Adobe Connect Community

I have been noticing that the contextual help is improving with each update of the Adobe Connect system. If you have never thought to use the contextual help, I recommend that you check it out. It's available to Hosts and Presenter in the Options menu in the lower right corner of each pod.

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://www.adobe.com/acom/connectnow/ (ConnectNow)
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.

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.