Adobe Connect Community

Note of Interest: During the presentation Tim mentioned that the built in iSight camera (on a Mac) doesn't work with Windows Vista in Adobe Connect.

Last week Tim Plumer, the Adobe Trainer for Adobe Connect and Adobe Connect Presenter, gave some online seminars on how to use Adobe Connect Presenter. Unfortunately the recording for the first sessions didn't turn out, but you can view the recording of the second session at http://se.adobe.acrobat.com/p24241827/.

Topics covered in this session include:
1. Presenter recap
What it does
Example of the work
How to get started (system needs, additional hardware, etc.)
Recommended workflow

2. Working with video
Slide video versus sidebar video
Recording video
Editing video
Importing video

3. Quizzing
Creating a quiz
Adding questions
Recording results

4. Publishing your presentation
Themes
Templates
The Presenter “package”

5. Q&A

Below are the dates and times for our October Adobe Connect Demonstration sessions. We've extended the sessions to include what's new with Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro (version 7), demonstrate the primary features of the meeting room and answer questions that you might have. No registration or RSVP necessary.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Friday, October 17, 2008, 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Here is the link to the meeting room: https://breeze.psu.edu/r54559680/. Please come when you like, learn about the new features, different ways to use Adobe Connect, ask questions, stay for a few minutes or for the 90 minutes; feel free to pass this on to friends and colleagues. Members of the Penn State community can arrange for an on-site demonstration by contacting your ITS Consultant.

If you plan to join our demonstration session through Adobe Connect, please read through the Getting Started information at http://meeting.psu.edu/quickstart and test your connection in advance with our generic test meeting room at https://breeze.psu.edu/testmeetingroom/.

If you have any questions or problems entering the test meeting room, help is available by emailing breeze@psu.edu.

The Meeting Manager Interface in Adobe Connect 6.2 has become Adobe Connect Central in V.7 -- and some of the functionality has changed. Hosts can no longer access the page to edit meeting information and participants directly through the Connect Central Web interface, but they can still get access to edit the meeting information by selecting "Manage Meeting Information" in the Meeting menu within a meeting room.

PRESENTERS are no longer able to edit meeting room information or the Participant List (even though the Adobe documentation says they can). You have to be a Meeting Creator or meeting Host listed on the Participant List in order to have access to the "Manage Meeting Information" option in the Meeting menu.

Complete directions (with pictures!) are located at http://meeting.psu.edu/editparticipants (directions for editing participants) and at http://meeting.psu.edu/editmeetings (directions for editing meeting information and settings).

While you are visiting the Penn State Adobe Connect online community site, don't forget to check the forums for announcements and updates. Not all forum articles are promoted to the front page -- you have to go to the forums section to see the new articles. To access the forums, click the "Forums" link at the very top of the banner. If your browser window isn't wide enough, the links will wrap and the "Forums" link may be layered on top of (and partially obscured by) the Penn State logo.

Of special interest at this time is the forum with information about version 7 (http://meeting.psu.edu/Version7). You should also check out the Announcements forum (http://meeting.psu.edu/forum/announcements).

This morning Adobe announced a new suite of services at http://Acrobat.com (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/adobe_launches_online_office_suite....). Included in the suite is a (for now) free Web-based video conferencing tool that allows up to three people to hold virtual meetings. The interface is very similar to that of Adobe Connect with many of the same tools and features.

Of interest to Penn State users is the ability to have guest participants attend a ConnectNow meeting without needing a Friends of Penn State account. If you are planning to hold meetings with no more than three participants where the other participants will be from outside of the Penn State community and you would prefer not to have them get FPS accounts, you might want to consider giving ConnectNow a try. But remember, this is still in beta, so try it out before scheduling anything critical. Also important to note is that ConnectNow is NOT a supported service at Penn State. The only support available is whatever is provided by Adobe.

More information:
http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=979550 (ConnectNow Beta)
http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=979588 (Adobe Acrobat 9)
http://meeting.psu.edu/node/411 (Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro V.7)

If you are planning to hold an Adobe Connect meeting, please remember to let your Attendees know that there are things they need to do on their end to help ensure a pleasant experience for everyone. Attendees who have never used Adobe Connect or who are using Adobe Connect on a new computer or from a new location should test their connection well in advance of the scheduled meeting to be sure they are able to enter the meeting room. Attendees also need to know how to test their speakers using the Audio Setup Wizard and how to set their connection speed using the information they receive from the Connection Test.

We recommend adding a statement to your invitation message like the one below:

If you plan to join this Penn State meeting through Adobe Connect, please read through the Getting Started information at http://meeting.psu.edu/quickstart and test your connection in advance with our generic test meeting room at https://breeze.psu.edu/testmeetingroom/.

If you have any questions or problems entering the test meeting room, help is available by emailing breeze@psu.edu.

The Penn State Adobe Connect "server" is actually two servers that are "clustered." This means that, if one server malfunctions, the other server will take over for it. If you are in a meeting and the server hosting your meeting stops responding, your meeting will automatically be switched to the other server. The catch is that, while in the meeting room, you will get a message that the connection has been dropped. When/if you get this message, don't panic! Just be patient. You need to wait (up to 45 to 60 seconds) for the server cluster to re-establish the connection for you on a different server -- then you will be able to continue your meeting. You don't need to quit out of your meeting or take any other corrective action.

Adobe Connect is a Web-based desktop video conferencing tool that is available for use by everyone in the Penn State community. Although students may not create or own meeting rooms, they may work with staff advisers and faculty members to obtain access to meeting rooms. Once a student has access to a meeting room, the Host for the meeting room, usually the staff or faculty member, can assign the student a role which gives him/her access to all of the tools in the meeting room.

Students who are using Adobe Connect will need to read the materials under the "Getting Started" link and the "Using Adobe Connect" link. Students who will be hosting meetings will also need to read information about their specific meeting type found in the "Hosting Meetings" section.

General support for Adobe Connect is provided by the ITS Help Desk. Additional support information can be found in the "Help/FAQ section." Or, to pose a question to this online community, log in (upper right of this screen just below the "Search" box) using your Penn State Access Account ID and password and submit your questions, replies, and comments to one of the forums.