Adobe Connect Community

Thanks to Yvonne for a very thoughtful email, I thought I would post what I would do over again ... and what I would change in the future when using ACP as part of an online class.

WHAT I WOULD CONTINUE DOING

1. I would set up a class ACP site and configure the pods ahead of time. After that, if you are doing a team concept like I did, I would copy the class ACP site for each team site. Since ACP was new for my students, I feel that it was easier for them to move from the class ACP site to their team ACP site and see the same layouts in both. I thought my students, once granted "presenter" status, would rearrange or resize the pods in the team site but they didn't.

2. Since the first week consists of students adding and dropping, I would continue with that week being "tech week" to make sure everyone can access ACP and play around with the different features.

3. I would encourage students to upload a picture of themselves into the Share Pod during that first week so the class could get an idea of what the person looks like as well as practice uploading to the Share Pod. I would also encourage them to practice using the Note feature by identifying their Share Pod picture upload # and telling us their name, major, and class year. This will get them familiar with the Note feature. Some will figure out you can create a new note ... and others will piggyback on someone else's note. I see both as part of the learning process. I would also encourage them to ask and answer each other's questions in the Chat pod so they can start learning to rely on each other for information instead of me. I would also have a practice PPT created ahead of time and ask them to practice loading it to ACP so they get familiar with the process.

4. I would continue the "Meet the Instructor" meetings the first few days of the semester but make it mandatory for the students to attend at least one. I would have my webcam up and running as well as my audio microphone set up. The students love the "new technology" and like that they can see the instructor and talk to them live in real time. It also puts a face behind the email address and messages.

5. I would continue my ACP office hours with the webcam and audio. Even though my students rarely came to see me for OH for the last 3 weeks of the 6 week summer session, I liked that I could be in ACP for OH but in our CMS grading their homework. If I had OH in the CMS, I couldn't get out of Chat and do some grading. It would basically be a wasted hour doing nothing. If I was in a "different screen," I would leave a note in the Chat pod indicating where I was. If my students wanted me, they could talk into their microphone and ask me to come back to the ACP site. I didn't miss them in OH and I didn't waste my time either waiting for folks to show up.

6. The first major ACP assignment I had the students do (in their own ACP sites) was draw a picture in the Share Pod using the Whiteboard, create a PPT describing how the problem in the picture could have been prevented, and then use the Note pod to leave comments for each other. That worked out great! I was so impressed with their drawings in the Whiteboard - they obviously took the time to play around with the different tools and create fantastic whiteboard drawings. Getting them to use the different features was definitely a major advantage to them becoming familiar with the software.

7. I would definitely do the second major assignment (an individual PPT presentation) as a pre-recorded presentation. Although we had problems using the Adobe Presenter (mainly because of access to the add-on), I think using it again or a different program to record audio (and then import it in) laid down an excellent foundation for the last project and being able to easily create a pre-recorded back up in case the live presentation didn't work. For this assignment, letting the students know that they could do it "live" as a backup I think reassured them when it came to do a major course assignment. Having backups for everything, I think, was important for all of us. The grading took a little longer (because they were individual presentations), but I limited the length of the presentation and I could watch them whenever I wanted. The grading actually went a lot faster than I thought it would.

8. I would definitely do the third major assignment (a live team PPT presentation) as well. I liked that the students got to try both pre-recorded and live presentations in ACP. The live session was a lot easier to schedule than I thought ... and I ended up watching/listening to 5 presentations instead of 18 individual presentations as with the 2nd assignment.

9. I included links to the ACP manuals for the students. I know some read parts of it, but not all. The one thing I did was practice everything in ACP myself and *I* wrote the step-by-step instructions myself. I found that when I wrote it, if the students had questions, I could answer them immediately instead of trying to find the document they are referencing, re-read it myself, and THEN answer their questions.

10. I would put basic ACP information in my syllabus again as well as the addresses for the class and team ACP sites.

11. I would continue to "hang out" in the class ACP site at times other than OH. I was in there off and on and ran into students who were "looking for me" or "hoping I would be there." It made it easy to answer their questions ... have them get used to seeing my face ... and it was easier to work with them then exchanging emails. I also got to know my students better and I think they got to know me better, which I think is a plus, since several students commented that in their other online courses, they rarely saw the professor, felt alone or isolated while taking the class, and were reluctant to ask questions. Although I would probably limit my "hanging out" time now that I know what to expect with ACP, I would continue to do it as it allowed us to develop a rapport and "invest" ourselves more in the class.

12. I would definitely continue encouraging the students to rely on each other for questions and answers when it came to ACP. I put in my syllabus that we were all responsible for each other's learning, and they should feel free to answer questions if I wasn't around or available. I definitely think my students relied on each other a lot during the semester.

13. I would definitely do the team concept again. It helped the students to get to know 4 other classmates well, and I found that my grading was cut down substantially when I could read over the "team's responses" to homework assignments, and then grade and direct my comments to the "teams" instead of individual students. I ended up writing 4 team responses for the majority of the homework assignments instead of 18 individual responses.

14. I would continue to offer extra credit assignments throughout the semester. I never had to answer 1 single question about whether I would be offering ex cr for the class. You would think that the majority of the students would have taken advantage of the ex cr as it was up and visible all semester long. The majority didn't. I had some who did all of them, some who did some, and some who did none. But I never had to answer a single question about ex cr ... esp. at the end of the semester. And no one asked if they could go back and do the previous ones at the end of the semester either. :-)

15. I would immediately elevate the students to "presenter" status in both the class site and the individual team sites. I think if I had them go to the site first w/o the promotion, we would have had more problems and questions. The promotion ahead of time allowed the students to play around and do things right out of the gate.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE IF I DID THIS CLASS AGAIN

1. I would have put all ACP information in its own folder on our CMS so my students would know exactly where to go to find the information. We ended up using the "Course Introduction" folder that my students eventually got used to referencing, but a specific ACP-named folder would have been much better.

2. I would ask students during the first week to answer questions about their tech knowledge and savvy. I would ask them how they feel about using new technology, how comfortable they feel uploading documents, have they used a Chat Room before, have they used a webcam before, do they know how to use Windows Media Player or Real Player, etc. It would have been beneficial to me to know how they felt about tech before we got into the class instead of finding out DURING the class. I made some assumptions about my students (they are tech savvy, they know how to download and upload, etc) which I shouldn't have done. An earlier post indicated one student didn't know you didn't need a iPod to listen to a podcast. What I thought my students would know, most did, but not all.

3. I would have ALL handouts on different ACP information ready to go at least 2-3 weeks before the assignment was due. I found myself creating some documents a mere few steps ahead of them and then would email them to the students ... often only a week before the assignment was due. Although I am sure most of my students were typical college students (ie doing work sort of at the last minute), I did have some "on-top-of-it" students who were working ahead and wanted to know how to do different things.

4. I would put the ACP class and team site addresses in my syllabus in LARGE font so they could easily see it. I would also plaster the addresses all over the CMS so they could find them easily for access. I found during the middle of the semester the students would ask me for the class ACP address ... which means they weren't accessing it as often as I had hoped.

5. I would make it a point to create a handout ... and put in my syllabus ... directions on how to clear the chats in the team sites. Just so you don't accidentally run across conversations that weren't meant for your eyes. :-)

6. I think I would go back to my original approach for putting students into teams instead of modifying it midstream as I did. This is probably bad to say, but I put my students into teams based on when and how often they accessed/used the CMS site. I rank-ordered them based on their access. I put all "eager-beavers" into one team. These were the students who had accessed the CMS *well before* class had started. I had 1-2 students even start doing assignments before the class officially commenced (one started 7 weeks ahead of time). I figured if they were THAT into the class before it even started, they needed to be together in their own group. The ones who accessed the CMS a week before class started went into another team. The ones who accessed the CMS 1-2 days before OR on the first day of class went into another team. Ones who did not access the site after the class had officially started went into another team.

Had I followed this, and then put the add's into the latter 2 groups, I would have been better off. I modified my plan by putting 3 adds into Group A (who lost some members due to unexpected drops) when I should have left them where I originally placed them. I also should have just left the groups be and allow them to experience the ebb and flow of departing group members. But I wanted to have equal amount of students in each group, so I moved them. Next time I will just stick to my plan and see how that pans out. I will also be wary of adding students when they tell me they are excellent students and will not be problem children. :-)

I did create 1 team based on the 5 students who met me in the evening "Meet the Instructor" session, which was 10pm on the first day of class. I figured if they were all there at 10pm, chances are they would have that same time free during the semester. That team actually worked out very well and I didn't have any problems with them.

I would probably experiment more with how I put the teams together. Obviously I was trying to limit as much potential damage as possible with non-compliant team members, but I don't think I can control it 100%. I'm not sure if the rank-order access was pedagogically sound (or even legitimate) but I think if I had stuck to my original game plan, I would not have had as many problems with errant students over several teams as I did.

7. I would assign points within the team ACP presentation for students to evaluate each other as part of the overall grade. I do this in my f2f small group class but didn't with the team presentation. I wish I had as the teams had problems with students who were tardy with their work and I think they should be held accountable by allowing their teammates to evaluate them. Usually I do a 40 pt individual, 50 pt team, and 10 pt peer evaluation for project like this and I will definitely do it for future team project classes. I would most likely ask students to email their peer rankings to me as that would be the easiest way to gather the information. I would also include a -10 pt penalty to any student who did not submit their peer evaluations by the due date. That would make them accountable for the peer evaluation, and as we know, students hate to miss points.

8. I would change some of my CMS assignments into ACP assignments so I could create more foot traffic to the site. Our CMS allows me to create team chat rooms ... and some of my students asked if I would create them for their teams. That made me realize that they were not used to using ACP as I had hoped (maybe because it was new to them?) and they wanted to use a familiar place (obviously they had used the CMS chat rooms before). For the students who made the request, I asked them to use their ACP site ... which they did. But I do think that only 3 assignments probably did not take enough advantage of the ACP site as well as get them used to it. I got the feeling they only used it when they had to or needed to. My goal was to get them to integrate it into their learning and have them access it as often as they do their Facebook or MySpace pages. So I would try to adopt some more of my course assignments to ACP so they were continually going to their site as well as the class site.

9. I would try to create 1-2 assignments that would include the entire class and not just the different teams. I had my students do their homework and post their responses in the CMS team areas, which worked out great since they got to know each other really well. But I did find that the students were not really interacting with their other classmates beyond the teammates. That was a shame as I think they could have benefited from each other's knowledge, experiences, trials and tribulations more. For example, I had a student who was using a similar ACP program at his new job. I don't think anyone outside of myself and his team knew this. I think if the entire class had known, they would have realized that ACP is emulating what businesses are doing in the "real world" and used it more often. So I would definitely try to integrate 1-2 overall class assignments throughout the semester so they would get to know the entire class better.

10. I would create a demo of me introducing myself and showing them what they would be doing with the different ACP features, record the session, and then post the link for them to watch during the first week of class. I would also ask them for their feedback so I know they watched it. I don't know if I would make it an actual assignment or ex cr though. Probably an assignment so I know they actually watched it. I think the personal touch of the instructor demonstrating the features make it seem more "achievable" to the students than watching the pre-made Adobe demo that comes with ACP when the students first access the software. I could be wrong on that but that's my sense right now. At the end of the semester many of my students admitted to being "freaked out" with ACP (and Adobe Presenter) but with gradual and integrated use, got over their fears. I think more assignments and a demo of me showing them how to use ACP would be of added benefit to them.

11. I would have a session on how to create an appropriate PPT slide and an appropriate PPT presentation. None of this word for word stuff on each slide. I would insist in the 5x5 rule being used...and also suggest pictures. I haven't experimented with including video in a ACP PPT presentation but I would try it out myself in case the students wanted to do something like that for their own presentations. I would also have put up links to different resources on how to create effective PPTs right at the beginning of the class instead of during the middle of it. If the students get used to seeing something over and over, eventually when it comes time for them to do the assignment, they will know where to go to get more information.

12. I didn't know that my course was required for health administration majors. If I had know that ahead of time, I would have created 1-2 ACP assignments with the health industry in mind. I would say nearly 1/3 of my students this semester were HA majors.

13. I would include a better ACP assessment instrument to get better feedback from my students about the technology. I did have a survey instrument that several students completed as an ex cr assignment (the instrument focused on comm apprehension) but if I were to do this class again, I would definitely create a survey about ACP and ask the students to complete it before the class officially concluded.

14. The only major problem I see now is where to store the recorded team ACP presentations should my students decide they want to include it in their e-portfolios. Because of server space, I am eventually going to have to kill off the team ACP sites (as well as my class site) and I'm not sure if the deletion of the sites will mean the recorded presentations will disappear as well. I do know that our IT people would like all recorded presentations to be deleted to free up server space. So I don't know what I can do here. I'll have to contact our IT folks to see if anything can be done (like have the presentations moved to my Champion account which is also holding my course modules).

I got a lot of kudos from my students for using ACP at the end of the semester. One student complimented me on "successfully" forcing students out of their comfort zones and engage in new technology. I didn't think ACP was THAT big of a learning curve, considering most use Facebook, MySpace, and text message each other. But for some (especially the older students), it was a big deal.

Many of the students said they loved learning the technology and were proud of what they accomplished, even though they were a little scared and nervous using it for major course assignments. I told them the should be proud of what they learned and to make sure they listed ACP and Adobe Presenter as part of their "skills" section on their resumes.

One of my students is a bigwig with a national service organization. She travels a lot and gives presentations to members across the nation. She said the knowledge she gained about PPTs and public speaking (via ACP) dramatically changed how she gives her presentations. She said she just recently got props from attendees at a major gathering for her PPTs and public speaking presentations. I think ACP definitely contributed to her improvement (as does she).

One student was doing an internship while taking this class and thought the state agency she was interning at would benefit from ACP. She put together a PPT presentation for her bosses to see and demonstrated the ACP site for them this morning. The bosses liked it and told her to go talk to the IT dept. The goal of their access will be to connect better with rural parts of Indiana. The student said several individuals from different parts of rural Indiana have asked the agency for online webinars and activities, and ACP would definitely be a great match for those requests. Hopefully it pans out with ACP, WebEx or some other program.

I also had a friend of mine (who is a elementary school teacher in rural KY) visit our class ACP site. He recognized the benefits and advantages of the site and showed it to some of his colleagues. Unfortunately the school district he is in is not wealthy enough to afford ACP but I think the introduction (and the knowledge that they will most likely see and use it in webinars if not start using it themselves eventually) was an immense benefit to them and the school.

The team project consisted of a business report of a major retailer. The team presentation was a "sales pitch" convincing the major retailer to carry a new product by a small business owner. The small business owner, a PSU grad, benefited by watching the recorded team presentations and got additional ideas on how to pitch her product should she decide to do so in the future. She was ecstatic over the ACP site.

So it wasn't just the students and the small business owner who benefited. It was an unexpected surprise to have others benefit as well.

I will close by noting an unusual result of ACP that I didn't even think of. Even though this class was about business and professional communication, many of my students commented that they didn't realize how important listening was in the communication process. I think the use of ACP definitely contributed to this collective realization. ACP forces you to listen a lot more than you are used to doing or are aware of yourself doing. Their observation was completely unexpected and greatly appreciated.