1. Adobe Connect: Web Conferencing, Collaboration, and Teaching Online
Hans Aagard
Educational Technologist
Instructional Development Center
Adobe Acrobat Connect:

2. Agenda What is Connect Connect meeting pods Who can use Connect
Get Author role
Access to rooms
Activity 1, 2, 3
Dealing with bandwidth issues
Best practice
Acrobat Connect Resources and Support

3. Sample Connect Meeting Recording
What is Connect
Chatroom on steroids
Available at Purdue
Software needed: Flash
And a plug-in
Sample Connect Meeting Recording

4. Connect Meeting Pods

5. Who can use Connect Faculty & Staff (those on Purdue payroll)
Purdue Students (WL)
Non-Purdue
Create meetings
Host meetings
Participate in meetings
Faculty & Staff (those on Purdue payroll)
Can create unlimited number of meeting rooms after filling out request form
Purdue (West Lafayette) Students
Each student will have one single meeting room
Theoretically can create, but then can’t access recordings
Non-purdue users
Can also attend Connect Meetings but faculty or students have to send them URL
Host of meeting room has to change their status to “presenter” or “host” if they need to present

6. Get Author and Meeting Host Role
Login
Click Confirm
Only needs to be done once.
Open your browser and go to:
On the left, click Request Author and Meeting Host Role
Log in with your Purdue Career account login and password; at the next screen, click Confirm
In the future, log in at

7. Access to rooms Like physical rooms Set restrictions
Add people, invite
Some restrictions
No restrictions
Meeting rooms are like physical rooms
Can restrict access to certain Purdue users or make room accessible via URL (anyone can join)
You can search all users at Purdue and select participants for meeting (i.e. only those can attend)
You can give colleagues host or presenter access ahead of time so they can conduct meeting in your absence (only users w/Purdue Career Accounts)
You can send Invitations to Current Participants of the room – BEWARE of possibility of creating major SPAM

8. Activity 1
Come on in to my meeting. Link on the agenda: Hans' Connect Room or go to
Demonstrate following pods:
Overview of pods
Overview of layouts
Presenter area
Roles: Host, presenter, participant
Specific pods:
Chat
Link Chat to Q & A
Share
Screen
PowerPoint
Video
Voice
Recording
Poll
Breakout Rooms

9. Activity 2
Let’s make a meeting. Link on the agenda: Connect or go to
Activity 2
Go to:
Log on with your Purdue Career Account
Go to Meetings Tab.
Click the New Meeting button
Enter a name for the meeting: TLT Distance Ed Workshop
(optional) enter a custom URL (otherwise Connect will assign a number for the room)
(optional) summary, start time, duration settings
(important) choose access type (only registered users & accepted guests vs. anyone who has URL)
Click Finish

10. Activity 3 Let’s do some things within the meeting.
Practice the following:
Changing roles
Viewing room with different roles
Add PowerPoint – (upload file from agenda)
Share your screen
Record voice
Record and view recording (Meeting > Manage Meeting Information, then click Recordings link)
Create a new layout
Add a new pod
Add music file to the Sharing pod
Add a file to the File Sharing pod
Add a link to the Web Link pod

11. Dealing with Bandwidth Issues
Video alternatives
Audio
Still image
“Slow” video
Audio ideas
Phone
Audio settings
Don’t lock audio
Must presenters use video? Other participants?
Consider audio only instead
Can a still image be displayed instead?
Send “slow” video
To audio or not to audio
Is a teleconference a better option?
Select appropriate audio setting
When more than one speaker, don’t ‘lock’ audio; only broadcast audio when speaking

12. Best Practice Practice Advertise 10 minutes before start
Display instructions
Run music
Thumbs-up “ok”
Have presenters practice before the big day to iron out technical problems
Ask participants to show up 10 minutes early
Display instructions to run audio setup and set connection speed
Participants give a ‘thumb’s up’ when ready to go

13. Best Practice Re-use rooms Student rooms Class – private
Promote students’ roles
Re-use rooms rather than recreating them for each event
Have students use their personal Connect rooms to work on class projects
For class use, have a private meeting room available at the same time as a class meeting room
Can send/take one or a few students there to work while large class meeting in session
Promote students to presenter role to present to class virtually

14. Other Resources Connect
Adobe maintains an excellent support knowledgebase: Please refer to knowledgebase and resources on Adobe website
Connect Meeting Resources (user guides; tutorials)
System Requirements:
Connect Meeting Quickstart Guide (video tutorial)
Connect Presenter Quickstart Guide (video tutorial)
Users need flash player installed to view content.. Assuming you have flash player installed in offices and labs