problem when both the mic(s) and speakers are open simultaneously in the face-to-face meeting room. If you decide to allow remote participants to broadcast audio, someone will need to mute the audio feed from the face-to-face room into the Adobe Connect meeting room when someone from the Adobe Connect room is speaking and the audio is being amplified for everyone to hear in the face-to face meeting room.
  • Is the remote audience so large that it would be impractical to have participants broadcast audio or speak through the phone? Perhaps Participants should be required to use chat instead of broadcasting audio?
  • If you are allowing remote participants to broadcast audio, how will they signal you that they want to speak? (Emoticons include a symbol for wanting to ask a question.)
  • What type(s) of Internet connection(s) are available if broadcasting audio through the Camera and Voice pod? A high-speed wired connection is recommended for broadcasting audio and video.
  • What is the layout and size of the physical room where the face-to-face participants will be meeting? The larger the room, the more complex the audio setup is likely to be. Access to house sound systems will likely be necessary as well as additional equipment for connecting the house sound system to the computer broadcasting to and from the Adobe Connect meeting room.
  • What is the size of the face-to-face audience and the size of the remote audience(s)? The larger the audiences and the more variety in connection types to the Adobe Connect meeting room, the more complex the audio setup will be.
  • Will you allow private chat?
  • Will your strategy need to include a combination of audio broadcast and public and private chat?
  • Can you replace some audience audio interactivity with other Adobe Connect communication tools like poll questions or use of "emoticons"?

Remote Audience Internet Connection Speed Matters

The type of internet connections used by the members of the remote audience will determine to some extent the types of communication tools they will be able to use in the Adobe Connect meeting room.

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Recommended communication activities for remote participants with various Internet connections

The processor speed and capacity of the computers participants are using to attend the meeting also play a role in the quality of the audio broadcast. The computers used to join the Adobe Connect meeting should not be running any other applications during the meeting and should be checked in advance to be sure all viruses and spyware have been removed. (See related topic: Hardware.)

Determine a Strategy

After considering the goals of the meeting, and the needs and capabilities of your audience, determine what your strategy will be for handling the audio broadcast and communication among the various audiences:

  • To and from face-to-face participants within the physical meeting room
  • From face-to-face participants to the Adobe Connect audience
  • From the face-to-face presenters to both the Adobe Connect audience and the face-to-face audience
  • From the Adobe Connect audience to the face-to-face audience
  • From a Adobe Connect participant to another Adobe Connect participant

Consider what kinds of audio equipment you will need, how many mics you will need, and where they should be placed:

  • Will you need just one mic at the podium that everyone will use?
  • Will you need a mic or mics positioned around the room so the Attendees in the Adobe Connect room can hear questions and discussion from the face-to-face audience?
  • Will you have several presenters in the face-to-face room participating in a discussion? If so, will you want several lapel mics, one for each person, or just one unidirectional mic positioned centrally?
  • If you are using multiple mics that connect to just one computer, what additional pieces of equipment will you need, e.g., a mixer?

Depending on the size of the audience and the room, and the importance of the meeting, consider finding someone with experience setting up audio equipment to help you.

Test Your Setup

After deciding what your audio broadcast strategy will be, you will need to test your proposed audio setup. It is strongly recommended that you go to the room where the face-to-face meeting will be held and position the equipment as it will be for the meeting. If you are using a phone bridge, arrange to call someone who will help with testing the sound. You do not have to use the phone bridge for testing sound, but you do need to use the same equipment within the room that you will use for the meeting. If you are using VoIP in the Camera and Voice pod, after connecting the required equipment, run the Audio Setup Wizard.

During your testing, have several people at different locations enter the Adobe Connect room and provide feedback on audio quality.

Keep in mind that just because you are testing the setup in advance does not mean there will not be glitches during the actual meeting. Allow time before the start of the meeting to set up and test your audio equipment. If possible, bring extra cables, mics, etc. in case there is a problem.

Video Broadcast Strategy

As you start to plan and prepare for your Adobe Connect meeting, you will need to develop a strategy for broadcasting visuals in the Adobe Connect meeting room.

Available bandwidth and computer processor capacity and speed all play roles in the quality of the audio and video broadcast within an Adobe Connect meeting room. Presenters broadcasting audio, or audio and video, must have a wired Internet connection for best performance. Broadcasting audio, or audio and video, over a wireless connection often results in latency and performance problems as well as poor audio and video quality.

As you are developing and testing your video strategy, please be aware that mixed Internet connections types in a single meeting room where multiple participants are broadcasting audio, or audio and video through the Camera and Voice pod, can be difficult to configure so that everyone has good sound and video quality. Be sure your testing includes participants with the same kinds of equipment and Internet connections that the participants will have in your actual meeting.

Also as part of your video strategy plan, be sure to allow adequate time and resources at the beginning of each meeting to check each participant's audio broadcast and tweak individual, room, and video settings if necessary.

Tasks

As you define your strategy for broadcasting video and visuals, be sure to complete the following tasks:

  • Identify activities that will require visual communication and the types of visuals needed.
  • Identify activities that could use other communication tools instead of live, full-motion video.
  • Identify activities that could use full-motion video delivered outside of the Adobe Connect meeting.
  • Identify audience needs.
  • Identify Presenter needs.
  • Identify and install hardware needed for video communications.
  • Run the Adobe Connect system test (https://breeze.psu.edu/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm) to be sure you have the sharing plug-in and the current version of Flash Player installed.
  • Check out the physical meeting room.
  • Set up equipment and test the video and audio strategies together in the physical meeting room.

Which Types of Visuals Will You Be Broadcasting?

There are really two types of visual broadcasts in Adobe Connect: the video image generated by a camera in the Camera and Voice pod and the visuals shared through the Share pod. While the visuals in the Share pod are often critical to the goals of the meeting, the video broadcast from the Camera and Voice pod often isn't.

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Share Pod and Camera and Voice Pod

Is Live Camera and Voice Pod Video Broadcast Necessary?

Because broadcasting live video takes more bandwidth than most other activities, it can affect the quality of all of the other activities taking place in a meeting room, including the quality of the audio broadcast. Although audio is usually required for most meetings and classes to proceed smoothly, live video is usually optional or at least can be minimized to allow more bandwidth for more important activities as well as for better audio quality.

The type and quality of video you choose to broadcast from the Camera and Voice pod during your meeting will depend on the goals, objectives, and activities of the meeting as well as your computer processor speed and capacity, your Internet connection type and speed, and the Internet connection types and speeds of your remote participants if they will also be broadcasting.

Think about the following when deciding what type of video broadcast from the Camera and Voice pod will best meet your needs:

  • What will presenters be doing during their presentations?
  • Will the Camera and Voice pod video broadcast be a critical part of your meeting?
  • Will remote participants need to broadcast audio, video, and/or share visuals?
  • Will you need live full-motion Camera and Voice pod video, or will a paused snapshot of just the presenter’s face work just as well?
  • Will you use the tools available from within the Adobe Connect room to display PowerPoint presentations, notes, and images, or will you use the Adobe Connect Camera and Voice pod in a live, streaming video capacity with a wide-angle camera showing the computer screen as it is being projected to the face-to-face participants as well as to showing the actions of the presenters?
  • Is high quality audio a necessity?
  • If both high quality audio and high quality live action video are essential to your meeting, is it possible, in order to reduce bandwidth issues, to use the Penn State Phone Bridge for audio instead of broadcasting audio through the Camera and Voice pod? (See Penn State Audio Bridge.)

Perhaps the best solution for your video broadcast will be a combination of live, high quality, full motion video, paused video, and lower quality, full motion video. If that's the case, be sure to include a meeting moderator in your plan so your presenter doesn't have to try to juggle presenting while also managing the meeting video settings.

NOTES: Video quality settings for the meeting room are located under the Options button in the lower right corner of the Camera and Voice pod and can be adjusted during the meeting by both Presenters and Hosts.

When broadcasting live, full-motion video, the more the presenter moves around, the more bandwidth is required to broadcast the motion. If possible, to conserve bandwidth, ask the presenter to stand or sit still. Another consideration for conserving bandwidth is the background behind the speaker. A busy background will take more bandwidth to broadcast, especially if the presenter moves around a lot. Consider placing the presenter in front of a solid colored background, if possible.

Visuals in the Share Pod

Fortunately the second type of visual display, displaying files and images in the Share pod, requires less bandwidth than broadcasting live video from the Camera and Voice pod, and therefore creates fewer performance issues and requires less testing and fewer "either/or" decisions. The exceptions to this are broadcasting a Flash video through the Share pod, and sharing live applications through the Share pod while also allowing a meeting participant to control the application remotely. Just like with broadcasting live video from the Camera and Voice pod, if you will be doing activities in the Share pod that will require more bandwidth, you will need to adjust your bandwidth use in other areas of the Adobe Connect meeting room.

Will meeting attendees be broadcasting video and sharing visuals?

Your strategy for broadcasting video and sharing visuals also needs to take into consideration your remote participants. If Adobe Connect meeting attendees will be broadcasting video or sharing visuals, their Internet connection types and speeds as well as their computer processor speed and capacity will matter. Consider the information in the chart below when determining the level of participation possible for meeting attendees and thoroughly test each activity within the same environment as will be available at the time of the meeting before making a decision about which activities to include.

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Possible visual activities for remote participants with various Internet connections

What about your presenters?

As you develop your strategy for visuals, you will also need to consider the technical skills and personalities of your presenters. Your meeting plan will need to provide time and resources for training presenters if necessary, and helping them prepare their materials and practice their presentations. Consider the following in regard to developing your strategy for displaying video and visuals:

  • What kinds of activities will presenters be doing? Will they have PowerPoint slides to show the audience? Graphics? Applications? Will they have physical objects to show or demonstrate?
  • Will they provide their presentation materials in advance so they can be uploaded into the meeting room?
  • Do they have any experience using Adobe Connect?
  • Will they be willing to take time to enter an Adobe Connect room and practice their presentation?
  • Are they comfortable using technology, or would the technology just be a distraction to them?
  • If the presenters are not familiar with Adobe Connect, how will help with the presentation be provided?

Set your Priorities

The most bandwidth intensive meeting is one where multiple participants are broadcasting live video and audio while also sharing and allowing remote control of an application in the Share pod. Even under the best of circumstances, this combination of activities can result in performance issues.

As you develop your strategy for displaying video and visuals within your Adobe Connect meeting room, decide which is more important: live full motion video broadcast, high quality audio broadcast, or use of live applications. You will need to tweak your meeting room settings based on which activity you decide is most important to the success of your meeting. If all three are equally important, you will need to consider using the Penn State phone bridge for audio in order to make more bandwidth available for the video and the application sharing. You may want to make additional changes to your priorities and your meeting room settings based on thorough testing of your strategy.

So, What's the Plan?

As you can see, there are a number of variables to consider as you develop your video and visual display strategy:

  • Your Internet connection speed
  • Your computer processor speed and capacity
  • The needs of your presenters
  • The needs and technology capabilities of your participants
  • The activities that are most important to achieve the goals and objectives of your meeting

And there are a number of options to choose from when planning your video broadcast and visual display strategy. You can tweak bandwidth usage by:

  • using a lower quality Camera and Voice pod video broadcast
  • using paused video in the Camera and Voice pod instead of live, full motion video
  • using the Penn State phone bridge* for meeting audio instead of broadcasting audio from the Camera and Voice pod
  • limiting the number of people who are allowed to broadcast audio and video during the meeting
  • limiting remote control of live applications shared in the Share pod
  • providing links to videos that can be viewed outside of the Adobe Connect meeting room instead of sharing Flash videos in the Share pod

Now, based on the video and visual display needs of the meeting, determine:

  • What kind(s) of Camera and Voice pod video broadcasts you will provide
  • What video equipment you will need in order to produce your Camera and Voice pod broadcasts
  • What types of files you will need to display in the Share pod
  • If/how you will use shared applications in the Share pod
  • How you will tweak the various settings to maintain adequate audio quality while implementing your video/visuals strategy

Finally, thoroughly test your strategy under the same conditions you will have during your actual meeting and make adjustments as necessary.

Display Strategy

Strategy for Projecting Computer Screens in the Face-to-Face Room and Displaying Files in the Adobe Connect Room

When holding a meeting where some of the participants are meeting face-to-face and some are attending through an Adobe Connect meeting room, you will need to consider what you will be projecting in the face-to-face room and what you are displaying in the Adobe Connect room.

Which Pods Will you Use?

Depending on the goals and objectives for your meeting, the activities you will be doing, and what you want your audiences to see, you will need to decide which pods to include in your layout (see Customizing Layouts under Using Adobe Connect). The appearance of some of the pods is affected by the level of each Attendee's permissions, so, depending on what you want your face-to-face audience to see and what you want to display in the Adobe Connect room, you may need to adjust the level of permissions on individual pods for specific users (see Roles and Permissions under Using Adobe Connect).

Host View vs. Presenter View vs. Participant View

The first thing to understand is that, depending on what permissions the Attendee has, the Adobe Connect meeting room looks different. For the purposes of deciding what to project, the biggest differences between the three sets of permissions is that the Host can see and use the prep area and control the Share pod; the Presenter has the same control of the Share pod as the Host but more limited use of the prep area; the Participant doesn't see the prep area at all and can only watch what's happening in the Share pod.

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Host View of Stage (circled) and Prep Area of an Adobe Connect Meeting

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Participant View of Same Adobe Connect Meeting Room

If, as the Host or Presenter, you think you will need to use the prep area during the meeting, for example, if you are using the Question and Answer Chat pod, then you will probably want to project the meeting room from a computer logged in with Participant permissions. That way the people attending the face-to-face meeting won't be able to see the prep area and what you are doing. Only Adobe Connect attendees with Host or Presenter permissions will be able to see what you are doing in the prep area.

Depending on your audio and video broadcast strategies, since users with Participant permissions can't broadcast audio or video from the Camera and Voice pod by default, you will need to change the permissions on the Camera and Voice pod, and probably the Share pod as well, to "Presenter." This will allow the computer being projected in the face-to-face room to be logged in with just Participant permissions but still give Presenters the tools they need to give their presentations and broadcast audio and video.

Camera and Voice Pod

If you are using the Camera and Voice pod to broadcast audio and/or video, in addition to deciding which level of permissions you will want to project for the face-to-face audience to view, you also need to consider that:

  • The Camera and Voice pod has to be on the stage area of the meeting room (not in the prep area and not minimized) in order to work.
  • Everyone who is broadcasting audio and/or video will show in the Camera and Voice pod. You can change the size of the Camera and Voice pod to accommodate several broadcasted images and/or to be more prominent on the screen.
  • You can set up the Camera and Voice pod, lock the "Talk" button to broadcast, and then hide the pod under another pod so that neither the face-to-face audience nor the Adobe Connect audience will see it. Be aware that doing this prevents others from broadcasting audio unless they begin broadcasting and have their "Talk" button locked on before the pod is hidden. Another important consideration is that you will not be able to visually monitor the audio broadcast if you can't see the Camera and Voice pod, so you won't be able to tell (just by looking) if there is an audio problem.
  • For projecting, you may want to create a Friends of Penn State account (see http://fps.psu.edu) with a generic name to use when broadcasting from the Camera and Voice pod. The reason you might want to do this is the name of the logged in user is displayed beneath the picture from that computer. The only way to change the name is to quit the meeting room and log in with a different account. If you are using one computer, having several presenters, and don't want the wrong name to appear beneath their image, rather than having each presenter log out when finished and the new presenter log in when he/she begins, you can create a Friends of Penn State account with a name that would apply to everyone who is presenting during your meeting. For example, you could use your meeting or group name to create the Friends of Penn State account so that when you log in to the meeting, that will be the name under the video broadcast image. Then, in a note pod, you can post the name of each presenter as he/she speaks along with the topic and any other pertinent information. Once the generic account is logged in to the meeting, a meeting Host will need to set the permissions for just the Camera and Voice pod to Presenter.

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Computer Logged in with Friends of Penn State Account

Chat Pod

It is recommended that the Chat pod be on every layout so that your remote audience will be able to communicate with the moderator and the face-to-face group. For example, if something happens to the audio broadcast and your remote audience is no longer able to hear, they will need to have a way to tell you. The Chat pod usually serves this purpose.

Having the Chat pod visible on every layout also means that people in the face-to-face room will be able to see and read any comments made in public or made to the user whose computer is being projected if private chat is enabled. Depending on your goals and objectives for the meeting, this might be good to have, or it might be an unwanted distraction.

If you need for some of your attendees to see the Chat pod, but would rather not have everyone see it or have it be projected, consider giving people who need to see it Presenter permissions and people you don't want to have see it Participant permissions. Then, turn on the prep area and place the Chat pod off the stage. Although the Camera and Voice pod has to be on the stage in order to work, all of the other pods will work equally well whether they are on the stage or not as long as the attendee has Presenter or Host permissions.

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Chat Pod in Presenter Prep Area

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Participant View of Same Meeting Room

Attendee List

Another pod that you may or may not want to project to the face-to-face audience is the Attendee List. The emoticons in the Attendee List can be a useful tool for remote users, but you may not want to take up screen space with the Attendee List, or perhaps you don't want your face-to-face audience distracted by the emoticons popping up randomly throughout the presentations.

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Emoticons in the Attendee List

Another consideration is that, depending on the type of meeting you are holding and whether or not you are recording the meeting, there may be privacy issues associated with displaying the Attendee List. If privacy is an issue, you also need to be aware that the Chat pod contains a list of attendees in the drop-down list used for private chat. Disabling private chat will disable this list.

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Attendees are listed in the Chat drop-down when Public Chat is enabled

On the other hand, if you are having a problem with screen real estate and extensive text interaction/communication from your remote audience isn't necessary for achieving the goals and objectives of your meeting, the Attendee List could be used instead of the Chat pod to offer the remote audience a means of communicating with the moderator. The emoticons in the Attendee List are available to all meeting attendees, regardless of their level of permissions.

Share Pod

As part of your projection strategy, consider what you want the Share pod display to look like. The Share pod "Full Screen" button allows Hosts and Presenters to maximize the Share pod so that it is the only pod visible on the screen. Setting the Share pod to full screen for the face-to-face audience will eliminate all of the clutter and distractions of the Adobe Connect meeting room interface. All they will see is what is being displayed in the Share pod.

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Full Screen Button Choices

The best way to handle the full screen issue for Adobe Connect meeting room Attendees is to have the Host or Presenter give all Attendees the option of setting the Share pod to full screen or not. This will allow you to set the computer that is being projected for the face-to-face audience to full screen while allowing other Adobe Connect meeting room attendees to choose whether or not to view the Share pod in Full Screen mode. If the Host or Presenter doesn't give Participants this option and sets the Share pod to full screen for everyone in the meeting room, Participants again lose the ability to communicate with others in the Adobe Connect room as well as those in the face-to-face room. When set to full screen, the Share pod covers all of the other pods in the meeting room.

Set Your Strategy

After considering the options, decide which Adobe Connect pods you will need to use in your meeting. Then decide what to project to the face-to-face audience and how to set permissions in the Adobe Connect room. Use the tools available within Adobe Connect, like the prep area, permission levels, and full screen mode in the Share pod, to customize your strategy.

As part of your projection strategy, you will probably want to have the full screen toggle set so Participants in the Adobe Connect room can choose whether or not to go to full screen mode. Deciding whether or not to choose full screen mode on the computer that is being used to project to the audience in the face-to-face room will depend on your goals, objectives, and activities for the meeting. What might be a distraction in one meeting could be a necessity in a different meeting.

As with all of the strategies you need to develop for your meeting, be sure to practice the solution you decide upon and make adjustments as necessary.

Strategy for Interacting

Strategy for Interacting with the Audience at a Distance

One of the reasons to use Adobe Connect for a mixed face-to-face/remote meeting is because of the tools it provides for allowing interaction with participants at a distance. Tools available include:

  • Camera and Voice pod
  • Chat pods
  • Question and Answer pod
  • Interactive Whiteboard
  • Note pods
  • Poll pods
  • Share pods
  • File Share pods
  • Emoticons

Note: An optional tool that can be used for audio interaction instead of the Camera and Voice pod is the Penn State phone bridge.

Emoticons are useful for asking group questions and getting group responses. An example use of emoticons would be to have everyone give you a "thumbs up" if they can hear. Participants who don't respond may be having technical issues and may need help from a tech support moderator.

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Emoticons in the Attendee List

Poll questions can be used to keep your remote participants involved in the presentations as well as to help remote participants feel like they are an important part of the meeting. Well crafted questions give both remote and face-to-face participants a voice without actually speaking. Be sure to also have a way for face-to-face participants to respond to poll questions, even if it's just by having them raise their hands.

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Poll Pod

In Adobe Connect only Hosts and Presenters can enter text into Note pods and draw or type on Whiteboards. Participants can see the text and drawings, but can't draw or enter text themselves. Note pods and Whiteboards can be used for posting information, taking questions and comments, brainstorming, collaborative writing, drawing, and editing, as well as just recording notes for the meeting.

Meeting Hosts and Presenters can upload files to the File Share pod for everyone in the Adobe Connect meeting room to download. The Share pod is used only for displaying files, not for downloading.

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File Share Pod

One of the most useful tools for communicating and interacting with participants within the Adobe Connect room is the Chat pod. Participants can type their questions and comments for everyone else in the room to see and respond to. Private Chat is also an option set by a Host or Presenter within the Chat pod, making it possible for participants to address comments and questions to a specific person rather than the entire group. A Question and Answer Chat pod is a specific type of Chat pod that can be configured by the meeting Host. This type of Chat pod gives the meeting Hosts and Presenters additional control over the activities of the Participants. The Chat pod is an essential part of every meeting room layout as it provides a means for remote participants to communicate when broadcasting audio isn't an option.

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Q&A Chat Pod in Presenter Prep Area

Selection and use of these communication tools will depend on the goals and objectives of your meeting. At a minimum, you will want to plan how and when you will take questions from both the audience at a distance and the face-to-face audience. For example, will questions be taken at any time? Only at the end of a presentation? At specified intervals?

You should have determined a strategy for broadcasting audio when you checked out the physical meeting room (see Audio Broadcast Strategy under this section). Based on that strategy:

  • How will face-to-face participants "hear" questions asked in the Adobe Connect room? Who will convey questions from the Adobe Connect room to the speaker?
  • Will participants in the Adobe Connect room be given permission to broadcast audio so they can make comments and ask questions? How will that audio be amplified for the face-to-face audience to hear? What if the remote participants don't have the equipment or enough bandwidth to broadcast audio through the Camera and Voice pod? Be aware that having both the microphone(s) and speakers in the face-to-face room active at the same time will cause an echo/feedback loop through the Adobe Connect room.
  • How will participants at a distance hear questions asked in the face-to-face room? Will the presenter repeat questions? Will there be a moderator who is broadcasting audio to the Adobe Connect room who will repeat the questions? Will there be a microphone for face-to-face participants to use to broadcast questions to the Adobe Connect room?
  • How will you keep your remote audience interested and involved in the meeting?
  • Is comprehension an important element of your meeting or class? How will you determine if your remote participants understand what is being presented?

Based on your strategy for interaction among participants, you may need to adjust your audio broadcast strategy.

Strategy for Moderating

Strategy for Moderating a Mixed Adobe Connect/Face-to-Face Meeting

Bringing participants at a distance into a face-to-face meeting through Adobe Connect adds an additional layer of complexity to a meeting. One way to manage this additional complexity is to include a meeting room moderator for the Adobe Connect room.

The Adobe Connect moderator's role is to greet participants as they arrive in the Adobe Connect room, help remote participants with audio issues, monitor the Chat pod, bring participants' questions to the attention of the speaker, bring problems to the attention of the speaker and/or face-to-face moderator, and act as the representative in the face-to-face meeting for the distant participants. (See related topic: Team Member Roles in an Adobe Connect Meeting)

The Adobe Connect meeting room moderator and the face-to-face meeting room moderator have to work as a team to manage the meeting. They both need to have experience using Adobe Connect and both need to be able to recognize and solve problems that may arise while the meeting is in progress. They should both be in the room where the face-to-face meeting is taking place.

Both moderators need to work together to determine the plan for the meeting, including all of the strategies that will be implemented. In addition, they need to work with the presenters to prepare them to use Adobe Connect and with the face-to-face group to make them aware of things that are being done during the meeting to accommodate the Adobe Connect participants.

The most important things the moderators can do to make sure their combined meeting goes smoothly is plan, prepare, and practice.

  • Carefully read about planning meetings and develop strategies for the elements that apply to your specific meeting goals and objectives.
  • Identify and assign roles for everyone who will be helping with the meeting.
  • Make sure all tasks are identified and assigned.
  • Create a check list with deadlines for each task for each person who is helping with the meeting to be sure all tasks are completed in a timely manner.
  • Hold a practice session several days prior to the actual meeting for everyone who is helping.
  • On the day of the meeting, arrive at the physical meeting room at least an hour early to set up and test equipment.
  • Have a backup plan in case there are problems.

Strategy for Distributing Handouts

When holding a mixed face-to-face/Adobe Connect meeting, it's important to make handouts available in advance of the meeting. Remote participants appreciate having the handouts to refer to along with face-to-face participants. It's also an advantage to have the handouts available to remote participants in case there is a problem with the Adobe Connect meeting room and they are unable to see the files as they are displayed.

There are several options available if you have handouts and other materials to distribute to your meeting participants. Try to obtain the materials in advance of the meeting and:

  • use e-mail to send the handouts and materials as attachments.
  • upload handouts and materials to a Web site where participants can go to download the materials. Include the URL in the meeting announcement and/or in meeting reminders.
  • upload files to the File Share pod in the Adobe Connect meeting room. Set your Adobe Connect room to be accessible by everyone who has the URL and include the URL in the meeting announcement or other message sent to the meeting participants.

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File Share Pod

If you are unable to obtain the materials in advance of the meeting, have a moderator available to upload the files to the File Share pod within the meeting room and/or a Web site. Post information about downloading the handouts in a Note pod within the Adobe Connect meeting room.

Before the Meeting

Create a Plan for the Event

After determining that the assigned physical meeting room will work for the type of meeting you want to hold, continue with the planning process and create a plan for the event.

  1. Develop a strategy for each element of the meeting; this specifies what you will do. See Developing Strategies under this section.
  2. List the tasks necessary to implement each strategy; these are how you will do it.
  3. Identify who will complete each task to implement the strategies by defining roles and assigning tasks to each role.
  4. Set a timeline with deadlines for when tasks will be completed.

Set the Timeline

After creating a plan and assigning tasks, set the timeline for the tasks to be completed. Sometime it works better to start with the date the meeting will take place and work backwards from there to determine when each task will need to be completed. Notify Participants and Presenters about the meeting, allowing enough time for them to acquire and configure any necessary equipment as well as prepare their presentations and practice using Adobe Connect.

Create Checklists

As the final step of the planning process, create a checklist for each person assigned a role in the meeting to use when setting up.

Set Up the Meeting Room

In order to determine if Adobe Connect will work for your meeting, you will need to create an Adobe Connect meeting room that you can use for testing.

If this is an Adobe Connect meeting that will take place regularly, when you create the Adobe Connect room, consider assigning a custom URL that is easy for participants to remember and then using the same room for all of the meetings. See Creating New Meetings under Creating/Editing Meetings for details.

Based on the kinds of presentations that will be given during the meeting, design customized layouts within the Adobe Connect room (see Customizing Layouts under Using Adobe Connect). Once the meeting is in session, you will be able to easily switch between layouts based on the needs of the presenter. (Please be aware that switching between layouts can cause motion sickness in some people – let the audience know in advance when you will be switching layouts.) You will be able to collect more information about the kinds of layouts you may need if/when you meet with the presenters to practice in the Adobe Connect meeting room.

A Note about Templates: If you have several different groups for which you need to prepare Adobe Connect rooms, and the customized layouts for the rooms will need to be the same or similar, consider creating an Adobe Connect room to use as a template from which to create multiple rooms. See Creating Templates under Creating/Editing Meetings for details.

Set Up the Laptop

Set Up the Laptop Computer You Will Use for the Adobe Connect Meeting

Currently, podium computers in classrooms at Penn State do not include drivers for Web cameras. If you will be using Adobe Connect and broadcasting audio and video from a Penn State classroom, you will need to set up a laptop with the necessary drivers, cables, and hardware that you can take to the meeting room and connect to the network.

Some auditoriums and conference rooms are "Adobe Connect friendly" and some aren't, depending on the unit responsible for maintenance of the room. If your face-to-face meeting will take place in a conference room or auditorium, as soon as possible prior to your meeting date you will need to schedule a time to check out the room to see what equipment you will need to plan to bring with you. You will also need to find out any requirements for accessing the wired network in your assigned room.

Firewalls are an issue in some buildings across the Penn State community. If you take your laptop to the room where you will hold your face-to-face meeting and are unable to connect to your Adobe Connect meeting room, the problem might be a firewall blocking the necessary ports. For help with firewall issues, see the "Networking" section in Frequently Asked Questions under Help/FAQ.

Depending on the size and complexity of the type of combined face-to-face and Adobe Connect meeting you are planning, you may also need to contact tech support staff to get access to the audio equipment for the room.

Set Up and Bring Your Own Laptop

The easiest and most dependable way to prepare for your Adobe Connect meeting is to assume that you will not be able to tap into the in-house sound system, so you will need to take a laptop on which you have installed and tested all equipment necessary for your Adobe Connect meeting.

  • The actual equipment you need to install and test will depend on the audio broadcast and video broadcast strategies you will develop as you are planning your meeting (see Developing Strategies under Hosting Meetings -> Complete Mixed Meeting Hosting Guide). At a minimum, you will probably need to obtain a USB Web camera, speakers, headset, and/or microphone. For information about equipment, see Web Camera and Headset under Getting Started -> Requirements.
  • On your laptop, install any necessary drivers for the camera, headset, microphone, and speakers. Depending on the computer policies for your unit and your computer skills, you may need to contact your tech support person to perform any necessary installations for you.
  • The computer used for the Adobe Connect meeting should be optimized to improve the performance of the Adobe Connect meeting room. Remove spyware and check for any other problems. Depending on the computer policies for your unit and your computer skills, you may need to contact your tech support person to perform these tasks for you.
  • Before taking your computer to the physical meeting room for testing, connect your computer to the Internet using a wired connection and run the Adobe Connect system test (https://breeze.psu.edu/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm) to be sure you have the current version of the sharing plug-in and Flash Player installed. Depending on the computer policies for your unit and your computer skills, you may need to contact your tech support person to perform any necessary installations for you.
  • At the physical meeting room, connect all necessary equipment to your computer, connect your computer to the Internet using a wired connection, and start up your computer. You may need to check with the tech support staff for the room about connecting to their wired network.
  • Make sure no other applications are running during the Adobe Connect meeting. Applications can use bandwidth by accessing the Internet as well as reduce processor capacity and available memory.
  • Make sure you know, or bring with you, the URL to enter the Adobe Connect room.
  • Make sure you have Host permissions for the Adobe Connect room you will be using.
  • After connecting the equipment you will need to your laptop, connecting your laptop to the meeting room Internet, and entering the Adobe Connect meeting room you will be using for the meeting, run the Audio Setup Wizard, and check the equipment to be sure it works properly. You will need to invite someone to join you in your Adobe Connect room and give you feedback on your audio broadcast.

Note: Most microphones, headsets, and speakers do not generally need special drivers, however, cameras do need drivers.

Examine the Physical Room

Check Out the Physical Room Where the Meeting Will Take Place

Before scheduling a broadcasted Adobe Connect meeting, you need to check out the physical meeting room to see if it is a practical location from which to broadcast an Adobe Connect meeting. Following are things to consider:

  • Is there a wired Internet connection available?
    • Presenters need to have a high-speed wired connection for best performance. Bring your laptop with you so you can check the connection.
    • Bring an Internet cable to connect to an Internet port in the room.
    • You may need to consult with a tech support person for the room to find out how to access the wired network.
    • Run the “Test your Computer” diagnostic (https://breeze.psu.edu/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm) to determine the connection speed setting for the Adobe Connect meeting room.
  • Bring a video cable, and adaptor if necessary, so you can connect your laptop to the projector in the room and test your display strategy (see Display Strategy under this section).
    • Again, you may need to contact the tech support person for the room if you need help connecting to the projector.
  • Bring any cameras, microphones, and speakers you may need to test your audio and video strategies. If you need to tap into house audio systems, arrange in advance for a tech support person for the room to meet with you when you come to check out the room.
  • If you are recording the meeting, the computer used for recording needs to be on a wired connection for best performance. The recording can be made from the Presenter’s computer; a separate computer is not required.
  • Check the room for wireless devices that may interfere with the audio equipment you plan to use.
  • Will there be audio interference from outside and/or background noises, e.g., open windows, mowers, fans, air conditioners, heaters, blowers, phones, hallway noise? Background noise uses bandwidth and interferes with the audio broadcast in Adobe Connect.
  • Will presenters in the physical room bring their own computers or use just one computer set up for presenting?
    • If everyone is using just one computer, what is your strategy for making sure all necessary applications are installed and all necessary files are uploaded?
  • If you will have more than one presenter on more than one computer, are there enough wired connections in the room for the Presenters and meeting moderators to use? When presenting, all Presenters need to have a high-speed wired connection for best performance. Wired connections for moderators are preferred but not required unless the moderator(s) will be broadcasting audio and/or video.
  • If Presenters are using their own computers, allow enough time prior to the start of the meeting, or, preferably, several days prior to the meeting, to check to be sure they have been set up correctly:
    • Have the Presenters' hard drives been optimized?
    • Spyware removed? (Sypware interferes with performance.)
    • Are there other unnecessary applications running that will use processor power, memory, and bandwidth?
    • Do the presenters know how to get into the Adobe Connect room?
    • Do they have a minimum of Presenter permissions so they can upload and control their PowerPoint presentations?
    • Will they need to connect a camera and microphone?
    • Do they have the necessary equipment?
    • Have the necessary drivers been installed?
    • After connecting a mic and camera they will need to run the Audio Setup Wizard.
    • After connecting to the wired network in the room they will need to run the “Test your Computer” diagnostic (https://breeze.psu.edu/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm) and set their connection speed.
    • Are they able to get the projector connected and working? Do they need an adaptor?

Decide Whether or Not to Broadcast the Meeting

If, during your testing, you find that there are not enough wired connections or there appear to be problems with audio and/or wireless interference, or other background noise interference that makes the room a poor choice for an Adobe Connect meeting, consider finding a different room or not using Adobe Connect.

If broadcasting the meeting to participants at a distance is essential, perhaps a different broadcast technology would work better in the room you have been assigned. Would PolyCom videoconferencing be a better choice than Adobe Connect? Are there other technologies you should consider using instead? Recorded video? Podcasting?

If you think Adobe Connect is still the best technology to use for your meeting, consider recording your meeting in a quiet room without any participants and then offering the recording to be used asynchronously and include contact information for participants who want to ask questions.

Notify Participants

Send an e-mail message to participants notifying them of the face-to-face meeting. Include information about connecting to the Adobe Connect room, contact information for getting help with audio and testing the meeting connection, and other details you worked out when planning the event.

If you have decided to make times available for participants to meet a tech support person in an Adobe Connect room to set up their sound and ask questions prior to the actual meeting date, include the schedule in the e-mail message. Another option might be to tell the participants about the open demo meetings already offered by the Penn State ITS Consultants.

Suggest that participants plan to enter the meeting room 10 to 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting to confirm their meeting room connection and audio reception. This allows a bit of time to resolve problems, if necessary.

Example text to include in e-mail notification of meeting being broadcasted through Adobe Connect

Good Afternoon Everyone,

The meeting name meeting will take plac